the_zymologist
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- Joined
- Apr 24, 2013
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Hi all,
I recently decided to start getting into brewing Belgian beers and to start decided to brew my favorite style the Dubbel. I kept my grain bill fairly simple using 97.5% pale malt and 2.5% Special B. The hops were kept simple as well doing two additions of Hersbrucker for bittering and aroma. I also made some home made candi sugar using DAP and added 10 min before flame out (the syrup turned out great and had awesome caramel flavors).
I fermented with a 650mL starter of WLP540 and it took off right away at 68*F. It has been at this temp for about a week and last night it looked like the krausen had fallen so I took a hydrometer reading, I've dropped from 1.058 to 1.012 which I'm happy about (will leave for a bit longer to get those extra points if possible). However, I tasted the sample from my hydrometer and it seemed to taste a little bit grainy (which is typical of the green beers I've made with a decoction mash) but it really lacked the esters and dark fruit flavors I was looking for in this beer. I was curious if these flavors typically take longer to come through or if I've missed the boat by fermenting to low...
Thanks for the help!
I recently decided to start getting into brewing Belgian beers and to start decided to brew my favorite style the Dubbel. I kept my grain bill fairly simple using 97.5% pale malt and 2.5% Special B. The hops were kept simple as well doing two additions of Hersbrucker for bittering and aroma. I also made some home made candi sugar using DAP and added 10 min before flame out (the syrup turned out great and had awesome caramel flavors).
I fermented with a 650mL starter of WLP540 and it took off right away at 68*F. It has been at this temp for about a week and last night it looked like the krausen had fallen so I took a hydrometer reading, I've dropped from 1.058 to 1.012 which I'm happy about (will leave for a bit longer to get those extra points if possible). However, I tasted the sample from my hydrometer and it seemed to taste a little bit grainy (which is typical of the green beers I've made with a decoction mash) but it really lacked the esters and dark fruit flavors I was looking for in this beer. I was curious if these flavors typically take longer to come through or if I've missed the boat by fermenting to low...
Thanks for the help!