Barrel - Belgian Dubble Recipe

[Eoin]

At the time I did it I was following an online guide to making your own kandi sugar.

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[imark]

I wouldn't get hung up on best before date on it tbh.

[mr hoppy]

It's a by-product of sugar refining, rather than being made using caramel made from refined sugar. The process is described on Candico's web page:

In those days, the sugar being imported was still in a very impure form. Additionaly because of the long journey by sea, it often fermented and became unusable. The cane sugar therefore had to be refined to restore its fine flavour.

The cane sugar was dissolved in water and then the solution was re-boiled. Various products were added to remove the impurities. Then it was filtered through linen cloths. This produced a sugary solution which was much purer but still coloured by extraneous substances which were not sugar. As a solution of sugar does not keep well, it had to go through further processing to produce 'dry' sugar.

This is how the process of crystallising the sugar solution came about. Sugar was crystallised by first boiling the solution to evaporate some of the water and produce a thick, very warm syrup. Then the syrup was left to cool gradually so that a large proportion of the dissolved sugar set into crystals. The purer the sugar solution and the slower the cooling, the larger the crystals. It was observed that the crystals produced were much purer than the solution they came from. The crystallisation process was thus also form of refinement.

The next stage was very simple. The water was boiled off from the solution and what was left was poured into large pots which were left to cool slowly. The sugar, which is less soluble when it is cold that when it is hot, set into beautiful crystals attached to the walls and on the threads suspended in the pots to increase the surface area for crystal growth. This sugar was the candy sugar which is still produced following the same authentic principles today – albeit with modern production equipment.

After a number of weeks, the remaining syrup was separated from the sugar, since not all of the water had evaporated during boiling. The separated crystals were dried and then were ready for packing and distribution. At the same time, we obtained the soft brown sugar and candy syrup as by-products directly from the production syrup, which as a result have the same fine flavour and aroma.

Candy sugar was initially a luxury product that was traditionally given to important visitors. After that, it was obtainable at pharmacies before it became commonly available from the grocer's.

[Shane Phelan]

I'm going to put my name down for this, we put 160L into the barrel last time and it was nowhere near full so we will easily get 200L into it this time. We haven't discussed the time frame yet but its most likely going to be along the lines of brew over Christmas and fill in the new year.

01. Shiny - 20L

[Ciderhead]

I'd be interested in doing 20 l for this if you were short, won't put my name down just yet as you may have enough bodies without interlopers


96 sleeps till NHC Competition.

[Cathal O D]

01. Shiny - 20L
02. Cathal - 20 L

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[Will_D]

As a Dubbel is Mrs D's fav tipple I will also act as a back up (like CH).

[beerfly]

corny for transport a bit under 20L

01. Shiny - 20L
02. Cathal - 20 L
03. Beerfly - <20L (corny)

[Rossa]

Will and John, I did 40 last time. So one of my spots is free. I'll just do the 20 this time.

[Ciderhead]

Might be a joint effort brew day so!


95 sleeps till NHC Competition.

[Shane Phelan]

I was showing the recipe to people at the meet the other day and few things that were pointed out.

Too much special B.
The IBU's are very low and it could end up too sweet.

Personally I'm a bit worried about the IBU levels/sweetness, especially if people don't get full utilisation from their hops.

[irish_goat]

Too much special B.

Can never have too much Special B, that stuff is amazing. 

[Damien M]

Toes being minded

I'll put my name on the backups  list too!   

[Shane Phelan]

Too much special B.

Can never have too much Special B, that stuff is amazing. 

How much do you normally use in a batch?

01. Shiny - 19L (corny)
02. Cathal - 20 L
03. Beerfly - 19L (corny)
04. Rossa - 20L

Backup. CH - 20L
Backup. Will_D - 20L
Backup. DaMun - 20L

[Padraic]

01. Shiny - 19L (corny)
02. Cathal - 20 L
03. Beerfly - 19L (corny)
04. Rossa - 20L
05. Padraic - 19L (corny)

Backup. CH - 20L
Backup. Will_D - 20L
Backup. DaMun - 20L