Dubbel

Ahhh.. that's beer as Bacchus himself would have liked it, he would. One glass lasts hours - or you won't. Actually, I'm not sure whether this can be called a 'Dubbel'. It's sticky and dark, but very strong at over 8%. Even so a nice experiment, me thinks..
A little primer on monks and beer: the story goes that the old Belgian Trappist monks produced beer in 3 strengths: the Enkel (single), which would have been under 3%, the Dubbel (double), a dark ale which was 6-8%, and the Tripel (triple), a liquid gold to knock you out quickly. The monks held on to the single, for meals, and sold the double and triple for profit.

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Vat #2

Yields 23 l
Start SG: 1075
Alcohol: (8-9?)%

Ingredients

• 3 kg Extra Pale Malt Extract
• 1.5 kg Amber/CaraMalt Extract
• 500g cracked crystal malt grains
• 50g cracked roasted barley grains
• 25 g Pride of Ringwood hops pellets
• 30 g Tettnanger hops pellets
• 1 packet Ale yeast S-04 (11g)
• 15 g ammonium phosphate

Method

• One day in advance, boil enough water to bring the worts up to 23 liters. About 18 litres should do.
• Make a yeast starter from some malt syrup and a bit of the boiled and cooled water, and the yeast.
• Put the grains in a pan with 2.5 litres of boiling water and keep near boiling for ~35 minutes. Then sieve into the large worts pan. Use the remaining boiling fluid to rinse the grains in the sieve in order to extract the maximum flavour. Discard the spent grains.
• Boil the extracts in about 5 litres of water. Total boiling time: 60 minutes. You could add half of the Extra Pale malt first and the rest of the malts after 40 minutes, which would take about 10 minutes to do.
• Add the spices as the boiling evolves. Times in minutes before the end of the boiling.

  25g Pride of Ringwood	60 min (immediately)
  15g Tettnanger	10 min
  15g Tettnanger	1 min

• When the boiling time is over, strain the worts into the fermenter. Add the ammonium phosphate. Cool the worts as quickly as possible, e.g. by putting the fermenter in a tub filled with party ice. Add boiled and cooled water to make 23 litres. Add the yeast starter when the temperature of the worts is under 30 degrees.
• Fermentation at an average 30ºC: 30 days. Bottle when the SG nears 1010.
  NOTE This beer throws an enormous head. Leave sufficient space in the fermenter to allow for at least 5 liters of foam.

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Vat #1

Yields 23 l
Start SG: 1076
Alcohol: (8-9?)%

Ingredients

• 3 kg Extra Pale Malt Extract
• 1.5 kg Amber Malt Extract
• 1 kg Dark Crystal Malt Extract
• 25 g Pride of Ringwood hops pellets
• 30 g Tettnanger hops pellets
• 1 packet Ale yeast S-04 (11g)
• 15 g ammonium phosphate
• 1 handful (15 g) Pride Of Ringwood cones

Method

• One day in advance, boil enough water to bring the worts up to 23 liters. About 18 litres should do.
• Make a yeast starter from some malt syrup and a bit of the boiled and cooled water, and the yeast.
• Boil the extracts in about 5 litres of water. Total boiling time: 60 minutes. You could add half of the Extra Pale malt first and the rest of the malts after 40 minutes, which would take about 10 minutes to do.
• Add the spices as the boiling evolves. Times in minutes before the end of the boiling.

  25g Pride of Ringwood	60 min (immediately)
  15g Tettnanger	10 min
  15g Tettnanger	1 min

• When the boiling time is over, strain the worts through the Pride of Ringwood cones into the fermenter. Add the ammonium phosphate. Cool the worts as quickly as possible, e.g. by putting the fermenter in a tub filled with party ice. Add boiled and cooled water to make 23 litres. Add the yeast starter when the temperature of the worts is under 30 degrees.
• Fermentation at an average 30ºC: 30 days. Bottle when the SG nears 1008.
  NOTE This beer throws an enormous head. Leave sufficient space in the fermenter to allow for at least 5 liters of foam.