Dubbel Done

The Dubbel, horrid weekday brewing conditions notwithstanding, went fine. It should start bubbling presently. The singel is happily bottled--it didn't taste particularly amazing when I racked it into the bottling bucket, but there are some interesting esters going on and a nice, tightly attenuated beer. May wind up being a little low on character, but it was, after all, supposed to be an austere, day-to-day, monkish beer. We'll see how it comes out.

The Dubbel wound up hitting 1064 instead of 1063--close fucking enough. I'm getting good at spontaneous dilution. It came out rich, caramelly, malty, and rather seductive tasting, as wort goes. Star anise (my one spice addition) is powerful stuff and I wound up chickening out and pulling it halfway through the cool-down period. Its scent was wafting powerfully out of the brew pot and I didn't want to over do it.

The bad news is that I broke two of my remaining two Duvel glasses. Yes, that's right, I went from having two Duvel glasses to having zero Duvel glasses in less than five hours. Goddamnit. As I said to Lisa in attempting to explain my rage, "This was a valued glass." I'm going to have to track more of those down pronto.