First go at a Belgian Dubbel

[HighHops]

It's my first attempt at brewing a dubbel so advice and comments are welcome! Looking for something westmalleish!!! Hopefully!!

Brew length:23L

4 Kg Belgian pale malt
500g Munich
200g Cara munich
200g Biscuit
200g Special B
200g Torrified wheat
200g Flaked barley
500g home made candy sugar

Yeast; I've got 1 tube of WLP 530 to make a starter out of, but might split the brew with a la chouffe / westmalle starter recovered from bottles of beer that I've got in the fridge.

Whaddya think?

[196osh]

Splitting it sounds like a good idea. Looks a good recpie. How are you planning to ferment it?

[HighHops]

Temperatures - Thinking of starting it off at 18C and take it up a degree a day to 23C by day 6, then leave it there until it ferments out if it hasn't already.

Forgot the hops - Saaz or Hersbrucker to 25 IBU. Maybe one late addition.

[196osh]

Sounds good. I would mabye start it at 19-20 but I dont think it will matter much.

[Spud395]

Here's my Dubbel HH.
Not to different from your own. Only had one taster bottle from it yet to test carbonation and curiosity

I'm looking forward to it in a few months time

[HighHops]

Sounds good. I would mabye start it at 19-20 but I dont think it will matter much.

What's the top end you have gone up to 196osh?

[196osh]

26C I think. I started a Belgian pale ale at 21C and it rose naturally to quite a high temp over a few days, it scored pretty well at a competition it got sent into, got a silver. So the yeast can take it easily. I used WY1214, which I think is WLP500 but the Westmalle yeast gets used by Westvleteren which gets up to 27-28C and thats some of the best beer in the world.

I dont think that Belgians kick of fusels as easily as other yeasts at high temperatures. But really dont like low ones.

[HighHops]

Here's my Dubbel HH.
Not to different from your own. Only had one taster bottle from it yet to test carbonation and curiosity

I'm looking forward to it in a few months time

Looks good spud! First time I've used some of these malts: Special B, biscuit and cara munich so i've just added a bit of everything. Not sure how much of these is too much! Couldn't get hold of any aromatic! Maybe next time.

Do you use cara munich in the same volumes as crystal or is it more intense?

According to t'internet special B is a cross between dark caramel malt and medium roasted malt, which sounds nice, but again not sure how much it will dominate the overall flavour!

[Spud395]

It was my 1st stab at a Dubbel as well, so a bit of guesswork involved.
Those malts were new to me as well and as I say I've not really had a mature bottle yet and wont for a month or 2 yet.
It could be a little darker, but thats one good thing about Belgians, almost anything goes.
My research had me starting the wyeast1214 at 19C rising to 24C a degree a day

[lancsSteve]

[First time I've used some of these malts: Special B, biscuit and cara munich so i've just added a bit of everything. Not sure how much of these is too much! Couldn't get hold of any aromatic! Maybe next time.

Do you use cara munich in the same volumes as crystal or is it more intense?

According to t'internet special B is a cross between dark caramel malt and medium roasted malt, which sounds nice, but again not sure how much it will dominate the overall flavour!

Special B can be very dominant - use with caution (I'd be tempted to reduce it or leave it out see discussion on this in Brew Like a Monk). I've started using german Munich malt and found it different from the UK Munich malt - the German stuff seems much smoother and softer in flavour...

For a first step into Belgian beers (and grom experience of starting with ridicuously complex malt bills which work - eventually - it's hard to tell what added what. Were I starting out again and for my future brews I;d keep things a lot simpler initially: pale or lager malt + sugar to add colour (maybe try your local Asian supermarket for palm sugar or turbinado or make your own candi) and one or two flavour malts and that's it. Achouffe apparently ONLY use different candi syrups to change the colours of their beers - no colour malts.

Flaked barley and Torrefied wheat will aid head retention and build the body which could help.

What's the rest of the recipe? Hops/OG/IBUs etc?

[HighHops]

Thanks for the advice Steve, will skip the special B for this one. I've been meaning to try the weyermann malts for a while now.

With biscuit malt is 200g in a 6kg bill enough to notice it? I haven't got a feel for it yet.

I was aiming for 1065 OG - about 7% abv. Looking at about 25 IBU on the bitterness. Was going to use aurora / crystal, but may just use a full pack of crystal (AA 3%) 80g on a 60 min boil and 20g at 20 min late addition.

I've made some candy sugar already in advance. Was looking to use about 500g.

[lancsSteve]

200g would be quite a lot of aromatic but not too much biscuit so could add a little more. Dubbel's are usually dark so consider the additions to bring colour and maltiness in line - though the colour often comes from dark candi syrup rather than roasted malts. A hint of special B (maybe 2% max) could add colour and malt depth.

[Swiller]

I have a Westmalle Tripel recipe you may be interested in
it uses US and metric measures so no conversions
needed. I have made it and thought it turned out
quite good.