FG and attenuation of dubbels

[chase]

I made a dubbel about a month ago. What a PITA.

I used WLP500 with a healthy vial of yeast. I made a 1.5L starter and pitched it on a 1.068 beer. It fermented poorly; only went down about 40%. So I racked it off the yeast and added a new starter that was actively fermenting. This seemed to do the trick, but it fermented down to 1.008. I was expecting pretty good attenuation because of the amount of simple sugar in the recipe, but holy hell, that's 88%! It tastes really good though. I just bottled it and it seems to have good body. I imagine carbonating it up to 2.5volumes will thin it out a bit though.

So that got me thinking about all the commercial dubbels I've had. They have always seemed rich and full, not thin. What have you folks noticed? Do dubbels normally seem full or thin to you guys? What is a common FG for this style?

BTW, here's the recipe.
Size: 5.5 gal
Efficiency: 77.49%
Attenuation: 88.3%
Calories: 222.96 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.068 (1.062 - 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.008 (1.008 - 1.018)
Color: 20.46 (10.0 - 17.0)
Alcohol: 7.91% (6.0% - 7.6%)
Bitterness: 20.9 (15.0 - 25.0)

Ingredients:
8.8 lb Bohemian Pilsner Malt
21.0 oz Munich 10L Malt
8.0 oz Aromatic Barley Malt
7.0 oz Belgian Special B
2.0 oz English Chocolate Malt
1.0 oz Fuggle (5.1%) - added during boil, boiled 70.0 min
16.0 oz Evaporated Cane Juice
16.0 oz Belgian Candi Syrup
2.0 oz Raisins - added during boil, boiled 15 min
3.0 ea White Labs WLP500 Trappist Ale

Schedule:
Ambient Air: 70.0 °F
Source Water: 60.0 °F
Elevation: 0.0 m

00:03:00 mash - Liquor: 3.49 gal; Strike: 163.23 °F; Target: 151.0 °F
01:03:00 rest - Rest: 60 min; Final: 150.8 °F
01:18:00 sparge - Untitled Sparge: 4.59 gal sparge @ 190 °F, 15 min; Total Runoff: 6.94 gal

Notes
Pitch yeast at 64º and allow to slowly cool to 70º over one week.

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.11

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

a few of the ones I've had were thinner but that was my impression... If you like the taste then thats really all that counts... and if you can bottle some I'm sure that you could send it to a judge that frequents this board to get his/her impression

 

[Bensiff]

I'm not a judge, but I'm full of opinion, send me a bottle and I will let you know .

89% attenuation isn't out of the question for a Belgian. In fact your FG is in the range I would be shooting for as I want my Belgians to be good and dry. CO2 will fill out the mouth feel if it feels a little thin.

 

[permo]

Perfectly normal for that yeast strain. I cultured from chimay and I recently had a tripel go from 1.080 to 1.008.....keep it warm and give it time and the yeast will go to town. It is pretty much champagne yeast IMO.

 

[chase]

Perfectly normal for that yeast strain. I cultured from chimay and I recently had a tripel go from 1.080 to 1.008.....keep it warm and give it time and the yeast will go to town. It is pretty much champagne yeast IMO.

That's pretty much what I was wondering.

I've been brewing for a long time, but primarly english beers that have fairly high FGs. This is my first belgian, and so having so much attenuation freaked me out a little. Thanks.