Belgian Dubbel

[TJ Brew]

Hello All,

I brewed this beer once before and it came out great. I used a simple grain bill, pilsner malt and munich malt, with some dark Belgian candi sugar, fermented on Forbidden Fruit and was fantastic. Thought I would give it a go again, but the brewery shop here does not stock candi sugar (or much else other than grains and some yeast). So I did a little digging around and altered the recipe a bit, adding in Crystal 60 &120 to give it some more color, and I am going to use Palm Sugar in place of Belgian Dark Candi sugar. I have read that it will impart some toffee, candy flavor, hints of dark fruit, vanilla and rum. The palm sugar is much lighter in color, closer to brown sugar than dark candi (hence my additions of crystal 60 & 120). I am also fermenting it with Abbey yeast (wy1214) as the homebrew shop does not stock forbidden fruit, and they really did not seem interested in bringing it in! WY1214 is what should be used for this style, but forbidden fruit added some character to the beer.

I brewed this the first time with my BIAB system. So the liquid volumes may need to be adjusted for your own systems.

I brought this beer to the last meeting I went to, Christmas time last year. I had the ugly Christmas tie.

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Recipe: Black Scapular Dubbel (SASK)
Brewer: Trevor Jamieson
Asst Brewer:
Style: Belgian Dubbel
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.52 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.066 SG
Estimated Color: 12.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 18.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 82.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5.00 gal Saskatoon Water 1 -
10 lbs 9.6 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 84.1 %
1 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 3 7.9 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.0 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 5 4.0 %
1.50 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 18.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg Belgian Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1214) [1 Yeast 7 -


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 12 lbs 9.6 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification Add 15.75 qt of water at 155.6 F 145.0 F 40 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min 168.0 F 10 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 4.34 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes:
------
12 oz of Palm Sugar near the end of the boil.

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[RubberToe]

You could make your own dark candi syrup, it's easy. I started a thread around here somewhere.

[TJ Brew]

You could make your own dark candi syrup, it's easy. I started a thread around here somewhere.

RubberToe,

You are correct, I could make my own dark candi syrup. Just have to invert the white sugar (ideally beet sugar) with some acid and heat. I considered it, but ultimately decided I wanted to try out Palm Sugar. Never tried using it, didn't see where anyone on here has tried it on here, and read a few posts on other sites where it imparts similar flavors as Dark Belgian, but at a fraction of the price (<$2.00/lb).

Milling the grains, will be mashing in soon!

Trevor

[RubberToe]

If that's the case I wouldn't mind trying palm sugar as well.

[TJ Brew]

Well it is in the carboy, yeast pitched. Had some trouble with the sparge, on my new cooler, and then had some kettle troubles, so my efficiencies were way off. Miss the simplicity of BIAB sometimes...

[TJ Brew]

Trying the first of the bottle Belgian Dubbel with the palm sugar. I will be going back to candi sugar in the future. The beer is good, complex, but the alcohol is prominent on the nose and the finish. Has quite the warming effect! Otherwise the flavour of the beer appears to be what a Dubbel should be, colour is correct, could use a bit more carbonation (will have to wait a couple more weeks to try the next one!).

I think I will try the palm sugar again, but split the wort into two batches do the same hop additions and at the end add belgian to one and palm to the other. At least that way I will have a direct comparison, rather than just my notes and memory!