I did a 5 gallon kit for a Belgian dubbel and found the steep of the Belgian special b grain didn't give me enough plum/raisiny quality that I like. I will be trying a 2 gallon batch soon... and want to double the spec b to 4% of the grain bill. hopefully i'll be doing this as my first all grain attempt once I get my blichman burner.
would 4% be too much?
also, I am looking at a mill called Cereal Killer. anyone use this? any good?
increasing spec B in belgian dubbel?
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Re: increasing spec B in belgian dubbel?
My current dubbel recipe could also stand to get a little more of that plum/raisin flavor, and has 4% special B in it already (2.5 gallon recipe). I think bumping it up to 6% might give it the strength of flavor desired. The only other thing that could be done to help increase that flavor is doing a decoction mash, but with my setup, it's a bit of a hassle to do one because it's harder to keep mash temp up. Maybe a pseudo-decoction (a la mashani) by pulling some of the finished wort and boiling it to reduce to a syrup and then adding it back to the original wort might be a good halfway point.
Re: increasing spec B in belgian dubbel?
Try D-180L Candi syrup (not the crappy candi rocks). I don't use Special B in most of my dubbels/quads any more for the most part, even if I do use any, I use D-180L or a mixture of D-90 and D-180L.
2# of D-180L in a quad made with just that and a mix of 40% Belgian pale malt (152 mash) and 60% pils (more beer extract in my case) by gravity contribution, and 2L starter of 3787 made the closest thing to Westvleteren I've ever made. I used just Hallertau and Hersbrucker hops. I did do a pseudo decoction - separate a bit of the boil into a smaller pot and boil separately to caramelize that wort, then re-integrate into the full boil once it got to a flavor I liked. I fed the D-180L 1 bag at a time in 2 feedings, day 3 and day 7 I think. It had no special b, no other specialty malts, and it was really dang good.
EDIT: I'm going to make it again this summer btw. I need higher temps. So, the temps for this, I started fermentation at 68, let it free rise to 80 at the peak of primary fermentation - it was around there when I tossed in the first bag of D-180L - then let it fall back into the low 70s to finish.
EDIT EDIT: To me, too much special b doesn't just bring more dark fruit to the party, but it contributes other flavors that don't belong. It's not as smooth as the candi syrup, with which you can crank up the dark fruit without bringing those other flavors. That smoothness is why I totally switched for the most part, it's more spendy, but it makes better beer IMHO.
2# of D-180L in a quad made with just that and a mix of 40% Belgian pale malt (152 mash) and 60% pils (more beer extract in my case) by gravity contribution, and 2L starter of 3787 made the closest thing to Westvleteren I've ever made. I used just Hallertau and Hersbrucker hops. I did do a pseudo decoction - separate a bit of the boil into a smaller pot and boil separately to caramelize that wort, then re-integrate into the full boil once it got to a flavor I liked. I fed the D-180L 1 bag at a time in 2 feedings, day 3 and day 7 I think. It had no special b, no other specialty malts, and it was really dang good.
EDIT: I'm going to make it again this summer btw. I need higher temps. So, the temps for this, I started fermentation at 68, let it free rise to 80 at the peak of primary fermentation - it was around there when I tossed in the first bag of D-180L - then let it fall back into the low 70s to finish.
EDIT EDIT: To me, too much special b doesn't just bring more dark fruit to the party, but it contributes other flavors that don't belong. It's not as smooth as the candi syrup, with which you can crank up the dark fruit without bringing those other flavors. That smoothness is why I totally switched for the most part, it's more spendy, but it makes better beer IMHO.