Norwich Amateur Brewers - Brew Like A Monk (14 October 2023)

[Alastair70]

View attachment 83150

... If it helps anyone

Oh my god, I’m glad that’s a thumb!

 

[Agentgonzo]

Oh my god, I’m glad that’s a thumb!

I really like BLAM!

 

[MartinHaworth]

I've just been looking at that water chart....and I've changed my plans.

Rather inspired by some of @Northern_Brewer 's words. I' m wondering if for my dubbel I should....

1. Hana as my main base malt (grown down the road from me in Norfolk - will have to then step mash)
2. Local water, probably just tweaking alkalinity + chlorine removal.
3. Have a go at making my own dark candi sugar
4. The National Collection of Yeast Cultures gave us (NAB) a very old heritage yeast a couple of years ago, and it was very sensitive to temperature and threw lots of complex belgian-flavours. I think some of the lads have kept it....I wonder....

For the other ingredients, I will have to use some speciality malts, and I will likely use dingemans, and I think I do want to use noble european hops hops.

REading the links that @Northern_Brewer posted, I'm interested in what NorwichBLAM might taste like. At least if I do that, then the beer will have some character from where I'm from.

 

[MartinHaworth]

ALso just re-read Gordon Strong's short chapter on judging Belgian Beers. Reckon we'll have that on the walls on the day...

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Well you're pretty ideally placed in Norfolk, with the NCYC, the best barley in the world, and no shortage of local sugar beet (although it looks like the Cantley factory is closed for the season after something major broke). All you need is some homegrown hops....

For the other ingredients, I will have to use some speciality malts, and I will likely use dingemans, and I think I do want to use noble european hops hops.

I used Simpson DRC in my Anglo-Rochefort as an approximate sub for Special B, and I'm sure you can find all sorts of funnies if you go looking in the depths of the maltster catalogues.

Belgium's historically ridden on the coattails of the Wye breeding programme as they were too small to have much of a programme of their own and the Wehrmacht kept disrupting things every so often. At one stage their hop acreage was about 70% Target so I wouldn't worry about using British, something like Flyer or Phoenix perhaps?

 

[Pennine]

Well you're pretty ideally placed in Norfolk, with the NCYC, the best barley in the world, and no shortage of local sugar beet (although it looks like the Cantley factory is closed for the season after something major broke). All you need is some homegrown hops....

I used Simpson DRC in my Anglo-Rochefort as an approximate sub for Special B, and I'm sure you can find all sorts of funnies if you go looking in the depths of the maltster catalogues.

Belgium's historically ridden on the coattails of the Wye breeding programme as they were too small to have much of a programme of their own and the Wehrmacht kept disrupting things every so often. At one stage their hop acreage was about 70% Target so I wouldn't worry about using British, something like Flyer or Phoenix perhaps?

These guys used to have a decent size hop garden, you could always hit them up for some.

https://starwingbrewery.com/starwing-brewery-beer/

 

[nickjdavis]

I've just been looking at that water chart....and I've changed my plans.

Rather inspired by some of @Northern_Brewer 's words. I' m wondering if for my dubbel I should....

1. Hana as my main base malt (grown down the road from me in Norfolk - will have to then step mash)
2. Local water, probably just tweaking alkalinity + chlorine removal.
3. Have a go at making my own dark candi sugar
4. The National Collection of Yeast Cultures gave us (NAB) a very old heritage yeast a couple of years ago, and it was very sensitive to temperature and threw lots of complex belgian-flavours. I think some of the lads have kept it....I wonder....

For the other ingredients, I will have to use some speciality malts, and I will likely use dingemans, and I think I do want to use noble european hops hops.

I've often found that Celeia (or other Styrian type hops) works well in Belgian type beers especially as a flavouring hop combined with German Brewers Gold as the main bittering hop.

 

[MartinHaworth]

I dunno why I bother writing recipes...

I was baking with jaggery this morning, and loving the depth of flavour it offers, so this afternoon I subbed out 10% or the dark candi for jaggery in a dubbel test brew.

Seemed like a good idea at the time!

 

[Agentgonzo]

I dunno why I bother writing recipes...

They're more like... guidelines

 

[MartinHaworth]

They're more like... guidelines

I see what you did there!

 

[MartinHaworth]

What an amazing start! BLAM has 80 entries + is now open to anyone who wants to bag a second entry! Second entries are £6. Norwich Amateur Brewers Brew Like a Monk Competition 2023

 

[dave_77]

What an amazing start! BLAM has 80 entries + is now open to anyone who wants to bag a second entry! Second entries are £6. Norwich Amateur Brewers Brew Like a Monk Competition 2023

I'm in for 2

 

[Deadhead]

Yeap! Figured out one thing to brew and now I add another. Because why make life easy!

 

[Twopan]

I dunno why I bother writing recipes...

I was baking with jaggery this morning, and loving the depth of flavour it offers, so this afternoon I subbed out 10% or the dark candi for jaggery in a dubbel test brew.

Seemed like a good idea at the time!

I am interested in trying to recreate a dubbel like Brugse Zot dubbel, which I like because it is drier than others. I have two Zot blond recipes which are quite similar, except the second version I have tried came out slightly darker. I have been advised that you can substitute dark candi sugar for light and this provides the dubbel character. Any tips please?

 

[MartinHaworth]

I am interested in trying to recreate a dubbel like Brugse Zot dubbel, which I like because it is drier than others. I have two Zot blond recipes which are quite similar, except the second version I have tried came out slightly darker. I have been advised that you can substitute dark candi sugar for light and this provides the dubbel character. Any tips please?

Hi @Twopan I've got nuthin'...hopefully there'll be someone along in a bit who knows a bit more than me! Good luck!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I am interested in trying to recreate a dubbel like Brugse Zot dubbel, which I like because it is drier than others.

Annoyingly the Roncoroni & Verstrepen book don't list FG's, but they also note the dry finish so you're probably looking at a diastatic yeast. They also note banana on the nose which is backed up by a lot of esters in the lab analysis, which sounds like maybe a hefe yeast fermented warm (22C or more?)

They measure ABV at 7.5% and calories at 57kcal/100ml so I guess you could probably guesstimate the residual sugar by working backwards from that. Colour is 73EBC and bitterness is 18 IBU (but note the example of XX Bitter above where the measured bitterness was a lot less than the number calculated in the recipe).

Nearest beers are Ename Dubbel, Troubadour Obscura, Bernardus 6, Troubadour Westkust and Affligem Dubbel, so looking for recipes for those might help get you in the ballpark. A lot will depend on the yeast though.

 

[Twopan]

Good steer thanks.

 

[MartinHaworth]

Last night a few fools gathered to sip some Belgian Dark Strong.

Thanks to Keith for the Gouden Carolus Imperial Dark - a classic example. We were amazed by how drinkable it was - complex certainly but never oily or heavy.

The temptation when attempting to brew a beer like this might be to over-do the grain bill, throwing the kitchen sink at it - but this classic example is both complex and restrained. Go figure!

Hope to get a few of these in the comp!

 

[nickjdavis]

I've got a bottle of the Gouden Carolus Imperial Dark in my garage....must get around to drinking it one day.

 

[An Ankoù]

Just had a Westmalle dubbel. No great shakes, to be honest. I'm glad I tried it though.