Belgian Dubbel...Please help!

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Bigbre04

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Hey all,

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/embed/1486631

I have never made a belgian dubbel. Most of the recipes that I found online called for Weyermann malt which I dont have on hand. Let me know what you would change/do. I have a fair stock of malts on hand, just no weyermann.

Im subbing:
C40 and munich1 for Caramunich 2
Spec X for Special B
Chocolate for Carafa 1
Victory for Aromatic
Flaked Wheat for wheat

The specs that i found for it are:
SRM 16-36
IBU 20-35
ABV 6.3-7.6
These are very different then the specs on here, but i dont see that as a problem.

I have 12#s of Candi sugar, but none of the recipes call for it, so i was going to save it for a belgian tripel.
 
You can't sub flaked for malted

Munich is like 7srm vs cara II at 47srm. Not sure that is a good one either
 
Minbari said:
You can't sub flaked for malted

Munich is like 7srm vs cara II at 47srm. Not sure that is a good one either
Click to expand...
For sure.

I was using flaked wheat instead of malted, just based on that i have a lot more of it on hand.

I am using Munich 2 which is 20L and adding crystal 40. I know that caramunich has a specific flavor that i cant perfectly match, but between the M2, C40, Spec X, and chocolate i could pretty closely replicate it recipe wise????



Thoughts on the Candi sugar? from what I was seeing, none of the dubbels called for it. You started seeing it more when you got into the tripel and quad territory.
 
Bigbre04 said:
For sure.

I was using flaked wheat instead of malted, just based on that i have a lot more of it on hand.

I am using Munich 2 which is 20L and adding crystal 40. I know that caramunich has a specific flavor that i cant perfectly match, but between the M2, C40, Spec X, and chocolate i could pretty closely replicate it recipe wise????



Thoughts on the Candi sugar? from what I was seeing, none of the dubbels called for it. You started seeing it more when you got into the tripel and quad territory.
Click to expand...
Ah ok, i thought you were using cara2 as a sub for munich. That would be way off.

Spec X is more english than belgian, but some people say it is close.

Never made a dubble, so your guess on the candi, lol
 
From what I see on the Belgium and Dutch side...
They don't worry too much about the candi (kandij) sugar and easily replace with sugar.
Even though it is easy to get and not expensive
 
I'm far from an expert on trapist ales but I don't think the candi sugar matters. I used some in my tripple to "keep it authentic" but also used a bunch of dextrose for cost reasons. I think you could use all dextrose and be fine
 
I'll tell you what I did, and you can do whatever you think best. I loved my Dubbel. I also toned it down to about 6.4%.
Base: Use a Pils/Maris Otter Mix. The online discussions have them around 50/50. I used 29.6% Pils, 40.7% Maris. Other Stuff: 7.4% Red Wheat (NOT flaked), 7.4% Munich I (NOT the dark shit), 3.7% each of Special B and Aromatic, 7.4% D180 Candi Syrup. The light shit doesn't matter much subbing for ordinary sugar, the dark shit does. If you don't want to buy it, make it.
Use a good yeast. WLP 500 worked well for mine. See how your yeast compares/substitutes to the White Labs I used.
Hops, not much. I used about 21.5 IBUs between Stryian Goldings and Saaz.
My recipe and just my 2cents. This is about as simple as it gets for that style while allowing for the plumby/biscuity flavor that you want.
One other thing: I would not be in a hurry to put that on tap right away. If those beers sit cold for a couple of weeks or more, they start to get really tasty if done right.
 
Last edited:
Thinking out loud.. I thought you said you could get Riverbend before. The beers I have tasted here made with their malt have been really nice on the bready side. I wonder how their Pils would do in a Belgian?
 
So i updated this recipe and swapped out Briess Extra Special Malt for Spec X which is probably a better substitute.

bumped the ABV and using dextrose/the rest of my brewers crystals(i will never buy that again such a pain in the ass)

here is the new recipe! Planning a brew probably Tuesday/Wednesday next week!

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/embed/1486631

Let me know what you think!

I have the recipe with Mandarina Bavaria, but i could switch it back to Willamette if that makes more sense?
 
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