Been a long time ...

Wow, I can't believe that I haven't brewed since January.  This past semester at school got busy and crazy and brewing had to unfortunately take a back seat for a while.  Due to the long weekend, I was thankfully able to fire up the kettle.  I was provided fantastic assistance from my father-in-law, who participated in his first brew day.  We brewed the recipe below.  Everything went really well.  My only concern is that the Wyeast that we used had been in my freezer for months and despite creating a starter, fermentation has been off to a slow start.  Accordingly, I plan to pitch some freshly procured WLP500 this evening to help kicks things into a higher gear.  american malt dubbel

	Style: Belgian Dark Strong Ale
	Type: All Grain	Calories: 245
	Rating: 0.0	Boil Size: 7.91 Gal
	IBU's: 25.36	Batch Size: 7.00 Gal
	Color:   27.5 SRM	Boil Time: 60 minutes
	Preboil OG: 1.071

		Estimated	Actual
	Brew Date:	-	05/25/2013
	OG:	1.075	1.084
	FG:	1.018	1.018
	ABV:	7.47 %	8.65 %
	Efficiency:	70 %	79 %
	Serve Date:	07/06/2013	/ /

Fermentation Steps
Name	Days / Temp	Estimated	Actual
Primary	14 days @ 65.0°F	05/25/2013	05/25/2013
Secondary	28 days @ 75.0°F	06/08/2013	-

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount	Percentage		Name	Time	Gravity
18.00 lbs	82.76 %		Pale Malt (2 Row) US	60 mins	1.036
1.00 lbs	4.60 %		Caramunich Malt	60 mins	1.033
0.50 lbs	2.30 %		Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L	60 mins	1.034
4.00 ozs	1.15 %		Chocolate Malt	60 mins	1.028
2.00 lbs	9.20 %		Candi Sugar, Dark	60 mins	1.036

Hops
Amount	IBU's		Name	Time	AA %
1.50 ozs	16.49		Styrian Goldings	60 mins	5.40
1.00 ozs	5.92		Hallertauer	20 mins	4.80
1.00 ozs	2.95		Saaz	10 mins	4.00

Yeasts
Amount	Name	Laboratory / ID
1.0 pkg	Belgian Abbey II	Wyeast Labs 1762

Additions

(none)

Mash Profile

Medium Body Infusion In 60 min @ 152.0°F

Add 24.69 qt ( 1.25 qt/lb ) water @ 166.0°F

Sparge

Sparge 19.23 qt of 170.0°F water over 60 mins Belgian Love, HolzBrew