Recipe: Duvel “Green” Clone

This beer was a big hit at the recent Charlotte Oktoberfest. I came home with an empty keg – which is either good or bad depending on how you want to look at it. I’m glad everyone enjoyed the beer, but it had a couple of minor flaws.  So  I was happy I didn’t have to drink the whole keg myself!  Fortunately, these problems will be easy to correct the next time I brew it.

With a recipe this simple most of the problems are going to be caused by your brewing technique. In the original recipe formulation post – I noted that the fermentation should start cool and then be allowed to free rise.  About 36 hours after pitching I took the carboy out of the fermentation fridge and let it go.   The beer ended up a bit harsh and alcoholic.  It mellowed out some as it aged, but it was still never as smooth as the real thing.

I should have waited longer – at least 48 or even 72 hours before raising the temperature.  I don’t think the initial yeast growth phase had completed and they decided to spew out some of those harsh esters that come from a warm fermentation temperature.

While I did make a large starter – big breweries repitch yeast that’s super-active and healthy and a few generations old.  This is why they can ferment out the beer so much faster and cleaner than homebrewers.

Not bad for a first attempt though.  Next time the beer will be even better.  And then I won’t give it all away.

Recipe Notes

Finding the hops Duvel uses could be a problem.  The original formulation called for  Styrian Goldings.  You could also use Fuggles or Aurora as a substitute.  If you can’t find Saaz, try some Sterling or any of the noble hops.  It won’t be exactly the same, but the hop character is fairly mild anyway.

The fermentation will be the tricky part.  Start it at around 64-65ºF for at least 2-3 days, more if your pitching rate is lower.  Then let it free rise up to 82º-ish (Although I don’t think mine ever got that high).  This is mainly to make sure the beer dries out enough.

The beer cleared up sufficiently on it’s own so filtering wasn’t really necessary.  Then I force carbonated in the keg as I wanted it to be as close to the original as possible.

For the extract version – be sure to use the lightest extract you can find.  Pilsner or extra light dry extract.  If the beer won’t dry out enough, you could increase the percentage of sugar slightly – maybe another half pound or so.

Duvel “Green”

Belgian Blonde Ale

Belgian Golden Ale

Tagged as: draft, duvel, green, homebrew, recipe