waffles? Belgian Dubbel

OK, so "waffles?" is just a temporary name, but it's based on a sketch in what was once wet cement on my block. I'll take a picture of it and post it sometime in the next week. Promise. I don't know if we'll keep this name, probably not, but I like it because a) it's local, b) waffles are Belgian, like this beer, and c) our beer has maple syrup in it. And waffles are awesome. I just wanted to get this post out today.

Alright, just transferred the Belgian Dubbel to secondary fermenter yesterday, adding 1/4 tablespoon of vanilla extract.

Currently, our recipe is as follows:
1lb crystal malt
10 lbs dark dry malt extract
1 lb maple syrup (hungry jack ftw!)
1oz cascade hops (60 mins)
.5oz saaz hops (10 mins-ish)
.5oz saaz hops (1 min)
1 whirlfloc tablet (like irish moss)
1/4 tablespoon vanilla extract (secondary)

This is for a 6 gallon batch, remember?

Anyway, our original OG reading was weird. We consistantly get readings like 1.02 or 1.03 when clearly it should be much higher (10 lbs DME?). We think that our sample that we pull is heavily diluted because that's when we add a bunch of water to bring it up to the correct volume. Anyway, our final reading is somewhere between 1.010 and 1.012. We estimate that our OG was probably somewhere around 1.07-1.08, and boy can we taste it! It is super alcoholic (probably around 9%) but it smells delicious. Geordie says it smells like fresh banana bread. Anyway, it's something to look forward to.

JJ

PS. Tell me what you think of the name


Update: We've got a new name for it (sorry Alice), it is now called Jacques le Faim, I talk briefly about the name change in this post.