Need help with my Belgian dubbel disaster!

[Duckhook]

Hello everybody,

I'm a longtime reader, first time poster. So let me tell you everything I did wrong. I was brewing a Belgian dubbel extract kit. It was a long day (went to a Japanese Obon festival, brewed another kit for a friend, started the Belgian, all whilst generously partaking of my previous brews) and I had just finished cooling down the wort by 3 in the morning. As I was moving things around I noticed that the Belgian dark kandi crystals and two pounds of malt powder were still in the box. So this is where I made the big mistake. Instead of going online and checking how to fix this, I decided to bring the kettle back up to a boil (after removing the hop bags) and add the missing components. I boiled for a second time and for some reason convinced myself that the second boil should be the same as the first- eg. 1 hour. Once that was all done and cooled down in the tub I went about pitching the yeast and closing the fermenter. As I do with all my brews I took a sip of the wort in my sample tube after recording the starting grav. It tastes more bitter than I remember a previous BD batch tasting.

So the question is: what should I do to try to salvage this batch? I used 1 oz of German Perle (alpha 7.8) for bittering and 1 oz of Styrian Golding Celeia (alpha 3.2) for aroma. I now know that I should have just waited a few days and added the malt and dark kandi crystals after the fermentation slowed down. Unfortunately my brain feeling the effects of the imperial stout I was drinking and the 3:30 am time. Any recommendations on what I can or should do?

I really appreciate any feedback/assistance I can get.
Thanks!

 

[Musky01]

Everyone on here has made similar mistakes early on. If it were me I would ride it out, it will be higher in ABV and IBU but with such a low alpha hop shouldn't throw you off by much.

If you want the flavor from the hops I would suggest getting another ounce and tossing it in as a dry hop after fermentation is complete. Little mistakes like this sometimes lead to great beer.

Hope it turns out for you
Cheers

 

[sweetcell]

Don't worry about it. No need to panic. The difference with the original recipe won't be that great. No need to "salvage" it, since it'll be fine as it is. Maybe a tad more bitter and with a little less aroma, but still very tasty. Hop aroma isn't a defining characteristic of dark Belgians anyways.

you're good

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

The hop oils were already in the beer, so they continued to isomerize during the extra boil. So your beer will end up more bitter than expected but it will probably still be drinkable.

 

[Cromwell]

You should probably check your gravity near the end of your boil every time. It would have alerted you to the missing components because your gravity would have been very light. It would also tell you how close you are now that you've boiled it for an extra hour.

But Dubbels often don't have any late hop additions - if you didn't have any, then you probably don't have any problems at all except possibly strong beer (which isn't a problem for me!). Late hop additions to add hop flavor and aroma would turn bitter with longer boil time, but not as much as if you'd just left the hops in there. The early hop additions were already isomerized, so additional boiling won't make much difference. Either way, just ride it out, and RDWHAHB. It'll turn out great. If there's less hop aroma than expected, it's more to style anyway.
If it's a little more bitter, and a little stronger both, it'll probably balance out and be great.

 

[Duckhook]

Thanks for all of the responses! So I guess my plan of attack should be to wait it out and see what results. Thanks again for all the input. Cheers!