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Author Topic: Westmalle Dubbel  (Read 1558 times)

Derek

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Westmalle Dubbel
« on: March 20, 2015, 07:52:02 pm »
I had the opportunity to drink a 75 cl bottle of my favorite Belgian beer the other day. Absolutely delicious. I have been on the receiving end of some older, funkier Belgian examples (most notably a funky, flat Rochefort 10 that broke my heart) and this was by far the most fresh tasting Belgian example I have come across.

Westmalle's Dubbel just has everything I love: delicious aroma with figs and dark chocolate. Flavor to die for, with a wonderful maltiness, fairly dry but with some sweetness. The color is just right with a good mix between the deep red, coppery color of say the Chimay Premiere and the dark brown of say the Maresdous 8.

And of course the oft-overlooked fact about Westmalle: they have the best bottles!

Offline homoeccentricus

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Re: Westmalle Dubbel
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2015, 04:05:10 am »
Westmalle is located at about 20 km from where I live. The Dubbel was my session beer before I really picked up the beer interest. Where I live, that's what you get in a pub when you ask for a "trappist".
Frank P.

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Offline euge

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Re: Westmalle Dubbel
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2015, 07:35:32 am »
It's one of my favorites. I'd buy more but consistency and quality issues raise their heads far too frequently- primarily, IMO, due to shipping.
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Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: Westmalle Dubbel
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2015, 10:53:09 am »
There are several from here on my to brew list. They have a clone for the Dubbel.
http://www.candisyrup.com/recipes.html
Jeff Rankert
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Derek

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Re: Westmalle Dubbel
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2015, 12:36:14 pm »
For the ease of going back and forth between different recipes, I compiled in an excel spreadsheet all of the specification and recipe information from BLAM and CSI's website.

I organized the sheets by type (Dubbel, Tripel, etc.) so that I can look down the line and cross reference ingredients for when I want to design a Trappist or Abbey recipe.

I have a Dubbel in mind that will follow the CSI recipe pretty closely, with a few exceptions to make it my own ala Denny's Westcoastmalle Tripel.

I feels that if Westmalle had a dark strong that I wouldn't need to drink any of the others. Their Tripel is king in my opinion and the Dubbel just seems to have the right body and flavor to blow away most of the other examples.

Derek

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Re: Westmalle Dubbel
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2015, 12:40:14 pm »
It's one of my favorites. I'd buy more but consistency and quality issues raise their heads far too frequently- primarily, IMO, due to shipping.

Interestingly enough, this is true for the domestic Belgian styled beers I like as well. I opened an Allagash Dubbel this morning and it was funky and slightly flat. I goes to show you how powerful it is to be able to brew your own beer and to experience it at the peak of freshness without the shipping and logistics concerns.