Hello Everyone,
I’m preparing to brew my first Belgian Dubbel next week and in planning ahead, have a question about lagering this beer. The recipe I have calls for a 3 week cold secondary at 50* after primary fermentation finishes. My problem is that my lagering fridge already has an Octoberfest chilling at 35*. I have room for two carboys, but can only choose one temperature. Would using the 35* temp instead of the 50* temp be OK for a dubbel?
Yeah, as long as fermentation is finished it will probably be OK…although unothodox! Just be sure to give it a nice long primary first.
Thanks again, Denny. On the flip side. would any harm come to the Octoberfest if I raised the temp to 50 for a few weeks and then lowered it again?
Or is it just plain weird to cold condition a dubbel? The recipe came from a Westmalle Dubbel clone at candisyrup.com. I’d be fine with skipping the lagering step altogether if it seems out of the blue…
[quote=“Dan S”]Thanks again, Denny. On the flip side. would any harm come to the Octoberfest if I raised the temp to 50 for a few weeks and then lowered it again?
Or is it just plain weird to cold condition a dubbel? The recipe came from a Westmalle Dubbel clone at candisyrup.com. I’d be fine with skipping the lagering step altogether if it seems out of the blue…[/quote]
It IS pretty weird to lager a dubbel, but not so weird that it doesn’t make sense. It just isn’t normally done. Your Ofest would be OK going to 50 and back down. You have 3 choices…condition the dubbel at 35, raise the temp and condition the dubbel at 50, or don’t cold condition the dubbel. I don’t think any of them would screw up your beer, so pick one and see what happens!
If you’re really worried about a few weeks at the “wrong” temp, why don’t you split the difference and do it at 40-45ish?
Maybe I’m dumb, but I don’t really even consider it “lagering” to cold-condition a beer for a few weeks after primary fermentation is done…in fact, I can’t think of anything I’ve made that I thought was really at its prime much quicker than that.
Leave it to me to pick an odball recipe on my first batch for a given style – in retrospect, I think I’ll skip the cold conditioning.
Perspective: just one of the many benefits this forum provides.
:cheers:
