I always use white labs for my yeast and really any of the Belgian strains will work well. I'm about to brew a dubbel as well and I choose the wlp500 monastery ale. Gives a great plum/stone fruit flavor. Cool to 65° and let it ride up on its own, I've let my Belgian strains get as high as 80°
Dry yeast should be rehydrated before pitching. I don't know if you did that by what you said. If you didn't I would bet that is exactly why it took so long to start. If you did it could have been an old pack with poor viability.
My brother and I have done over 30 all grain batches, we can't...
Just bought my first freezer to turn into a keezer. The plan is to have 2 Co2 taps and 1 nitro tap. I'm using a Ranco etc 111000 digital cold temp controller. I cut out the bottom three shelves so I had enough space for 3 kegs or two carboys. I'm going to drill through the side wall for my gas...
I have a feeling your insulation is protecting your carboy from absorbing the ambient air temp. I would trust your probe that's taped to the carboy. Keep in mind it's warmer in the center of the carboy. Fermi wraps work great for this because it transfers the heat directly through contact...