Greg Hughes Belgian Dubbel advice

Redwulf · Mar 4, 2021

I'm planning to brew the Belgian Dubbel from Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer and I don't think the hop additions are quite right.

The recipe in the book calls for

35g Hersbruker @ 60 Mins.
35g Tettnang @ 15 mins.

Sticking it into the GF calculator thats about 60 IBUs which sounds like far too much.

Has anyone brewed this and what hop additions did you use?

Zephyr259 · Mar 5, 2021

That sounds a bit high, what alpha acids do your hersbruker have? I made a similar Dubbel that used 15g of Styrian Goldings at about 5% and that gave me 16 IBU in a 10L batch, so 35g in a 23L batch should be a similar amount.

Brewnaldo · Mar 6, 2021

Redwulf said:
I'm planning to brew the Belgian Dubbel from Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer and I don't think the hop additions are quite right.

The recipe in the book calls for

35g Hersbruker @ 60 Mins.
35g Tettnang @ 15 mins.

Sticking it into the GF calculator thats about 60 IBUs which sounds like far too much.

Has anyone brewed this and what hop additions did you use?

I have brewed this and went by the book. I dont really know about IBU tbh, as in having an idea what x number will taste like but this isnt a bitter brew at all. Yeast is the dominant flavour. I did swap out the yeast though for wyeast Belgian high gravity

steve123 · Mar 6, 2021

I’ve just put the figures in brewers friend and the ibu’s coming out about 20, I took the default setting of the aa, and based it on 23L

Redwulf · Mar 6, 2021

Brewnaldo said:
I have brewed this and went by the book. I dont really know about IBU tbh, as in having an idea what x number will taste like but this isnt a bitter brew at all. Yeast is the dominant flavour. I did swap out the yeast though for wyeast Belgian high gravity

I've gone for the Belgian High Gravity too after a bit of research. How long did you condition yours for?

Checked my Hersbruker and 3.2% alpha. The one in the Grainfather app is about 16% so thats the problem. All fixed now and I'm going to brew it tomorrow.

Brewnaldo · Mar 7, 2021

Redwulf said:
I've gone for the Belgian High Gravity too after a bit of research. How long did you condition yours for?

Checked my Hersbruker and 3.2% alpha. The one in the Grainfather app is about 16% so thats the problem. All fixed now and I'm going to brew it tomorrow.

Just checked it's been in the bottle for 31 days. I haven't drank much of it but it is good and I would recommend brewing it to anyone who likes the Belgian style. My OG/FG were both low so still got it to about 6.8% but possibly not got the body it should have.