Cluster Extract Dubbel Brew Session

Brew Session Info

1/11/2019
(Include any important notes from brew day until tasting)

Beginning the grain cold steep the day before with a little over 2 quarts of water, which will be added to the fermentor and the wort racked on top when at least 165F. Final temp in the fermentor after everything was pitched in is 163F. Just a bit under 2 hours, start to finish, for the entire brew day. 1/12 - pitched yeast at 78F in the morning, though I failed to take a gravity reading so I will use whatever the calculated value is. 12 hours after pitching, the airlock bubbling is going strong. Added 0.5lb of brown sugar at high krausen to bump ABV to within BJCP guidelines for a Dubbel so that I can submit this to a comp, possibly. 1/22 - bottled today. Pycnometer shows 1.0057. Sample tasted lifeless to some extent, no real character to describe other than a bit of dark fruit. The BE-256 yeast looked like egg drop soup, very chunky. I bottled 5 750mL Belgian bottles with corks and cages, adding 2 extra carb drops; I'd suspect then that these Belgian bottles have about 5 volumes of CO2. 1/27 - Popped a bottle today. Granted, it is not done conditioning, but this beer sucks, just lifeless without any discernible phenolic flavor. I'll give it another week or 2 before I do an "official" review.

Boil

Boil

NaN (estimated)
3.5 gallons liters 0.00 (gallonsliters estimated)
30 minutes minutes (30 minutes estimated)
3.5 gals liters

Gravity Estimates

Based on boiling 3.50 gallonsliters at NaN for 30 minutes, this will decrease your wort by 0.00 gallonsliters, bringing your after boil OG to NaN.

You wanted an OG of 1.061. It looks like it will be over.

Fermentation

3.5 gallons liters 3.25 (gallonsliters estimated)
1.061 (1.061 predicted)
1.006 (1.006 predicted)

Conditioning

1/22/2019
10
Dextrose
4 oz g

Tasting Notes (1)
CheeseNips

Tasted on 2/25/2019 by CheeseNips

Notes:

Pours 2 fingers of foam, very dark brown to the point of being black. Aroma is sweet yeast with a touch of toast. Flavor is burnt dark sugar and fruit along with yeast phenols to a low extent, then the flavor morphs into dates and roasty ash, ending with a misplaced bitterness. Body is medium and there is quite a bit of nucleation sharpness. Overall, the aroma is great but the flavor has something to be desired, essentially the flavor is dominated by burnt sugar and then ash, which is not what I care for. This is too dark for a dubbel, so I'm going for 2 stars as it doesn't achieve what I'm looking for.

Recipe Facts

Cluster Extract Dubbel
Belgian Dubbel
  • 3.25 Gallons Liters Batch Size
  • 3.50 Gallons Liters Boil Size
  • 30  min Boil Time
  • 1.061 OG
  • 1.006 FG
  • 20.9 IBU (tinseth) Bitterness
  • 0.34 BG:GU
  • 26.9° SRM Color
  • 85% Efficiency
  • 7.1% ABV Alcohol
  • 203 per 12oz Calories
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