Looking for a simple Belgian Dubbel Recipe..

[seymour]

Wow, a handful of flour....is that just plain flour, self raising.......tablespoons worth?? Just normal cooking white wheat flour?? Will this give mouth feel and body??

Yeah, pretty much. That's supposedly what the Trappist monks do when brewing the Chimay masterpieces. It's a tricky but simple way to put some body and mouthfeel back into a beer which would otherwise be very thin from so much simple sugar and a high-attenuating yeast. I wouldn't recommend self-raising flour because it contains baking soda and salt. Whole-wheat would be best, if you've got it, or consider running some torrified wheat, bulghur, whatever, through your coffee grinder to make your own...
Incidentally, barney has brewed an Ushers Scottish IPA which calls for micronized black malt in the boil, presumably with a similar purpose in mind. Likewise, when brewing hefeweizens, some people add wheat flour to the boil to make it intentionally hazy.

[jonnyt]

Don't forget the raisins!

[seymour]

Don't forget the raisins!

Oh yeah, here you go:

85% Pale and/or Abbey Malt
5% CaraAroma and/or CaraGold
2% Special-B Malt
8% Belgian Dark Candy Crystals and/or white table sugar (in boil)
+ a handful of wheat flour (in boil)
+ 100g of chopped raisin's (15 minutes from the end of the boil)

[Barley Water]

Yup, I agree with the previous poster who advised adding raisins. My last batch won me a second place metal in a very large competion and I added 6 ounces of raisins in a 5 gallon batch. Rather than just adding them though, I dumped them into some of the first runnings, ran them through a blender then put the whole thing on the stove and carmelized them. Of course, doing all that is not what I would call "simple" but it worked great. I also used WLP530 for the first time, makes the beer taste very different than WLP500 which I had used several times previously, it's not nearly as fruity.

[louiscowdroy]

Hahaha, thanks mate I wont........so shopping list for tomorrow is....100g of raisins, whole wheat flour.......come lads anything else???

I'll take pictures and post them on here of all the stages......

Don't forget the raisins!

[louiscowdroy]

Yup, I agree with the previous poster who advised adding raisins. My last batch won me a second place metal in a very large competion and I added 6 ounces of raisins in a 5 gallon batch. Rather than just adding them though, I dumped them into some of the first runnings, ran them through a blender then put the whole thing on the stove and carmelized them. Of course, doing all that is not what I would call "simple" but it worked great. I also used WLP530 for the first time, makes the beer taste very different than WLP500 which I had used several times previously, it's not nearly as fruity.

Dam,

I wish you hadn't said that, I've been playing with a starter for a week now, slightly increasing it and its 500......I've got 530 in the fridge. Well I'm going to use 500 now cos I've put so much work into it....

I just hope the raisins will not make it to fruity.......Is it worth blending the raisins before adding them to the boil??

Cheers

Louis )))

[Barley Water]

Well first of all I don't think there is anything wrong with using WLP500, the lads at Chimay have done pretty will with it best I can tell. The thing about that yeast though is it will throw off alot of clove and sometimes a bunch of bananna (which would be a flaw in a Dubbel by the way). If you haven't really thought about it before, you are fix'n to (means "you are going to" in Texan) learn alot about yeast handling because those Belgian strains will cause the same beer to taste very different depending on how they are handled. If you pay attention to what is going on though you'll learn alot which will benefit every single beer you make. They behave very similar to German heffe strains, great fun to play with. I have the most experience with WLP500 but have used WLP530 as I mentioned and also WLP550 which is not an abby strain per se but really neat stuff (I made a very cool abbey Single with it last year and I'll for sure do it again). At some point this year, I'll do either a Belgian Blonde (Leffe like) or maybe a Triple, we'll see. If you have never messed with high gravity brewing before, just make sure you keep the temperature under control as you can easily end up with a bunch of fusels which will screw up the taste of the beer and also give you some nasty headaches.

[louiscowdroy]

Well first of all I don't think there is anything wrong with using WLP500, the lads at Chimay have done pretty will with it best I can tell. The thing about that yeast though is it will throw off alot of clove and sometimes a bunch of bananna (which would be a flaw in a Dubbel by the way). If you haven't really thought about it before, you are fix'n to (means "you are going to" in Texan) learn alot about yeast handling because those Belgian strains will cause the same beer to taste very different depending on how they are handled. If you pay attention to what is going on though you'll learn alot which will benefit every single beer you make. They behave very similar to German heffe strains, great fun to play with. I have the most experience with WLP500 but have used WLP530 as I mentioned and also WLP550 which is not an abby strain per se but really neat stuff (I made a very cool abbey Single with it last year and I'll for sure do it again). At some point this year, I'll do either a Belgian Blonde (Leffe like) or maybe a Triple, we'll see. If you have never messed with high gravity brewing before, just make sure you keep the temperature under control as you can easily end up with a bunch of fusels which will screw up the taste of the beer and also give you some nasty headaches.

Thank you,
I've played with Heff before and made a German Blonde and love the Banana taste, so I brewed with that in mind and raised the temp in the primary accordingly. However, now I wish to brew to style I'm very cautious of the temp and not raising the temp above say 22 degrees Celsius. I want to recreate an accurate Belgian Dubbel with Character, Mouthfeel and taste. I will be at the supermarket at 6 tomorrow morning to purchase the Raisins and flour as suggested. Can you recommend anything else to add authentic flavour?

Kind reagrds

Louis

[zgoda]

I've put raisins and figs, 250 gms each, but I used it only as a source of sugar. Did not taste it in finished beer.

[jmc]

You could make some Belgian-style dark candy-sugar crystals to add another flavour.
Its easy to make (see below) or you could buy some from The Malt Miller


Taken from topic Belgian Recipe and Candi Syrup?

I've never seen belgian candy syrup for sale, but it's easy to make your own hard candy.

Before you start you need a good candy thermometer and some citric acid (have a look on ebay for both). Add 350g of sugar to a pan, with a pinch of citric acid and enough hot water to dissolve the sugar. Bring to the boil. As the water evaporates, the sugar concentrates and the boiling point goes up. Try and keep the temperature between 127C and 135C by adding a spoon of cold water and stir when it gets up to 135C. After 15 minutes it will start to turn golden in colour. If you leave it longer it will go red, but flavors are also more intense the darker it gets. When you get to the right colour let the temp rise to 150C and then turn off the heat. Pour it in to a mould before it cools. I usually use the rubber non-stick things used for poaching eggs which are the perfect size.

Then on brewday, throw it in the kettle towards the end of the boil. One thing I learnt the hard way was it's best not to go to a deep red on the colour as it can be too intense in the beer. Golden is more subtle and gives a nice complex caramel flavour and a thick moussy head, typical of belgian beers.

Good luck!

I used the above candy sugar in a Chimay Red clone a while back (Mar 2011) .
I still have a few 750ml bottles left

[zgoda]

This is recipe for inverted sugar, not candi. For candi you need Maillard reaction.

The recipe that uses yeast nutrient produces something closer to candi.

[seymour]

I love that the title of this thread is "simple Belgian Dubbel recipe"

caramelized raisins, homemade candi/invert sugars, temperature controlled fermentations, stir-plate single-strain yeast starters...

Don't forget to do a DeClerk 3 step mash.

Insist upon only Belgian-grown 6-Row winter barley Pilsener Malt.

Bottle, do net keg, this beer, and only use squatty, thick-walled, tapered-neck, brown glass bottles...

Just kidding. Don't stress it, Louis, just get some yummy stuff brewed already.

[Barley Water]

I also used the dark liquid candi sugar but it's rather expensive.

[louiscowdroy]

I love that the title of this thread is "simple Belgian Dubbel recipe"

caramelized raisins, homemade candi/invert sugars, temperature controlled fermentations, stir-plate single-strain yeast starters...

Don't forget to do a DeClerk 3 step mash.

Insist upon only Belgian-grown 6-Row winter barley Pilsener Malt.

Bottle, do net keg, this beer, and only use squatty, thick-walled, tapered-neck, brown glass bottles...

Just kidding. Don't stress it, Louis, just get some yummy stuff brewed already.

Hahahahaha. oh bless ya mate.....i'm bleedin laughin me head off here....I only wanted really to know if I could use Pale malt instead of Lager malt for the base...Hahhhahahahahahaha; wish I hadn't asked now....Only kidding...
Its all been very useful and everyone has been very kind.

So, lets recap. Flour (Seymour) which one again?? I've got dark Candy Sugar Crystals......Raisins.....100 grammes chopped up or should I put in the blender with some sugar and warm water??

is there anything else??

Louis ))

[louiscowdroy]

You could make some Belgian-style dark candy-sugar crystals to add another flavour.
Its easy to make (see below) or you could buy some from The Malt Miller


Taken from topic Belgian Recipe and Candi Syrup?

I've never seen belgian candy syrup for sale, but it's easy to make your own hard candy.

Before you start you need a good candy thermometer and some citric acid (have a look on ebay for both). Add 350g of sugar to a pan, with a pinch of citric acid and enough hot water to dissolve the sugar. Bring to the boil. As the water evaporates, the sugar concentrates and the boiling point goes up. Try and keep the temperature between 127C and 135C by adding a spoon of cold water and stir when it gets up to 135C. After 15 minutes it will start to turn golden in colour. If you leave it longer it will go red, but flavors are also more intense the darker it gets. When you get to the right colour let the temp rise to 150C and then turn off the heat. Pour it in to a mould before it cools. I usually use the rubber non-stick things used for poaching eggs which are the perfect size.

Then on brewday, throw it in the kettle towards the end of the boil. One thing I learnt the hard way was it's best not to go to a deep red on the colour as it can be too intense in the beer. Golden is more subtle and gives a nice complex caramel flavour and a thick moussy head, typical of belgian beers.

Good luck!

I used the above candy sugar in a Chimay Red clone a while back (Mar 2011) .
I still have a few 750ml bottles left

Can you tell me how to insert a picture please.

Regards

Louis