Belgian Dubbel
by the numbers
OG: 1.062–1.075 (15.2–18.2 °P)
FG: 1.008–1.018 (2.0–4.6 °P)
SRM: 10–17
IBU: 15–25
ABV: 6–7.6%
I fondly remember my very first trip to Belgium. I was already passionate about homebrewing and great beer, and I wandered from city to city, brewery to brewery, bar to bar, and bottle shop to bottle shop seeking out new experiences and tastes of classic examples. I was particularly interested in finding examples of Belgian dubbel. It took quite awhile to find any examples at all. When asked, most people had no idea what I meant by dubbel. Sometimes they thought I possibly meant Duvel.
Back then, the rest of the world did not have as much of a focus on beer styles as we did in the United States. I am not certain, but I wonder if beer styles are more of a “young country” type of phenomenon? When you brew and sell beers by name for a few hundred years, and then someone lists it as a classic example of a style on the other side of the world, do you really start referring to that beer as Flanders red or do you still call it Rodenbach? The same goes for many other beer styles, although you would think when there are many classic examples, such as Westmalle Dubbel, that say “dubbel” right on the label, you might expect that asking for “dubbel” would not be met with empty stares.
Well, apparently, all of us beer geeks asking again and again has changed the landscape. I find it much easier these days to ask for beer by style. When in Europe, I still try to ask for beers by brewery name, but more and more you can ask by style and the bartender or bottle shop seller will know what you are asking for.
Belgian dubbel ranges from 6 to 7.6% ABV with a rich and complex malt character, some initial sweetness, and moderate fruity esters. Some examples have spicy notes from fermentation, but this should be relatively subtle or completely absent. Any alcohol character should be subtle and smooth. If the first thing you notice is alcohol, that is a bad example of Belgian dubbel. Your first impression should be malt character along with a little malt and possibly alcohol sweetness. While the malt character can have hints of caramel, chocolate or toasted bread, those should not overwhelm the malt character. Fruity esters that come from fermentation and the malt of raisins, plums, cherries, pears, figs, and more should be evident. The body should be medium. Although good examples will have some malt sweetness up front, the beer should finish moderately dry. Even though hops play a role in balancing the overall character of this style, bitterness or hop character should not extend into the finish. Fermentation is really the centerpiece and a dry enough finish helps balance the beer, keeping it from being overly sweet. The color is dark amber to copper, often with ruby highlights when held up to the sun.
The base malt for this style, like most Belgian beer, is continental Pilsner malt. Pilsner malt lends a slightly sweet, grainy malt character to the beer. If you can source it, Belgian Pilsner malt is ideal. If you cannot, do not worry, even the Belgian brewers use other continental Pilsner malts. If you are an extract brewer, try to use an extract made from Pilsner malt. Recipes for this style range from very simple to overly complex. I have made award-winning examples using both. If you want to go with a simpler, more traditional recipe, Pilsner, caramel Munich, and dark Belgian candi syrup is all that you need.
Overly complex recipes can be too malty and the flavors are muddy. Yet, despite that, judges often score them quite high. Specialty malts such as aromatic, melanoidin, caramel Munich, Special B, and biscuit are all fair game in this style. The trick is to build a rich malt character with a balanced malt sweetness, while avoiding an overall muddy, generic maltiness. Good fermentation helps with this, but keep the total specialty malts down below 20% of the total grist.
Caramel malt adds some residual malt sweetness and is an important part of this style, but you do not want a distinct caramel flavor. You should avoid the mid- and lower-color caramel malts (the ones that are 10–40 °L), which can add too much candy-like caramel character. Instead, darker crystal malts (80–150°L) add a dark fruit, raisin-plum note and do not seem as candy-like. It is a good complement to the fermentation character and helps fill out the malt profile of the beer. In general, your crystal malt amounts are going to range from 5 to 10% of the total grist, although exceptions are possible.
I have brewed Belgian dubbel using a wide range of mash temperature, from 148 °F to 158 °F (64 to 70 °C). When brewing a bigger version of this style I target a lower mash temperature to create a more fermentable wort. When brewing a smaller version, I use a higher mash temperature to ensure the resulting beer does not end up too thin in character. A mash temperature around 150 °F to 154 °F (66 °C to 68 °C) is a good starting point. For extract brewers, most light colored extracts attenuate well enough. Whether you are brewing all-grain or extract, you can use a portion of simple sugar such as table sugar or a Belgian-type candi sugar. Keep in mind that you still want a medium body, so do not overdo it on the simple sugars. Generally, 5 to 10% of the grist is plenty. If you want to use lots of Belgian dark candi syrup for character, then you might also need to raise the mash temperature to compensate.
The balance and dry finish of most Belgian ales comes from a combination of alcohols, phenols, carbonation and minimal hops. I prefer to stick with noble hops such as Saaz, Hallertau, or Tettnang. Traditionally, breweries also use Styrian Goldings and in a pinch, other varieties such as Mount Hood, Liberty, or Kent Goldings are fine as well. I prefer a single large charge of low alpha hops near the beginning of the boil. The flavor of that early addition can carry through and will provide a subtle hop character. Nowadays more brewers are experimenting with increased hop character in all beers, but I would avoid going with late additions in this style. The bitterness-to-starting gravity ratio (IBU divided by original gravity) ranges between 0.2 and 0.4, although most brewers will want to target approximately 0.3 unless you are getting a very dry finish from fermentation.
The characteristic fruity/spicy flavors and aromas of this style come from fermentation, not from the addition of fruits or spices. While some brewers may try to fake a Belgian dubbel by fermenting with their standard house yeast and adding spices, the problem is that spices will never really take the place of proper yeast selection and fermentation. You cannot fake the subtle complexity that comes from fermentation with spice additions. It is better to focus on perfecting fermentation.
There are several great yeast strains for brewing this style, but two of my favorites are White Labs WLP530 (Abbey Ale) and Wyeast 1762 (Belgian Abbey II). Other excellent choices are White Labs WLP500 (Trappist Ale), WLP540 (Abbey IV Ale Yeast), WLP545 (Belgian Strong Ale), WLP550 (Belgian Ale Yeast), Wyeast 3787 (Trappist High Gravity), and Wyeast (1214 Belgian Abbey). You cannot go wrong with any of these yeast strains. When selecting yeast, keep in mind that this style is more about the fruity notes than spicy phenols. Whatever strain you use, remember that your fermentation conditions affect what flavors and aromas the yeast produce. Pitching rate, oxygen level, nutrients, and temperature are like dials on your control panel of fermentation flavor. Getting the right settings is your job as a brewer.
One question that many brewers have about Belgian beers is fermentation temperature. Often homebrewers will say, “Brewery X ferments their beer at XX °F, so that is the fermentation temperature I use.” However, that most likely will not be the right temperature for you, if you are trying to make a beer like theirs. Temperature is only one of many fermentation parameters. For example, fermenter height plays a role in flavor development, with very tall fermen-ters (like big commercial cylindroconical types) suppressing ester and fusel alcohol production. The shape of the brewery’s fermenters, their pitching rates, their oxygen levels, their yeast collection and repitching methods may all be different from yours, which changes the production of esters, fusel alcohols and other aspects of fermentation. When you use the same fermentation temperature in your brewery with disregard for the other parameters, you may end up with fruit salad dissolved in paint thinner. Well, maybe not that bad, but pretty darn close. Do not let “how the classic brewery does it” determine your process unless you are using the same equipment and methods. Instead, get to know the beer style intimately and work on adjusting your process until you are making an outstanding example. It might take many tries and a vastly different process for you to achieve those results, but that is the fun of homebrewing.
With most of these yeasts I recommend pitching at a rate of 0.75 million cells per milliliter per degree Plato (see the pitching rate calculator at www.mrmalty.com for help in calculating this for your beer). Pitch the yeast and allow 12 to 36 hours for the majority of yeast growth, then ramp up the temperature for the rest of fermentation to ensure good attenuation. For example, pitch the yeast at 68 °F (20 °C) and at the end of the next day slowly begin raising the temperature each day. Try to end up at 72 °F (22 °C) by the last 1⁄3 of fermentation. Depending on the yeast strain and other parameters, you may find a higher or lower temperature or a faster or slower rise in temperature gives you the ideal result, so do not be afraid to tweak things until you get it right.
One concern with any Belgian beer, especially if you use a high percentage of specialty malts, is getting enough attenuation to avoid a finish that is too sweet. Many brewers go with lower and lower mash temperatures in an attempt to achieve this, but that is not always the problem. It is not an issue of long chain dextrins. Those dextrins are not very sweet and they can be present in a dry beer. The important thing is to make sure you ferment out as much of the simpler sugars completely.
If you leave a lot of unfermented maltose, then the beer is going to taste sweet, even though it might attenuate well. The key to getting enough attenuation is starting with a healthy pitch of yeast, aerating or oxygenating properly, and controlling fermentation temperatures.
Oxygen is important to yeast health and is necessary for fermentation to reach terminal gravity in a reasonable amount of time. However, too much or too little oxygen can have unintended consequences, so adding the right amount of oxygen is important. That is difficult for many homebrewers, but you should try to control the amount of oxygen added by measuring timing and flow rate. The amount of oxygen required is a balancing act and can result in excessively high or low esters and fusel alcohols. If you are using air, there is no chance of over-aerating your wort, but there is a chance of under-aerating. If you are using oxygen with a sintered stone, a good starting point for 5 gallons (19 L) is a flow of 1 quart (1 L) per minute for 1 minute. You might go up or down from there, as experience shows you what is right for your brewing. Over aeration can result in solvent-like flavors. Under aeration often results in a lack of attenuation, resulting in too sweet a finish.
If you are having trouble getting a beer with simple sugars in the recipe to attenuate enough, one trick that might help is waiting until fermentation is nearly done before adding the sugar. Waiting until fermentation has started to slow is like telling your kids to finish their dinner before they can have dessert. If you do not do that, sometimes they will fill up on dessert first and have little desire to eat their dinner afterwards. When I do this I dissolve the sugar in just enough boiling water to make a syrup. Once it cools, I add it to the beer. The yeast will consume simple sugars first before they consume maltose. Adding the simple sugars later ensures that the yeast consume as much maltose as possible before the simple sugars.
If your beer is attenuating properly but still tastes sweeter than it should, it might be fermentation-related compounds that are making it seem too sweet. If that is the case, then you need to revisit your fermentation parameters and/or try a different yeast strain.
Belgian Dubbel
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.065 FG = 1.012
IBU = 20 SRM = 19 ABV = 7%
Ingredients
11 lbs. (5 kg) continental Pilsner malt (2 °L)
1.1 lbs. (0.5 kg) caramel Munich malt (80 °L)
1.1 lbs. (0.5 kg) dark Belgian candi syrup (90 °L)
4.4 AAU Tettnang pellet hops (60 min.)
(1.1 oz./31 g at 4% alpha acid)
Irish moss (15 min.)
White Labs WLP530 (Abbey Ale) or Wyeast 1762 (Belgian Abbey II) yeast
2⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Belgian Pilsner malt would be the natural choice for the base malt, but I use what I have on hand, which is Best Malz Pilsen. The caramel Munich 80 I use is from Malteries Franco-Belges. Feel free to substitute any high-quality malt of a similar flavor and color from a different supplier. The dark Belgian candi sugar I use is D-90 from Candi Syrup Inc. My hops are in pellet form and come from Hop Union, Crosby Hop Farm, or Hopsteiner depending on the variety.
Mill the grains and dough-in targeting a mash of around 1.5 quarts of water to 1 pound of grain (a liquor-to-grist ratio of about 3:1 by weight) and a temperature of 150 °F (66 °C). Hold the mash at 150 °F (66 °C) until enzymatic conversion is complete. With the low mash temperature, you may need to lengthen the rest time to 90 minutes or more to get full conversion. Infuse the mash with near-boiling water while stirring or with a recirculating mash system raise the temperature to mash out at 168 °F (76 °C). Sparge slowly with 170 °F (77 °C) water. Mix in the candi syrup as you collect the wort. The pre-boil kettle volume should be around 6.5 gallons (25 L) and the gravity should be 1.051. If you prefer to add the candi syrup later in the boil, the pre-boil gravity with just the mash would be 1.045.
The total wort boil time for this recipe is 90 minutes, which helps reduce the S-Methyl Methionine (SMM) present in the lightly kilned Pilsner malt and results in less Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS) in the finished beer. Add the bittering hops with 60 minutes left in the boil. Add Irish moss or other kettle finings if you would like with 15 minutes left in the boil. Chill the wort rapidly to 68 °F (20 °C), let the break material settle, rack to the fermenter, pitch the yeast and aerate thoroughly.
You will need two packages of liquid yeast or, alternatively, you can make a 2.5 qt. (2.5 L) starter from 1 package. Pitch yeast at 68 °F (20 °C), aerate or oxygenate, and let the temperature rise slowly to 72 °F (22 °C) by the last 1⁄3 of fermentation. Ferment until the yeast drops clear. With healthy yeast, the bulk of fermentation should be complete in a week, but do not rush it. It is important for the beer to attenuate fully. When finished, carbonate the beer to approximately 2.5 volumes and serve at 45-50 °F (7-10 °C).
Belgian Dubbel
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.065 FG = 1.012
IBU = 20 SRM = 19 ABV = 7%
Ingredients
7.7 lbs. (3.5 kg) Pilsner liquid malt extract (2 °L)
1.1 lbs. (0.5 kg) caramel Munich malt (80 °L)
1.1 lbs. (0.5 kg) dark Belgian candi syrup (90 °L)
4.4 AAU Tettnang pellet hops (60 min.)
(1.1 oz./31 g at 4% alpha acid)
Irish moss (15 min.)
White Labs WLP530 (Abbey Ale) or Wyeast 1762 (Belgian Abbey II) yeast
2⁄3 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
I use a Pilsner-type liquid malt extract custom made for my homebrew shop from 100% Durst Pilsner malt, but feel free to substitute any high quality malt extract of a similar flavor and color. Always choose the freshest extract that fits the beer style. Freshness is vital for a great beer. If you cannot get fresh liquid malt extract, it is better to use an appropriate amount of dry malt extract instead, since it does not oxidize nearly as fast and tends to be fresher. My caramel Munich 80 comes from Malteries Franco-Belges. Feel free to substitute any high-quality malt of a similar flavor and color from a different supplier. The dark Belgian candi sugar I use is D-90 from Candi Syrup Inc. My hops are in pellet form and come from Hop Union, Crosby Hop Farm, or Hopsteiner depending on the variety.
Mill or coarsely crack the caramel Munich and place in a grain bag. Avoid packing the grains too tightly in the bag, using more bags if needed. Steep the bag in about 1 gallon (~4 liters) of water at 160 °F (71 °C) for about 60 minutes. Lift the grain bag out of the steeping liquid and rinse with more warm water. Allow the bag to drip into the kettle for a few minutes while you add the malt extract. Do not squeeze the bags. Add the candi syrup, malt extract, and enough water to the steeping liquor to make a pre-boil volume of 6 gallons (23 L) and a gravity of 1.054. Stir thoroughly to help dissolve the extract and bring to a boil.
The total wort boil time is 60 minutes. Add the bittering hops when the wort comes to a boil. Add Irish moss or other kettle finings with 15 minutes left in the boil. Chill the wort rapidly to 68 °F (20 °C), let the break material settle, rack to the fermenter, pitch the yeast and aerate thoroughly.
Follow the fermentation and packaging instructions for the all-grain version of this recipe.
