Tomorrow's Dubbel recipe check

[Zanian]

Hi guys,
I'm trying to brew a dubbel with Westmalle in mind. I brewed one that was pretty good about a year ago and I'm trying to give it another go. This is the recipe that I've come up with using mostly Brew Like a Monk as a reference. I'm trying to avoid using Special B or pale malt as the base as I would really like to aim for a more Belgian taste than what I find a lot of non-Belgian dubbels tend to taste like. If anyone has any suggestions on the following it would be greatly appreciated. I really am open to any suggestions though. Most important is that it is drinkable and tasty!

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 33.96 l
Post Boil Volume: 23.96 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 21.00 l
Bottling Volume: 19.49 l
Estimated OG: 1.064 SG
Estimated Color: 61.5 EBC
Estimated IBU: 26.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.7 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
4.00 kg Pilsen (Dingemans) (3.2 EBC) Grain 1 67.8 %
0.50 kg Munich (Dingemans) (10.8 EBC) Grain 2 8.5 %
0.25 kg Caramunich I (Weyermann) (100.5 EBC) Grain 3 4.2 %
0.20 kg Aromatic Malt (Dingemans) (37.4 EBC) Grain 4 3.4 %
0.20 kg Pale Wheat (Dingemans) (3.2 EBC) Grain 5 3.4 %
0.75 kg Candi Sugar, Dark (541.8 EBC) Sugar 6 12.7 %
30.00 g Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 15.8 IBUs
20.00 g Saaz [3.75 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 8 6.7 IBUs
14.00 g Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] - Boil 15.0 mi Hop 9 4.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787 Yeast 10 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 5.90 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 13.43 l of water at 71.9 C 64.0 C 75 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 25.68l) of 75.6 C water


I also have a number of other caramel malts and some biscuit, chocolate as well as some others. I was thinking of maybe getting rid of the wheat malt, adding some Caramunich II and using only one of either Munich or Aromatic.
Thanks in advance

 

[oylerck]

Headed in the right direction. Are you making your own candi sugar or did you buy it? Cheaper if you make it but I have never done it.

I am not comfortable with metric so I cannot judge your ratios. Worth a shot,.

 

[Zanian]

Oh yeah, I should've mentioned, making it myself! Thanks for taking a look.

 

[jessup]

I woukd swap out that yeast. Its a beast but not really good for the Belgian character you desire. Otherwise the recipe looks good. I might kill the aromatic & up the munich & wheat. The candi syrup is what used to give most color in a dubbel so make sure it is good & dark, but not burnt tasting. PM me if u need advice on making the candi syrup I make a mean Dark syrup

 

[Zanian]

Thanks Jessup! I actually didn't get to brew it yet because I had an emergency cancel my brew day but I will definitely be doing it in the next few days. I was leaning towards those suggestions already so I'll go ahead and make another update to the recipe. I'm also going to pm you about the candi syrup because that's definitely one of the things that interests me a lot about brewing Belgians and I refuse to pay more than the price of sugar for any syrup. I'll post the update soon. Thanks for the help!

 

[Zanian]

Ok, updated recipe:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 33.96 l
Post Boil Volume: 23.96 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 21.00 l
Bottling Volume: 19.49 l
Estimated OG: 1.064 SG
Estimated Color: 60.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 26.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.7 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
4.00 kg Pilsen (Dingemans) (3.2 EBC) Grain 1 68.4 %
0.50 kg Munich (Dingemans) (10.8 EBC) Grain 2 8.5 %
0.35 kg Pale Wheat (Dingemans) (3.2 EBC) Grain 3 6.0 %
0.25 kg Caramunich I (Weyermann) (100.5 EBC) Grain 4 4.3 %
0.75 kg Candi Sugar, Dark (541.8 EBC) Sugar 5 12.8 %
30.00 g Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 15.8 IBUs
20.00 g Saaz [3.75 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 6.7 IBUs
14.00 g Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] - Boil 15.0 mi Hop 8 4.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787 Yeast 9 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 5.85 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 13.30 l of water at 74.3 C 66.0 C 75 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 25.76l) of 75.6 C water

Does this look a bit better? I also raised the mash temperature a bit to balance the dryness of the sugar.

Cheers!