Brew #33: Belgian Dubbel 3, November 14, 2015

I wanted to make another Belgian Dubbel because the first 2 (#13 and #22) were among my favorite brews so far. But by this point I couldn't let myself make a third identical version of the same recipe. Because it was the middle of November, I wanted to make a "winter" verison, toning up the dark malts and the ABV.  I didn't make any changes to the hops or yeast.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5.25 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.070 (1.071)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.011 (1.011)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (71%)
IBUs: 28
Color: 32.4 SRM
Style: Belgian Dubbel
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
9 lbs Belgian Pilsner
1 lb Special B
2 lb Caramunich
1 lb Caramel 60L
1 lb Dark Candi Sugar

Hops:
1oz Northern Brewer (pellets) @ 60 min.
1 oz Hersbrucker (pellets) @ 10 min.

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.

Yeast:
WLP500 Monastery Ale Yeast

Brewing Notes
11/11/15 - Yeast Starter:
2 Liter yeast starter: 7c of water, 7oz Extra light DME, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature. Fermented on a stir plate. 500 likes to lag, so the starter took 2 days before it got started.

11/14/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 16.25 quarts of water with PH 5.2 to 168 F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls. 70 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 151F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 149-151F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 149-151F
• 70 minutes, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Ran off and fly sparged with 16.75 quarts of 190F with pH 5.2 water
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Brought to boil - 60 minute boil time
• Added:
  1oz Northern Brewer (pellets) @ 60 min.
  1 Tab Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
  1 oz Hersbrucker (pellets) @ 10 min.
• Chilled  and siphoned to BMB,
• Took an OG brix reading of 17.6% which calculated to to 1.071.
• Pitched entire yeast starter

11/14 - 11/22/15 - Primary Fermentation:
Siphoned to Secondary on 11/22. Brix was 9.0%? which calculated to 1.014. It was very blurry.

11/22 - 12/15/15 - Secondary Fermentation

12/15/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled with 4.6 oz of corn sugar in 2 C water.  Measurement was 8.6% Brix which translated to 1.011 FG, 7.9%.

Tasting:
This is good but not as good as the previous two.  The yeast character is great, but I think I overdid it on the Special B.  I find this one too raisiny.