Belgian Dubbel

Yesterday was a cold day of busy Rowdy Reptile activity. It's been a very warm winter with the average highs seeming to always be in the 50's, but whenever I decide to brew we always seem to cool down and get snow the day of or day before. This time was no exception. I actually had to wear socks inside my mocasin-like shoes along with my heavy winter coat instead of my normal liner to stay comfortable yesterday.

We made our 2nd attempt at a Belgian Dubbel with a slight change from last time. Instead of using turbinado sugar we used a pound of homemade candi sugar that will hopefully add some dark fruit flavors and additional caramel notes that the turbinado would not add. This dubbel is a little lower in gravity than the previous one (OG of 1060 vs 1069) as I thought 7.3% alcohol was too much for a dubbel. This one should be about 6.5% which I think will make it a little more drinkable.

On another note, I was also able to bottle the Rye Saison while the Dubbel was boiling. Unfortunately, I am nervous about this beer after tasting a sample during the bottling. It has an off-flavor that I think tastes like bubblegum. The likely source is the yeast creating esters as a result of too high of fermentation temperatures. However, with this saison strain, that should not have happened. We fermented the beer for about 8-9 days at 71, and then it finished in Cooper's bathroom at ~77 for the next two weeks. I have read of people pushing this yeast into the high 80s and not have complaints of these off-flavors. Hopefully, they'll go down a bit while in the bottle, or a I fear it will end up sitting in the garage for an extended period of time before we eventually dump it. The tripel, while having the same off-flavors, is dwindling, but only because we use it to cook with in place of white wine. The saison likely wont't be as good a cooking beer, so if it isn't drinkable, then it might have to be dumped.