So over the past few weeks I’ve been pretty tied up with life and have not had a lot of time for brewing.  This has not stopped my from trying new beers though.  This is a Maredsous 8, a Belgian Dubbel that gets much BA’er love with an A- rating (I know, BA ratings are garbage because there is no qualifying the people that rate them, it’s still something). 

For me, the aroma on this really knocked me over.  This smelled like a fine Scotch or a brandy, not because of the alcohol, but just the profile, it really caused me to have a double take.  There were some chocolate notes in there too.  The color was cherry-wood, great for the style with a caramel colored head that left a few fingers of lacing.

This was also an overly carbonated beer.  I was surprised because usually the quark beers are like this, but not the capped ones.  This one broke the mold.  The good news is that the aggressive carbonation did not come off in the mouth feel too much, although after a few, your taste buds feel a little abused.

Over all this was a nutty sweet caramel dance on your pallet that leaves you wanting more.  This is not an overwhelming beer, but one that is better balanced than some in the style.  The flavor falls short of the intense aroma, but that’s not a bad thing, it makes for a sensory thriller where you never know what is going to happen.

I know these pictures are not easy to see, but there are little purple shoots coming out of the ground.  Those are my hops!  I am pretty fired up this year to finally get a full growth cycle out of them.  I have to make a run to the garden center for some stuff and I am going to get some food for my babies as well. 

Cheers

So tonight I racked over my Dubbel Dribbleto the secondary and while the FG was well in line at 1.012 (should have shot for 1.018m but oh well), the color looked a little light.  Not only is this a style issue, it’s also an issue with the grain and Belgian Candi Sugar I used.  It was supposed to be 275 SRM and should have brought the whole brew to a 17 to 20 range.  Instead it looks like I am at the lower end of the 14 to 17 range.

It’s kind of crazy to me because Beer Smith gave me a pretty high reading based on the ingredients, but it didn’t turn out that way.

Any thoughts on this?

So, while Nick and Bryan were both pre-occupied, I was on my own for a brew day so I decided to do a brew that was not as conducive to the volume brews we had been doing.  Since I hadn’t made a Belgian Dubbel since the Abbey I brewed in extract many years ago, I decided to take this brew to the next level and brew one (as close as possible to the original) in all-grain.

Here is the recipe:

6 gallons – 90min boil 60% efficiency

Grain bill

• 16lbs UK 2 Row Pale Malt (3SRM)
• 1lb Cara-Pils/Dex (2SRM)
• 1lb light Munich (6SRM)
• 1/2lb Victory (25 SRM)
• 1lb Dark Belgian Candi Sugar (275 SRM)
• 2oz Fuggles (4%) 55min
• 1oz Saaz (4%) 5min
• Belgian Witbier Wyeast # 3944

I struck this brew at 7:48am on Sunday morning and was cleaned up before the 12:10pm SU tip off (Go Orange!!!).  A quick overview of the steps are as follows:

1. Strike 4.6 gal at 164f – Step temp 150f – Hold for 1hr 15min
2. Mashout 1.6 gal at near boiling to achieve 168 – Fell short, only 164 (Meatball was wandering around and found a couple of boxers he had beef with, left the mashtun open and it was cold out)
3. Prepared 4.6 gal for two equal rounds of batch sparges
4. First runnings 21 brix, second 14 brix, final running were 10 brix
5. Preboil OG (without candi sugar) was 1.059

There was a 90 min boil for flavor and character.  It worked out well because at 60% efficiency I expected 1.072 OG after the boil and was pleasantly surprised with 1.080.

It is amazing how much faster a 6 gallon batch is than a 20 gallon batch.  Water temps come much faster and things are generally a lot more manageable.  It makes for a very relaxing brew day.  Add to that the fact that the ‘Cuse won in convincing fashion and it made for a great Sunday.

A while back I brewed a Belgian Abby ale that I called The First Tuesday after the First Monday Abby Ale.  The original was an extract brew that I was really pleased with.  Now that I have a little lag time in between large volume brews, I figured I would try a 5 or 10 gallon abby again. 

In line with coming up with a good brew, I want to do some tasting to decide what I want out of my Dubbel.  This brewing in hard stuff.

Anyway, since Wegmans is pimping out with a huge beer selection I figured I would hit them up for an Dubbel I hadn’t tried before.  This is Val-Dieu Brune, an authentic Belgian Dubbel that gets much BA love.  I have also been doing some other tastings of Dubbel’s in the past few months so I had a lot to think about with this new Val-Dieu.

The nose had hits of brandy with sweet nutty aromas.  The color was lighter than both the New Belgium and the Ommegang with hues of red matching the traditional mahogany.  The mouth feel of this brew was less intense than many of the other bottle conditioned brews.  It was light, sweet and had a creamy feel going down.  The flavor was a lot more mellow then some of the other Dubbel’s I’ve had.  There were hints of smokiness in the flavor that blended well with the traditional raisin sweet candy of the Dubbel’s profile.  There was little or no alcohol burn going down on this one.  Very easy to drink for a beer this big.

In the big picture of things, I would say that this is close to what I want to hit.  I want something a little less big and bold than the Ommegang, but I also want to drink a Dubbel when I go to drink a dubbel.  However, I would not add the smokey earthiness that the Val-Dieu.

More to come on the recipe with this one…Cheers.

Note- I still have yet to master the carbonation of the keg. What has worked for me in the past that is kind of working this time is that I charge the keg (about 30 PSI), bleed out the O2 and I shake it for about 5 min or so. After this, I lower to what I want it to come out at and I connect the CO2 to the keg and then to the tap. I let everything sit for a few days and then start to drink.

Thus far it has produced two results, first it either starts out with a weak carbonation and eventually works it’s way to being alright and second, it starts out really foamy and weakens out to a nice carb later.

This is an imperfect science for me, but once I master it I will be sure to make note of exactly what I did.

Malt Extract: 6.6 lbs Muttons Malt Extract
3 lbs Muttons dry malt

Specialty Grain: 1 lb De Wolf-Cosyns Belgian pale malt
.5lbs Briess Victory Malt

Bitter Hops: 1 oz Czek Saaz (55 min)
Flavor Hops: 1 oz Czek Saaz (5 min)
Kicking it up: 1 oz Czek Saaz (2 min)

Yeast: Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey

Special: 1 lb dark Belgian candy- when you add the candy, add it 1/4 of the bag at a time and stir it in. This allows the candy to dissolve)

OG: 1.080
FG: 1.010

ABV: 9.17%