Belgian Dubbel

Brewed this last Saturday May 2nd. I started with the recipe from Jamil/Palmers book and just kind of built on that. The recent edition of Zymurgy has a really nice write up on Belgian dubbels, so I picked up some tips from that. I changed things up a bit, but kept it pretty basic. Most dubbel recipes that I found were all fairly similar. The yeast differs, but ranges between a few of them. After brewing this, I racked it right on top of the yeast cake from my Belgian Pale. I love doing that, fermentation started in 3 hours. :)

Here's the recipe:

Fementables:
10.60 lbs. German Pilsnger
1 lb. Belgian Munich
.50 lb. Belgian Aromatic
.50 lb. Belgian Cara 60
.50 lb. Crystal 120
.50 lb. Wheat malt (head retention)
1 lb. Dark rock candy (last 10 mins. of boil)
.50 lb corn sugar (drying) - end of boil

Hops:
1.5 oz. Tettnang 4.5% - 60 min.

Yeast:
WLP500 Trappist Ale (from Belgian Pale)

OG/FG - OG was: 1.080, final is expected to be around 1.013, bringing this to a whopping 9.3% abv's.

90 min. boil (Pilsner). Everything else went great with this brew. I just checked it, and it looks like there is still some airlock activity. I'm going to let this one age in a secondary, maybe until fall or winter.

Belgian Pale Ale

I often hear Jamil talk about some of the best beers he's made, comes from re-using yeast. Often in Belgian beers, he mentions what yeast to use, and suggests building off the yeast used from another batch. I decided to do just that with this batch. I did a regular Belgain Pale and used WLP500 - Belgian Trappist blend. This is one of the few people use in Belgian Pales, probably not as popular as others, but my goal was to reuse the yeast in a Dubble recipe.
I actually brewed this on April 17th (yeah I'm getting lazy about blogging). The brew went well. I racked this to a secondary last week when I did the Dubble and had a taste.. it tastes fantastic. It has that "Belgian" taste to it from the yeast, and I can tell it's going to be very drinkable. I'm a bit unsure of the gravity reading, I'll take another when I keg it this weekend. My reading I logged said 1.008, with a OG of 1.066. I'm thinking I typed this in wrong, it probably should be 1.018 - which would bring it to the 6-7% abv range, which is what I was shooting for. Gravity readings and a few beers never mix!

Anyhow, here's the recipe - it's out of Jamils book, but I changed some things up a bit and used a different yeast. I think his is called something Antwerp Ale..

Fermentables
10lb. German Pilsner
.75lb. Belgian Cara 60
.25lb. Biscuit
.50 lb. Corn sugar (drying) - end of boil

Hops:
1 oz. Golding 4.5% - 60 min.
1oz. Golding 4.5% - 20 min.
1 oz. Tettnang 3.0% - 15 min.
1 oz. Tettnang 3.0% - 0 min.

Yeast:
WLP500 - Trappist Ale

90 minute boil (reduce DMS from Pilsner grains). Fermented good for about a week, then I let it sit another week. I was fairly close to a BJCP style on this one, my IBU's are a couple points higher as is the ABV. SRM's are right in line. Can't wait to try this one!!

The picture? I have no idea. I just googled Belgium and she came up.. I figured what the hell. I'll toast to her when I tap this beer. :)

Beer report - Maibock gone!

Well, my very first lager was a huge success. It was very drinkable and had a very nice kick to it. Maibocks are generally high in alcohol, up to 8% for the style.. mine came in between 8 and 10. I say that because I really didn't taste a strong "alcohol-ness" to it. My readings had it coming in at 10.2%. I question it, because it was so drinkable. So much so, that it lasted 6 days. Drinkable yes, kicked me in the arse = FOR SURE. So, it very well could of been that high, it had a powerful kick to it after just a few of them. I didn't secondary this one, I just threw it in the keg and let it sit for a week. Upon first tasting it had a bit of a yeast taste to it. After the week of sitting, it was pretty awesome. We finished it off last night. I sure had my share of it! I will probably repeat this same recipe for next year. The lagering went very well in my garage, the temp of the carboy stayed in the high 30's to 40's.

The photo shown is the Maibock tapping day, which happened to be a Sunday Redwing playoff party. I enjoyed so many Maibocks, it took me until Wednesday until I was feeling better. :p