Duvel(ish) from a kit?

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NuggetSA

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Has anyone got a recipe for a kit duvel style beer or similar Belgian pale? Are these much the same as the 'saison' beers I've read about that ferment at warmer temperatures?

Just planning my next few brews... Hoping to put down a nice dark ale and Belgian pale for winter and a cerveza for the missus to keep her happy after I've taken over the second bathroom with my brewing stuff.

Cheers all, hope you're enjoing the long weekend Adelaideans, I know I am :p
 
Not had any experience yet doing a Duvel, but I'm looking at it down the track. A couple of yeasts that have been recommended are either WLP570 or Wyeast1338. I can't recommend either personally yet.

I have used SAF Brew T-58, in a Belgian style ale, which I really liked, very estery. Not a favourite among my BSMs though.







BSMs = Beer swilling mates.

 
Duvel needs 1388 or the WLP equivalent, saison needs a saison yeast like 3711. I know temple brewing use t-58 but in conjunction with 2 other yeasts for their saison (which is a great saison)
 
mate, your talking about two different styles in there
duvel being a golden strong and belgian pale.
personally id start with this
diablo kit from brewferm http://www.brewferm.be/en/index.htm for a duvel with 1388 yeast
 
Yeah sorry Barls, I really am pretty new to identifying beers - I'm guilty of picking by label rather than style until fairly recently. Cheers for the link I'll have a look through.

Perhaps a Duvel style is a bit of a reach until I've got a few more brews under my belt. Might just try a golden ale kit.
 
Don't ever be scared mate of having a go at a recipe, in the end your still going to make beer. you live you learn, like all of lifes lessons.

You might not make Duval, but you might get close at a fraction of a cost.
 
the diablo kit i linked is pretty close with the right yeast.
go for it mate whats it going to hurt
as for a belgian pale id take any pale ale kit and mix it with the belgian pale ale yeasts.
cheers barls
 
True, compared to the knk rubbish I've been making I guess I can't go a hell of a lot worse :D

I'll try the kit version then have a go at the extract I reckon.
 
Duvel is basically pils and sugar,
so doing it from a kit using a pilsner extract will be pretty simple.

without crunching the numbers, 2 cans of pilsner extract, a kilo of sugar, and 30 ibu of saaz would get you in the ballpark

You will need to source the duvel strain of yeast. that is the money maker.

From the one time I have brewed a duvel, the fermentation temp was 25. But I would start conservative and raise the temp over a week or so.
 
I'm not sure what kit to start with, but my all-grain duvel was impossible to pick in a side-by-side blind taste test. People preferred mine, but that might be about the bottle handling of the real duvel.

The recipe I used was pure pilsener malt and saaz hops - so whatever kit gets you closest to that. 24 litre recipe included
+ Table sugar (I used 1kg, because that's the alcohol level I wanted.)
+ Belgian strong ale yeast (WYeast 1388).

The trick is - don't put the table sugar in until it has fermented down a bit. You want the yeast to first deal with the maltose, or it will go for the easier sucrose. So I let it ferment at 18-19c for five days, dropped in 500gm dissolved table sugar and let the temperature ramp up, next day dropped in another 500gm table sugar. Temp went up to 24c, bringing in some nice fusel elements. When it was fermented out, racked to secondary and lagered for another two weeks. Freshly bottled it was 10th in the Vic championships, but at 2 months it was amazing, with beautiful lacy head.

You're chasing a dry taste, and the table sugar is perfect. Letting the fermentation raise a little brings out some fusels that add to the aromatics, but certainly weren't overwhelming.

Ps: beergod' status doesn't signify I know what i'm talking about, only that I've asked lots of questions - so corrections to my understanding of my own process are welcome.
 
That actually doesn't sound all that complicated, one question though, how would I measure to 30 ibu of saaz? My experience with hops is basically tea bags so sorry for the noob question :)
 
Search for ianh kit extract spreadsheet and find the latest version. Plug in your ingredients and see how much you need to get 30 IBU.

Duvel has styrian goldings AND saaz. Roughly 25-30 IBU as a bittering addition and then some as an aroma addition. The bittering addition = 2/3 of the total.

Sounds complicated but a bit of tweaking in a spreadsheet will show you how easy it is.
 
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