Water treated with brewing salts to our Balanced flavour profile: Ca=50, Mg=10, Na=16, Cl=70, SO4=70 (Hit minimums on Ca and Mg, keep the Cl:SO4 ratio low and equal. Do not favour flavour / maltiness or bitterness / dryness. For balanced beers.). While this balanced profile is our preference, for something closer to Westmalle water, in his book Brew like a Monk Stan Hieronymus indicates to use: Ca=41, Mg=8, Na=16, Cl=60, SO4=26. Try brewing it both ways and see which you prefer. For more information on how to adjust your water, refer to our step by step Water Adjustment guide.
1.25 qt/lb mash thickness.
Start the mash at 131F and hold for 10 mins (high end of the protein rest range).
Ramp up to 149F and hold for 90 mins (beta rest).
Ramp up to 155F and hold for 30 mins (alpha rest).
Raise to 168F mashout temperature and hold for 10 mins.
If your system does not allow for step mashes, try a single infusion mash at 150F for 90 mins, followed by a mashout to 168F for 10 mins (if possible).
~90 min fly sparge with ~5.6-5.8 pH water (measured at mash temperature). Collect 14.9 gallons.
Boil for 90 minutes, adding Whirlfloc, hops, and candi syrup per schedule. Lid on at flameout, start chilling immediately.
Cool the wort quickly to 62F (we use a one-pass convoluted counterflow chiller to quickly lock in hop flavour and aroma) and transfer to fermenter.
Oxygenate the chilled wort to a level of 14 ppm dissolved oxygen. For more information refer to our Aerating / Oxygenating Wort guide.
Pitch yeast and ferment at 64F (wort temperature), allowing temperature to rise to 70F over one week (raise 1 degree per day). We use modified stainless fermenting buckets in wine fridges.
Allow yeast to continue until finished. Do not allow temperature to drop. If yeast seems to be stalling, do not be afraid to raise temperature as high as 75F to ensure proper attenuation. Assume fermentation is done if the gravity does not change over ~3 days.
Rack to a brite tank (we use 5 gallon glass carboys) that has been purged with CO2 to avoid oxygen pickup, add 1 tsp of unflavoured gelatin dissolved in a cup of hot distilled water per 5 gallons of beer, and allow to clear for 2-3 days.
Package as you would normally. Though some will argue that a Dubbel should only be bottled, if we still had to bottle we wouldn't be brewing beer.
