Belgian Dubbel: Rich, Fruity 20-Litre Abbey Ale Homebrew Recipe

The Belgian dubbel is the beer that Trappist monks made famous: a deep reddish-brown ale, strong but never heavy, with flavours of raisin, plum, toffee, brown bread and a gentle warmth of clove and pepper from the yeast. It is rich without being sweet, and dry enough that a 7% beer slips down far more easily than it has any right to. The style was shaped at the Westmalle abbey in the first half of the twentieth century and is still brewed by most of the Trappist breweries today. The secret is not a cupboard of speciality malts but a simple grist, a splash of dark candi syrup and an expressive Belgian yeast left to warm up as it works. Get those three things right and you can brew a dubbel at home that would not look out of place in a monastery café.

Recipe at a Glance

• Batch size: 20 litres into the fermenter

• Original gravity (OG): 1.065

• Final gravity (FG): 1.012

• ABV: approx. 7.0%

• Bitterness: approx. 22 IBU (Tinseth)

• Colour: deep ruby to chestnut brown

• Brewhouse efficiency assumed: 70%

Equipment Needed

• Brew kettle of at least 30 litres (or an all-in-one electric system)

• Mash tun, or a large grain bag for brew-in-a-bag (BIAB)

• Fermenting vessel of at least 25 litres with an airlock (Belgian yeast can produce a lively, foamy fermentation, so leave plenty of headspace)

• Hydrometer and trial jar

• Digital thermometer

• Wort chiller or an ice bath

• A way to keep the fermenter warm towards the end of fermentation, such as a heat belt or a warm room

• No-rinse sanitiser

• Sturdy bottles (about 40 x 500ml, or Belgian-style 330ml or 750ml bottles) and caps or corks, or a keg

Ingredients (20 Litres)

Grains (all-grain)

• 4.6 kg Pilsner malt (Belgian if you can find it)

• 500 g Munich malt

• 250 g Special B malt (the classic Belgian dark crystal, for raisin and dark fruit)

• 200 g CaraMunich malt (around 120 EBC)

Sugar

• 500 g dark Belgian candi syrup (around 180 SRM, sometimes sold as D-180 or D-90 for a lighter version), added in the last 10 minutes of the boil

• No candi syrup? Use 400 g dark brown sugar or a homemade caramelised sugar syrup. You will lose a little of the dried-fruit character, but it will still make a very good beer

Extract option

• 3.0 kg extra light dry malt extract in place of the Pilsner and Munich malts

• Steep the Special B and CaraMunich in about 4 litres of water at 66–68°C for 30 minutes in a grain bag, lift them out, then top up the kettle

• Add half the extract at the start of the boil and the rest, along with the candi syrup, for the last 15 minutes

Hops

• 40 g Styrian Golding (around 4–5% alpha acid) at 60 minutes

• 15 g Hallertauer Mittelfrüh or Tettnanger at 15 minutes

• Hops are only there to balance the malt and sugar. You should barely notice them, so avoid anything citrusy or resinous

Yeast and Extras

• A Belgian abbey ale yeast: WLP530 Abbey Ale, Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey, Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity, SafAle BE-256 or LalBrew Abbaye

• Make a starter for liquid yeast, or use two sachets of dry yeast. A healthy pitch matters at this gravity

• Half a Protofloc or Whirlfloc tablet at 15 minutes

• Yeast nutrient at 10 minutes (optional but helpful)

• Priming sugar if bottling: see Packaging below

Mashing

1. Heat about 16 litres of strike water to around 71°C (or follow your system’s calculator).

2. Mash in and hold at 65°C for 75 minutes. A lower, longer mash makes a more fermentable wort, which is what keeps a dubbel dry and drinkable rather than cloying.

3. Raise to 76°C for 10 minutes to mash out, if your system allows.

4. Sparge with water at 76–78°C to collect around 27 litres of wort in the kettle.

The Boil

1. Bring the wort to a rolling boil and boil for 90 minutes. Pilsner malt benefits from a longer boil to drive off DMS, which can taste like sweetcorn.

2. Add the Styrian Golding with 60 minutes left.

3. Add the Hallertauer or Tettnanger and the Protofloc tablet with 15 minutes left.

4. With 10 minutes left, turn off the heat briefly and stir in the candi syrup so it does not catch on the bottom of the kettle, then bring it back to the boil. Add yeast nutrient now if using.

5. At the end of the boil, chill the wort as quickly as you can to about 18°C and transfer it to a sanitised fermenter. Aerate well by splashing or shaking, as Belgian yeast needs plenty of oxygen at the start.

Fermentation

1. Pitch the yeast at 18°C and hold it there for the first two to three days, while fermentation is at its most vigorous. Starting cool keeps the fusel, hot-alcohol flavours in check.

2. From around day three, let the temperature rise slowly to 22–24°C. This free rise is the Belgian way: it brings out the gentle fruit and spice and helps the yeast finish the job.

3. Hold it warm until the gravity reads around 1.012 on three days in a row. That usually takes 10 to 14 days in total. Do not package early, as a dubbel that has not finished will over-carbonate in the bottle.

4. If you can, cool the fermenter for a few days to help the yeast settle before packaging.

Packaging and Conditioning

Belgian ales are traditionally lively, at around 2.7–2.8 volumes of CO₂. For 20 litres that is roughly 140 g of dextrose dissolved in a little boiled water, but check the figure for your beer’s temperature with our homebrew calculator. Use sturdy bottles: thin, single-use bottles are not designed for this pressure. If you keg, carbonate to the same level. Leave bottles at around 20°C for two to three weeks to carbonate, then store them cool. Unlike a hoppy pale ale, a dubbel gets better with time: it is good at four weeks, very good at two to three months, and will happily keep for a year.

Tasting Notes and Tips

• What to expect: a deep ruby-brown beer with a dense, off-white head, an aroma of raisins, plums and dark bread with a hint of clove, a rich malty middle with toffee and dried fruit, and a surprisingly dry, gently warming finish.

• Do not skip the sugar: it might feel like cheating, but the candi syrup is what lifts the strength while keeping the body light. Replacing it with more malt gives a heavier, sweeter beer.

• Control the start of fermentation: most problems with Belgian beers, such as solvent or nail-varnish flavours, come from fermenting too warm in the first couple of days. Start cool, then let it rise.

• Be patient: young dubbel can taste a little hot and disjointed. Give it a couple of months and the flavours knit together.

• Make it your own: once you are happy with this recipe, try pushing the gravity up and adding more dark syrup to head towards a quadrupel, or drop the dark malts and use pale sugar to explore a tripel.

Dubbel vs Brown Ale vs Porter

All three are brown, but they taste very different. An English brown ale is lower in strength, nutty and biscuity, with a clean British yeast. A porter gets its colour from roasted and chocolate malts, so it tastes of coffee and cocoa. A dubbel has almost no roast at all: its colour and flavour come from dark crystal malt and caramelised sugar, and the Belgian yeast adds fruit and spice. Think fruit cake rather than coffee.

Food Pairing

A dubbel is one of the best beers to drink with food. Try it with a Flemish beef and beer stew, slow-braised lamb shank, sticky pork ribs, game, mushroom dishes, washed-rind or aged cheeses, or a slice of sticky toffee pudding. At around 7%, it is a beer to sip and savour, so serve it in a goblet or tulip glass and enjoy it slowly.