A dubbel recipe for Learn to Homebrew Day

Learn to Homebrew Day is next Saturday (Nov. 4). The nationwide celebration aims to “demystify the art of homebrewing and provide valuable resources.” The American Homebrewers Association has all the details as well as two SMaSH beer recipes.

In that spirit, I’ll post recipes here the next four days, one from each of the books I wrote for Brewers Publications. The first comes from the first of those four, Brew Like a Monk.

Lost Abbey co-founder Tomme Arthur, who was at Pizza Port Solano Beach when BLAM was released, contributed this recipe for a Belgian-style dubbel.

“The depth of a great abbey beer lies in a malt sweetness, combined with an alcoholic warmth and yeast finish,” he said at the time. “All of these make a rounded product that can be consumed in greater quantities. The key to a great beer, no matter the style, is the role yeast plays in development of flavors — in lager beer, smooth crisp flavors; in Belgian styles, a wider palate of flavors but homogenized so no one completely dominates the beer.”

The malt bill leans in to that. “(It) is very complex and has specific requirements and components,” he said. When I think of these beers, I think of rich, toasted caramel with a fruity essence, and rocky head. These beers are magical in their complexity. My personal preference is to brew this type of beer without the use of chcolate (malt), as I find it more often than not is used at too high a level. Most dubbels are rich in both aroma and flavor . . . This complex grain bill with many aromatic malts ensures a killer aroma and satisfying beer.”

Original Gravity: 1.067 (16.4 °P)
Final Gravity: 1.014 (3.6 °P)
Alcohol by Volume: 6.9%
IBU: 15

Grist Bill:
Belgian Pilsener malt 58.8%
Wheat malt 8.4%
Belgian aromatic malt 6.7%
Belgian or German Munich malt 4.2%
CaraMunich 3.4%
Gambrinus Honey malt (substitute-CaraVienna) 3.4%
Belgian Special B 3.4%
Belgian Biscuit 3.4%
Dark candi sugar/syrup 8.4%
Raisins (end of boil), comparable to 4 ounces for a 5-gallon batch (113 grams for 19 liters)

Hops:
Styrian Goldings, 90 minutes (11 IBU)
Liberty, 60 minutes (4 IBU)

Mash: 152°F (67°C)
Boil: 90 minutes
Yeast: White Labs WLP500
Fermentation: Start at 64°F (18°C) and let it free rise, 5-7 days
Secondary: Cold condition for 2 weeks

TWTBWTW: Low visibility for beer business 2023

How are things looking for beer in 2023?

I’m OK if posts related to “Dry January”™ don’t continue to arrive at the same pace as they have in the first week of the year. They start to get repetitious. I expect this will be the only one I link to, unless I spot one even more striking.

DRY INFIDELITY: On having a beer break in January

“You don’t know the story behind somebody desiring a break from beer in January. It may be that they have concerns for their own drinking patterns. It may be for financial reasons, especially after the pressures and expense of Christmas. It may be for fitness reasons as there are plenty of calories in this stuff, despite what people argue. It may be for mental well-being to have a break from a known depressant.

“Or it may be for any other reason unbeknown to others. It is a personal choice and everybody has the right to make it.

“But I’m tired. And I’m bored. And I’m sick to death of the irresponsibility of people within this industry. I’m tired of the shaming and guilt tripping online by people in this beer bubble and community being far too flippant about the mild poison that they peddle.”

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The Session #91: A monastery moment

Courtyard at Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren

The Session Oops. The “Session #91: My First Belgian” snuck up on me, and I must finish a presentation on “Brewing Belgian IPA” and be on the road to Kansas City. So for the third time in the seven-plus years of The Session I’m going to repeat a story from “Brew Like a Monk.” It was the first time I thought about abbey beers in the way I do now. The story is from Achel, and the photo from Westvleteren. For newer material, check the links Session host Breandán Kearney at Belgian Smaak is accumulating.

Inside the brewery café at the monastery of the Saint Benedictus Abbey of Achel, only a single food server and one monk putting items on his cafeteria tray remained when Marc Beirens opened the door and stepped into a chilly December evening.

Beirens, a businessman who has been visiting monasteries since he was a child, took a few strides into a terrace area that was once the abbey’s courtyard. As the sky above turned from dark blue to black, he nodded back toward the brewery, located in a space that once housed the monastery dairy, then to a new gallery and gift shop to his right. Those buildings held pigs and more cattle, before it became obvious agriculture would not sustain the community.

“You should have seen this all a few years ago,” he said, his voice bouncing lightly about an otherwise silent courtyard.

*****

During the next few hours Beirens and Brother Benedict, the monk in charge of marketing when I visited in December of 2004 gave me a complete tour of the monastery and its small brewery. Always a good host, Brother Benedict insisted I try the beers.

Staring with Extra, a substantial 9.5% beauty served from a 750ml bottle. He didn’t drink himself, talking a little business with Beirens, answering my questions about the monastery, and excusing himself after his cell phone rang. He returned a little later. “This is the same bottle?” he asked, knowing the answer was yes. “You don’t like the beer.” He laughed mightily.

He ordered we have another, then headed off again. Both Beirens and I ordered the Achel 5, a blonde beer of 5.3% abv, and compared it to the 5% abv Westmalle Extra. When Brother Benedict returned, he looked at our blonde beers, working on a scowl. He took a sip of one. “Water,” he said, once again laughing.

*****

Beirens appreciates the importance of commerce to the monasteries, and that the six Trappist breweries are part of a larger family. He distributes a range of monastic products — beer is the best selling, but they include cookies, soap, vegetables, wine, and other goods — throughout Belgium and France. His father did the same. “I’ve been visiting monasteries since I was this high,” he said earlier, holding his hand below his waist. That’s why he understands something else about monasteries.

It was dark now, and the courtyard empty.

“I love the silence,” Beirens said. “I used to have a friend who was a monk. He’s gone now.”

We walked along in silence.

“When he was 80 or so, I’d still call him. If I had a problem I could go see him. He didn’t have to say anything and I’d feel better.

“All it took was silence.”

How many monks does it take to …

Abbaye Notre-Dame d'Orval

Which one of these has nothing to do with the amount of beer a monastery brewery makes?

a) The number of monks living at the monastery.
b) How many of the monks are priests.
c) If there is a nearby convent.
d) Whether the monastery is Benedictine or Trappist.
e) If the brewery operates a cafe that serves its beer.

Don’t spend too much time thinking about it. It is a trick question. The answer is “f) all of the above.”

But you wouldn’t know it based on this headline (and the story below it): “Fewer Monks Means Less Belgian Beer For Its Fans.”

Forbes contributor Cecilia Rodriguez writes that Orval, located in the south of Belgium, is in danger of losing its Trappist appellation because of a dwindling number of monks at the monastery.

Due to a shortage of monks … their traditional drink can’t keep up with demand — and it’s about to lose its distinctive and elusive Trappist appellation.

No, Orval is not in danger of losing the right to label its beer Trappist.

Rodriguez reports the number of monks has fallen from about 35 in the 1980s to 12 today. That’s down from 16 when I visited the abbey before writing Brew Like a Monk”. But, here’s the thing: When I visited I was told that one monk had ever been involved with any aspect of the brewing operation since it resumed in 1932, and he drove a forklift truck in the packaging hall.

The number of monks is decreasing, sometimes dramatically, in Trappist monasteries around the world, although the actual number of monasteries more than doubled between 1940 and the beginning of this century. It is something to take seriously, more seriously than beer, but totally unrelated to how much beer a monastery brewery might produce. In order for a beer to be labeled Trappist it must be brewed under the supervision of the monks, not necessarily by the monks themselves. And “supervision” does not mean overseeing day-to-day operations within the brewery. As long as there are monks living at Orval there almost surely will be Orval beer.

Here’s a chart assembled from research in 2005:

Monastery Production Brew staff   Monks   Monks in br’y
Achel 2,000 HL 2 17 1
Chimay 120,000 HL    82   20   0  
Orval 45,000 HL 32 16 0
Rochefort 18,000 HL 15 17 6
Westmalle 120,000 HL 41 20 0
Westvleteren    4,750 HL 10 28 7

 
Since then, during the same period the number of monks at Orval decreased one third, beer production rose from 45,000 hectoliters to 70,000. Output now is equivalent to a little more than 38,000 U.S. (31-gallon) barrels, or what Georgetown Brewing in Washington produced in 2012.

Coincidentally, three days after the Forbes scare story appeared Beertourism.com (which promotes beer and food in Belgium) had an interview with Anne-Françoise Pypaert, who recently took the reins from longtime Orval brewmaster Jean-Marie Rock. Pypaert began working at Orval in 1992 and has see the brewery expand and modernize several times over. She talked how space constraints limit production, but not at all about a shortage of monks in the brewery or concerns Orval will lose the right to label its beer as Trappist.

She also discussed the cheese operation, because she also inherited supervision of cheese making — 260 tons annually &#151 from Rock. It’s dang good cheese. How come we haven’t seen a “Fewer Monks Means Less Belgian Cheese For Its Fans” headline?