Brewing the Dubbel

Here are some notes from the day.

• The brew day didn't start until almost 10
• Willie came over with 1 lb. of Munich
• I substituted the Caramunich with American Crystal 40
• Willie brewed a 1 gallon batch of all oat malt
• I used pH stabilizer for both mash and sparge
• I pulled almost 9 gallons of runnings
• I had to boil for over 2 hours to get the volume I needed
• I didn't forget any additions, including the rock candy and sugar which I generally forget
• The OG was 1.082, which is way over recipe and target style

The ferment action started fairly quickly and required a blowoff after 24 hours.  This will go in bottles due to the strength.

Raisin Hell Dubbel

This is just a carbon copy of Jamil Zainasheff's Dubbel found in Brewing Classic Styles with one small addition.
Raisins.

6 gallon batch
1.064
1.012

10.6 Pilsner
1.0 Munich
0.5 Aromatic
0.5 Caramunich
0.5 Special B
0.75 Dark candi syrup
0.5 Table Sugar

Mash at 149F w/ 90 minute boil

Hops Tettnang 4.5AA 1.5 ounce 90 minute (23 IBU)
4 oz. raisins at flameout

Mockwerks Belgian Blend yeast

Temperature 64F slow 7 day rise to 70F.

Brewing the extract ale, now known as Mocktoberfest Ale

In truth, I brewed this almost a month ago.  Instead of breaking open little bags of caramel malts to steep with, I used an old bag of pre-crushed malts that were supposed to be part of an Oktoberfest extract kit from Northern Brewer.  Hence, Mocktoberfest Ale was born.
I used the two cans of extract that I had planned originally along with the old grain that was steeped at 152-ish for about 20 minutes.
The whole thing was wrapped up by 10:30.  Nice!
My hop additions were to the original recipe.  This may have been a mistake.  The Oktoberfest grains, which by the way aren't the same as they used to be on the NB website, were over the top caramel.
Flash forward 4 weeks and now I have a dry-hopped Oktoberfest style ale that smells EXACTLY like a Werther's Original.

Remember kids.  Don't take candy from strangers.  Beer...that's ok.