Date/Fig infused belgian dubbel

Beer Recipes
1

There was an interest in seeing this recipe in another thread, so I’ll put it here.

8.5lb belgian pilsner (castle)
1.25lb wheat malt
14oz belgian aromatic
9oz munich malt
6oz caramunich II
5oz special b
5oz carapils
1lb dark belgian candi sugar syrup
.5oz nelson sauvin (11%aa) 60min
.25oz saaz (2.8%aa) 10min
4oz raisins 0min

Mash at 150 for 90 min

fig and date “sticky goo” added at end of boil:
0.5lb dried black mission figs
1.0lb dried and pitted medjool dates
3oz Flor de Cana 4yr rum
12 oz water
Blend all ingredients in food processor a few days in advance and put in fridge to bring flavors out.  Add at flameout on brew day.

Cool to 65 and pitch large amount of chimay yeast (wyeast 1214 or white labs 500)
Primary 2 weeks
Lager 5 weeks
Prime with 5oz corn sugar and half pack of safbrew s-33.

1.068 OG
1.010 FG

I love the fig, raisin, and rum flavors in traditional belgian dubbels, and what better way to “americanize” it?  More fig, raisin, and rum flavors!!

It really turned out great.  Not-over-the-top figgyness.  Not much noticeable date flavor.  Moderately low raisin character with a hint of rummy notes.  Quite effervescent - pleasant dancing on the tongue.  Brilliant clarity from lagering (you’ll want to lager to get all the fig seeds to drop out).  Very smooth light alcohol warmth on the way down with a touch of a lingering sweetness - not cloying.

Now, to enter this as a dubbel?  fruit beer?  belgian specialty?  I’m thinking it still falls under a dubbel based on the tasting session with the style guidelines in front of me.

2

Specialty? Why not. I like the use of the “goo” and rum. Maybe next you can add rum at bottling time too.

3

I would probably stick with the Dubbel category.  Raisin/prune/etc. is appropriate for the style so, as long as it’s not way over the top, stick with it.

4

I can’t say for sure without tasting it myself, but, I doubt it would be fair to enter as a regular dubbel – you’ve significantly fruited the beer, which might put your beer at an unfair advantage, or even a disadvantage if it tastes TOO fruity.  I would enter it as a 16E Belgian specialty, and let the judges know what you all put in there, assuming you can taste it, of course.  If you can’t taste a particular ingredient, then don’t even mention it to them.  I’ve done this before where I had a spiced Biere de Garde with vanilla, nutmeg, and black pepper.  But all you could really taste was the nutmeg, so that’s all I mentioned to them.  Sure enough, the judges found all sorts of nutmeg flavor but no one mentioned anything about vanilla or spiciness.  This is really key – tell them what it tastes like so that you’ll meet their expectations.  And if none of the fruit is quite obvious enough, then yeah, go ahead and enter as a regular dubbel.  But assuming it is tasting fruited, then you really should enter as 16E Belgian specialty.

5

+1 -
Don’t set yourself up for failure by mentioning flavors/aromas that aren’t discernable. I agree that if the fruit contribution is apparent then enter in Specialty, otherwise stay with the regular style category.