#12 Belgian Dubbel

[Spud395]

Smooth as you like, no hic up's today, so I'm waiting for disaster to strick anytime soon
Will update with recipe when I get the laptop(with Beer Engine) back in action.

1st attempted use of liquid yeast, wyeast 1214.
I realised to late that I had made to small a starter, so in a vain attempt to rescue the day I left the sugar out untill the yeast shows sign's of kicking in
Maybe that's the disaster train I hear coming now!
Fingers crossed she'll be grand, I've read sometimes underpitching can cause good things with these types of brews

[Gricey]

I do love a dubbel, what was the recipe?

[Spud395]

Here's the recipe, no need for concern about this yeast.
Seems to be a savage, only pitched a 300ml starter and less than 12 hours later it had blown off the cap of the bubbler and shot the water out of it. Nice healty krausen as well!
Used pale instead of Pilsner as thats what I have
Pale Malt 5 EBC 3700 grams 64.9%
Munich Malt 20 EBC 900 grams 15.8%
Aromatic 150 EBC 250 grams 4.4%
Special B 400 EBC 250 grams 4.4%
Sugar, Household White 0 EBC 300 grams 5.3%
Sugar Dark Muscavado 600 EBC 300 grams 5.3%

Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Challenger Whole 6.8 % 60 mins 0 lbs. 1.4 oz 40 grams 100%

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 6.3% ABV
Total Liquor: 33.4 Litres
Mash Liquor: 12.8 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 26 EBU
Colour: 135 EBC

[MAF]

Munich, Aromatic and Special B - sounds like a lovely combo!! What kind of temp are you fermenting at, will you be ramping it up to 24C ?
Lookin forward to tastin this one already

[Spud395]

Started her off at 19C, ramped up to 20C today and I'll go 1C a day untill I hit 24C.
Very impressed with this yeast so far, OG ended a little high at 1054 without sugar and it's munching away happy out.
Will add sugar after a day or 2.
Smells like heaven in a barrel allready

[lancsSteve]

That's a pretty low OG - wyeast with a smacked and swollen pack should work fine, you need a BIG starter at higher OGs (and they're usually a good idea) but from my limited(ish) experience the smacked-and-swollen wyeast packs do better straight into fermenter than white labs vials and are fine straight from pack unless it's low temp (i.e. lager) or not swollen pack (i.e. not very viable) or high OG - the worst being all of those factors together in a failed bock!

I used wy1214 in my 'Furness Abbey' beer - it's come beautiful after 8 months and will keep improving, just wish I'd saved more bottles! (I was trying hem after 2 months thinking they were good and have now learned that serious patience is a virtue!). Did you save/split any of the starter to use at bottling stage?

Should be V. nice!

[Barley Water]

You should see if you can find some of that liquid Belgian candi sugar, it adds a very nice "rummy" flavor to the beer. The only problem with the stuff is that it is very expensive. My current itteration also has 6oz of raisins in there which I think also adds the the effect.

[Spud395]

It wasnt a smack pack, I got a split off a friend of mine.

I didnt keep any for bottling, will I need it, as you say the OG isnt that high?
8 months, are you serious, ah well I'll have a good Christmas

[Spud395]

Cant get my hands on it BW, that was my thinking behind the Dark Muscavado sugar.
It's a dark unrefined cane sugar, I used it in a brew before and it's quiet "rummy"!

[lancsSteve]

Candi isn't hard to make - search online for how-tos.

Not needed at bottling but seems to be one of 'the things' to do.

8 months is, IMHO, early my other belgian beers were quite bubblegummy after 2 months now 7 months on they're coming good and maturing nicely - I recon the abbey beer will peak in another year or so and am saving remaining bottles for next winter.

Current mission is making an orval-inspired beer with Brett culture which I plan to store some of and then next year brew same recipe and blend old and young for 2011 NCBA comp. Belgian beer makes you re-evaluate your brewing / consumption schedule a LOT - and I haven't even started on lambics!

[lancsSteve]

Candi isn't hard to make e.g. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index. ... andi_Sugar

Fresh yeast Not needed at bottling but seems to be one of 'the things' to do.

8 months is, IMHO, early my other belgian beers were quite bubblegummy after 2 months now 7 months on they're coming good and maturing nicely - I recon the abbey beer will peak in another year or so and am saving remaining bottles for next winter.

Current mission is making an orval-inspired beer with Brett culture which I plan to store some of and then next year brew same recipe and blend old and young for 2011 NCBA comp. Belgian beer makes you re-evaluate your brewing / consumption schedule a LOT - and I haven't even started on lambics!

[Spud395]

Cool, thanks Steve.
I would really need to make a syrup at this stage, I'll prolly stick with sugar for this one.
I'll make some for the next Belgian.

[Spud395]

Ok, so I made (possibly) some candi syrup to add to this.
I boiled up 400g white sugar, 200g light muscavado sugar and 200g of dark muscavado sugar in 300ml of water with a few drops of lemon juice.
Jesus it's hard to stop this boiling over.
I then added some cooled boiled water to stop it turning solid.
Ended up with a liter of sugarey yummyness to dump on top of some hungry wyeast.
Krausen had started to subside, so I thought (rightly or wrongly) this is a good time to add the sugar and rouse the yeast.
Temp is now 22C

[MAF]

candi syrup sounds interesting; something I've been meaning to try out. What kind of colour did it end up?

[Spud395]

It was pretty dark, but then some of the sugar was dark going in there.
I'm not sure it was true candi syrup, but not far off I reckon.
Just be careful of it as it comes to boil, very easy to have a big smelly mess on the cooker top