Duvel “Green” Recipe Formulation

Go find this beer.  It’s the new draft version of Duvel, and while it doesn’t seem to be widely available yet, it’s definitely worth the search.

It just came to North Carolina last week and I had the chance to try it out a few days ago.

This version is draft only and it has a slightly lower ABV which it hides quite well. Very drinkable beer even at 6.8%.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it might be fun to try brewing it at home.  If you can’t find it in your area you might want to do the same.

So I did a little research and have some ideas to get us started on a recipe.

First, there is an e-mail from Michel Moortgat (the head man over at Duvel) on Beer Advocate that reveals some details on this tasty brew.

Key points from the e-mail:

1. Single fermentation (no bottle/keg conditioning) then filtered.

2. Same ingredients as “classic” Duvel – but the raw materials are “balanced” for the draft version.

3. ABV is 6.8% compared to 8.5% for the classic.

4. Carbonation is lower on the draft version.

5. Slightly more hop presence.

It would appear that the recipe is the same then, but brewed to a lower starting gravity.  If they both started from the same gravity, the draft version at only 6.8% ABV would finish too sweet.

Also it would be nearly impossible to create the additional 1.7% ABV in the bottle for the Classic.  So we can be reasonably sure it starts with a lower gravity wort for the Green (at least now that it is being produced in large quantity).

Next, let’s look at how the Classic version is brewed.

In Brew Like ! Monk, there are a couple of pages of notes and a basic recipe outline.  From this we discover:

1. The base is 83% pilsner malt and 17% dextrose.

2. Hops are Styrian Goldings and Saaz to 30 IBUs.

3. Yeast is available as Wyeast 1388 or White Labs WLP570.

4. Fermentation starts at 64ºF and is allowed to rise naturally to 82ºF

So our recipe would be something like this:

• 83% Pilsner malt
• 17% Sugar
• 60 minute Hop addition of Styrian Goldings
• 10 minute Hop addition Saaz
• Wyeast 1388 or White Labs WLP570 yeast

Let’s try for a starting gravity of 1.060 and finish at 1.008, 86% Apparent Attenuation.  This should yield 6.8% ABV and a fairly dry finish.

If you’re using Pilsner extract then you might need to increase the sugar percentage to dry it out enough.

Aerate well and pitch a large starter of yeast at 64º.  Let fermentation rise naturally over the first week to 82ºF and hold until complete.

After fermentation, crash cool to 30ºF and then rack off of the primary yeast.  Lager for 3 weeks then filter (if you can) and keg/bottle. Carbonate to 3.0 volumes.

There’s probably some room to experiment with the hops, but I think this will be in the ballpark.  I’m going to brew it in the next couple of weeks and then a full recipe will follow.  I’ll even try to bring a keg of it to the Charlotte Oktoberfest (which is an excellent event, you should go) if you want to taste the result.

Tagged as: draft, duvel, green, recipe