Belgian style Dubbel with Figs & Honey

The plan is to brew a big, chewy Belgian style Dubbel with Figs and Honey. The style is known for deep caramel and dark fruit flavors and an abv above 8%. Traditionally brewed by Trappist Monks the style is now emulated around the world and often referred to as a Belgian style Strong Dark ale. Some would argue that Belgian style Dubbel and Belgian style Strong Dark ales are different, but they're darn close in flavor profiles with only slight differences in my opinion.

In my riff on the style today I'll be adding honey which will add gravity to the beer while the Figs will enhance the raisin and toffee malt flavors derived from the specialty malts used in the grist bill. I brewed a Belgian style Dubbel in April of 2009 (post has more history about the style). The beer was okay with nice ale fruit flavors and slightly phenolic, but finished too dry and was too thin to be a good Dubbel. So I've added over a pound

of Weyermann Carahell malt as well as some CaraPils to the grist bill to provide unfermentable sugars to the wort thus creating more body in the finished beer. I'll also be mashing in warmer, 155*f, which also provides more body to the finished beer compared to mashing in at a lower temperature, 148*f for example. Even just a few degrees difference (149f-156*f, dry to sweet) in mash rest will affect your final gravity by at least half a degree Plato. So when planning a recipe remember that your mash rest temperature is another tool that can be used in creating the flavors your after in the final beer.

Recipe: American Pale Malt, Munich Malt, CaraMunich, CaraHell, CaraPils, Dark Crystal Malt, and Chocolate Malt. Hopped with Super Galena to balance. Fermented with White Labs WLP550 Belgain Ale yeast from A'Chouffe brewery in Belgium.

Belgian Dubbel

From Wikipedia describing the style of Belgian Dubbel. "The dubbel (also double) is a Belgian beer naming convention. The origin of the dubbel was a beer brewed in the Trappist Abbey of Westmalle in 1856. The abbey had, since 10 December 1836, brewed a witbier that was quite sweet and light in alcohol for consumption by the paters. The new beer, however, was a strong version of a brown beer. In 1926, the formulation was changed and it became even stronger. The first written record of its sale by the abbey was on 1 June 1861. Following World War Two, abbey beers became popular in Belgium and the name "dubbel" was used by several breweries. Today, the name dubbel is used in Belgium to refer to an ale, usually brownish in colour, with a strength greater than a pilsner, for example, yet milder than a tripel."


Above in the picture I'm mashing in. In the recipe I used Belgian Pilsner malt, wheat malt, dark munich malt, and belgian special B. Also used dark belgian candi sugar and raisons in the kettle. A little lighter in color than I was hoping for but still had a nice scarlet hue. Fermenting vigoursly on second generation high gravity trappist yeast in the cellar. Fermenting around seventy two degrees. Looking forward to bottling this one and giving it some age. I need more fermentation vessels.


To right is the dubble in primary FV. Nearly complete fermentation. A strong krausen is going to be fun to clean, as seen. Going to be racking to 2nd FV soon, next couple of days. Once I start to see activity slow and the yeast begin to settle then I'll rack.

Racked the dubbel. Tasted good. Hot from the alcohols. Going to need age to smooth out. Good dark fruit character. A light brown ruby color. Need to get that dark scarlet brown color to be a true dubbel.