My Dubbel came out ok, but not good enough.What went wrong?

[brewinhard]

I brewed that recipe twice a few years back and had similar results. My FG was spot on with an awesome aroma but the flavor seemed a bit lacking and it had a too thin body. I contributed it to the cane sugar addition and if I were to brew it again I would ditch the sugar and swap it out for more base malt in its place.

[grainman]

Send it in to Dr. Homebrew?

I need to do this.... good idea.

[grainman]

I brewed that recipe twice a few years back and had similar results. My FG was spot on with an awesome aroma but the flavor seemed a bit lacking and it had a too thin body. I contributed it to the cane sugar addition and if I were to brew it again I would ditch the sugar and swap it out for more base malt in its place.

That's exactly how I feel about this beer, except no sugar was added except for the D90 syrup. When I pick it up to drink the aroma is fantastic, but then there is this huge let down in the body. More base malt couldn't hurt, and I'm ok with an 8% dubbel.

[brewinhard]

Try giving it a bit of aging time. As Dbear stated that yeast will change it a bit over time.

[grainman]

After re-evaluating this beer, it looks like I may have mis-judged it a little. It's still not right, but I think I may have mistaken lack of body for astringency. I may be looking at a water issue here. It makes sense too, because it finished at 1.019 , so body should not be the issue. I am picking up some mouth puckering qualities as an after taste.
I batch sparge, but I start with very soft Pilsen type water. I wonder if ph was the issue, but I thought that batch sparging made ph a non issue. Is that the case? Or is that just internet brewing lore?

[Ozwald]

That's a myth, but not necessarily the source of your particular issue.

[brewinhard]

Depending on how many sparges you conducted, the crush of your grain, temp of sparge water and pH of water used, you could be tasting astringency. That is my least favorite beer flaw and I usually will end up dumping the batch.

[Ozwald]

Fix one problem at a time. We already know you underpitched (which also can lead to thin mouthfeel & astringency), so fix that in the next batch & see how it goes. If you're still getting the problem with a healthy, correct pitch then it's time to look elsewhere.