Barrel - Belgian Dubble Recipe

[Cathal O D]

Hi All,
Here is a receipe we have put together. We've done a fair bit of research but never brewed a belgian dubble so feel free to voice your opinions. We got some unrefined candi sugar from Fallon & Bryne. It should work but we are unsure on the colour it may add.
We were thinking of using WLP540 yeast as I think Shiny has some that he can grow for everyone. Its an authutentic trappist style yeast with medium dark fruit character.

Ingredients
Amt      Name Type # %/IBU
4.50 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 67.7 %
1.00 kg Munich Malt (17.7 EBC) Grain 2 15.0 %
0.30 kg Special B Malt (354.6 EBC) Grain 3 4.5 %
0.20 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC) Grain 4 3.0 %
0.15 kg Amber Malt (43.3 EBC) Grain 5 2.3 %
0.50 kg Candi Sugar, Amber (60.0 EBC) Sugar 6 7.5 %
40.00 g Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 17.4 IBUs

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.065 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.7 % 
Bitterness: 17.4 IBUs Calories: 0.0 kcal/l
Est Color: 33.3 EBC 
Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge Total Grain Weight: 6.65 kg
Sparge Water: 19.00 l Grain Temperature: 10 C
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C Tun Temperature: 10 C
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.20

Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 18.04 l of water at 74.9 C 68.9 C 45 min

Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (3.56l, 15.44l) of 75.6 C water
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).

[Ciderhead]

Unless you are brewing in Southern Spain your mash tun and grain temps are likely to be closer to 10 Degrees than 22!
Would your consider pilsner malt instead of the pale?
HBC have wlp500 in stock which will bring out your fruity dark plum flavour?
Looking at this style now myself and very interested how it turns out.

[Cathal O D]

Fair point on the grain temps. I used pale malt as I figure everyone will have some in bulk.

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[matthewdick23]

530 would be much better than 500 for a dubbel.

id start ferm low and ramp up- itll help it not be too sweet and keep a bit of dryness- maybe start round 18 and ramp up

not sure about the candi sugar- id really try to get darker stuff

[Ciderhead]

530 would be much better than 500 for a dubbel.

White Labs suggest, 500,510 and 530 all good for Dubbels?

WLP500 Trappist Ale Yeast
From one of the few remaining Trappist breweries remaining in the world, this yeast produces the distinctive fruitiness and plum characteristics. Excellent yeast for high gravity beers, Belgian ales, dubbels and trippels.

WLP530 Abbey Ale Yeast
Used to produce Trappist style beers. Similar to WLP500, but is less fruity and more alcohol tolerant (up to 15% ABV). Excellent yeast for high gravity beers, Belgian ales, dubbels and trippels.

But 530 seems to be it where you are going for it on abv rather than flavour?

Enough of the theory, Matthew have you or anybody else got any actual experience with using these 2?

[matthewdick23]

yeah ive done loads of dubbels

id say if you really dont go for a darker candi then 500 would prob be the pref cos of the more plumy notes you can get from it

most of the time ive just harvested yeast from trappist bottles

500=chimay and 530=westmalle

my preference is the chimay, but thats just me

[Shane Phelan]

This is what they say about the WLP540:

An authentic Trappist style yeast. Use for Belgian style ales, dubbels, tripples, and specialty beers. Fruit character is medium, in between WLP500 (high) and WLP530 (low).

Given that the WLP530 has a low fruit character then it makes sense to use either WLP540 or the WLP500.

[Cathal O D]

Have you any opinion on 540?

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[Cathal O D]

Just beat me to it shiny!

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[Cathal O D]

Any opinions on the grain bill Matthew?

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[Ciderhead]

Cathal, absolutely right in making it as accesible as possible with the pale but I've looked at 6 recipes today in books and Zymurgy and only one had pale as the base? Perthaps somebody like Matthew or any other Dubbel Kings could explain why is that?
luving this thread btw 

[mr hoppy]

When you say candi sugar - are you using rocks or syrup? The rocks are basically expensive brown sugar and don't bring anything extra to the partY. Proper candi syrup is a by-product of beet sugar refining and it has a nice rummy flavour and helps dry the beer out. Strong Belgians tend to be relatively light bodied compared to a lot of other strong beers. A FG of 1008 wouldn't be at all unusual for a 7 - 8% beer.

That'S why I would not go with a full bodied mash for a dubbed.  The Houblon Chouffe (tripel with American hops) clone I brewed last weekend had a 25 minute 62 degree step and a 75 minute 67 degree step. If you can't step I'd keep the single infusion below 65 degrees.

Big trick about these kind of beers is the fermentation temperature. Let them start low and rise up to the mid twenties over a couple of days and you should get great yeast flavours.

I'd imagine the reason you don't see to many dubbels with pale malt is because pilsener malt is the norm in Belgian. For a tripel pilsener malt might be better but with all the dark malt flavours in a dubbel pale malt should work fine.

[Ciderhead]

What about a modicum of Aroma Hops like Saaz or Hersbrucker Mr Happy?
Ive also been looking at recipes with aromatic malts?

[mr hoppy]

I would only put hops into a dubbel or a dark strong at 60 minutes - you're not really looking for flavour or aroma which could come off as just being metallic. EKG is perfect, but Styrians and Saaz are also very typical Belgian hops.

Having said that La Rulles Brune is a great Belgian brown from a brewery in the Ardennes that only uses American hops and I definitely get an orangey flavour off it(Amarillo?) that works well with the maltiness.

[Ciderhead]

Sorry bloody obvious you don't need aroma for a barrel, i forgot this was a barrel recipe, I was just hijacking this thread for my own personal recipe formulation hope you don't mind Cathal, will post on a new thread.


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