So, my amazingly cool boss, Rob Morrison, wanted to brew a Belgian Dubbel.
Rob "The Stud" Morrison
No problem, I told him. Grabbed my clone recipe book, we flipped through it, and we decided on doing the clone of Ommegang Abbey Ale. Wanting to know what I’m brewing, I of course grabbed a bottle for Rob and I to share.
Ommegang Abbey Ale
We also decided to double the recipe, because 5 gallons between two guys just isn’t enough beer!
So, with double in mind, I went to Steinbarts and grabbed all the grains I needed as well as the licorice and orange peel.
Ommegang Recipe
Abbey Dubbel Ingredients
We didn’t use the all grain recipe, we used the grains + extract recipe. We started mashing the grains at 124 and slowly raised it to 144 and then to 169.
Rob adding grains
Oh, blessed grains!
Oh, what a beautiful sight!
We, of course, had some additional help with stirring the grains.
Greggory stirring grains
Once the mashing was done we slowly began pouring the wort into our sparge bucket. And, of course, neither of us was paying attention to the liquid level in the bucket. Needless to say, some wort was wasted. I wish I could say that was the only mess we made….
Grain spill
After laudering and sparging the grains, we began the wort boiling and washed the laudering bucket, as I wanted to use that for fermenting. Rob wanted to get a small sample of the wort first.
Rob sampling the wort
Now time for the boil! We got the wort started on high heat and began to get our adjuncts ready. The recipe calls for bitter orange peel and licorice. We used Kent Goldings with Fuggles for bittering hops and Kent Goldings for aroma.
Licorice and orange peel
Hop pellets and orange peel
Started the boil with the bittering hops and corn sugar. Boiled the wort for 45 minutes, then added the orange peel and licorice. For good measure, I also added some Irish moss.
Adding corn sugar
Kate, our extra help
The 15 minute mark also called for the addition of our liquid malt extract. Two Pilsener malt kits went into our wort as late additions.
Adding Pilsener malt extract
Once the boil was done, we strained the hops and other goodies out and added it evenly to our fermenters. We topped off both with water, stuck the lids and airlocks on them and put them in the corner to cool.
Today I aerated the beer and pitched the yeast. Initial gravity was 1.086. Should be a potent beer!
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