hey all - first, thanks to those who offered suggestions about my previous pale extract recipe. i was trying to help out a friend, and because of your helpful feedback, i tweaked the recipe a bit and hopefully put together a tasty pale. we’ll see in a few weeks!
i was hoping you could give me a little input on a dubbel recipe i put together. i looked at several different recipes, and tried to find a balance between all of them (this has been my strategy recently, as i still don’t feel comfortable creating a recipe completely on my own). any (ANY!) feedback is appreciated … trying to make my wife happy with this one!
(5.5 GAL)
11 lbs Belgium 2 Row Pale
12 oz Caramunich
12 oz Special B
8 oz Biscuit Malt
8 oz Wheat Malt
4 oz Carafa I
1 lb Candi Sugar
1 oz Styrian Goldings - 60 min
.5 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker - 20 min
.5 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker - 5 min
Abbey Ale Yeast (WLP 530)
Way, way too much crystal malt (caramunich and special b - don’t need both). You also don’t ned the biscuit. Make sure you use dark candi sugar - the liquid kind is by far the best.
If it were me I’d drop the cara munich and cut back on the special b to 4-6 oz. If you get the Dark Candi sugar you may not even need any of the special B.
Simplicity is usually best when designing recipes. Keep it to 2-3, maybe 4 malts for most beers.
First of all, I wouldn’t waste my time with the Candi Sugar. If you want real dubbel-type flavor, then you need Dark Candi Syrup (i.e., D-180). The candi sugars don’t do much (if anything) on the flavor side.
If it were me, I’d definitely cut out the Caramunich and Wheat. If you change the candi sugar for dark candi syrup, you can probably skip the Carafa. I love Special B in a dubbel, but 12oz might be a bit much - a little goes a long way. Maybe drop it to a half pound.
The Biscuit I can go either way on. I like what a touch of Biscuit or Aromatic gives to the dark Belgian styles, but I generally skip it in dubbels, and reserve it for my Quads where I want to develop a little more malt complexity to stand the test of time. A half pound would certainly be appropriate in this style if you like it.
Just to pile on, the wheat malt is an unnecessary confusion in the recipe. Sugar is traditionally added to those trappist styles both for flavor and to thin out the beer. Wheat malt will add body to the beer. No reason to add body at the same time you are adding a different ingredient to take it away.
I would drop the biscuit and caramunich as well. I totally agree on candi syrup - it’s fantastic in dubbel and quad. But I use candi syrup along with special B on these styles pretty often- I love the dark fruit/raisin character a lot. But I’d cut the special B in half though.
so you’ve convinced me to cut out a lot of the specialty grains and try the candy syrup, but now i just need suggestions on how much syrup. are you guys just adding 1 pound, or more? i’ve seen some people suggesting 2 pounds … that sounds like a lot!
I use 1 lb of D-90 for my dubbel, but either 90 or 180 would be fine. Just remember the 180 might make it too dark for the style guidelines (if that matters to you). I just made a Belgian Dark Strong and I added 2 lbs of 180 and it’s very dark, but smells fantastic.
If this is your first dubbel, I’d pick one of the two syrups go with that, mainly so you can get an idea what it brings to the final beer. Either the 90 or 180 will suit you fine.
As far as how much to use, I like 15-20% simple sugars in a dubbel to help it finish dry. Whether that comes all from the syrup, or from a combination of syrup and table sugar is a matter of personal preference.
I always add it at the beginning of the boil. That way I get the hops utilization the recipe is spec’ed for and I don’t forget it later. I have found no downside to doing it that way.
