You’d be right to think that monastery brewing is one of the oldest and richest continuing traditions in the world, so it’s sometimes a shock to find out that most of the beer styles we associate with monks came about during the last century. You can read more about the long history of Trappist brewing in our post on the Trappist Single style, but for now it’s good to know a few important things about that history. First, in world conflicts, Belgium nearly always gets the raw end of the deal. Second, monks in the Trappist order were committed to providing for travelers and sustaining themselves through their own work, both commitments that could be fulfilled by brewing.

Since the very early days of monastery brewing, when monks brewed for travelers and guests, they brewed different beers of varying qualities for the different classes of guests that might visit them. The Dubbel—both in name and style—is a modern outgrowth of that early aim, being both darker, higher in ABV, and more fruity and malt focused than the Trappist Single, which is still traditionally brewed for the monks to drink rather than for sales.

After World War I, many of the monks came back to brewhouses that were completely destroyed. Westmalle, which had only been producing beer at their monastery in 1836, rebuilt after the war, and began selling beer by the early 1920s (they also built a new brewery in the early 1930s to accommodate new technology and expand their capacity). During the 1920s, the brewing monks sought help from a distiller and fellow brewer, Hendrik Verlinden, for issues related to what they called at the time their “Dubbel bruin.”

This kind of camaraderie and sharing of brewing knowledge was ubiquitous among the Trappist order, especially in the earlier years. Many times, one or more of the brewing monks from a sistering monastery would travel to help another set up and run their brewhouse (monks from Westvleteren founded Chimay, and Father Anselme from Achel traveled to Rochefort, though Achel’s monks didn’t start brewing until much later). It’s no surprise, then, that Chimay had a precursor to their Chimay Red in the Biere Forte (strong beer) they brewed in the nineteenth century as well.

One of the final steps toward the modern recipe was the addition of dark candi syrup in 1922 at the Westmalle brewery. Though they also use a dark malt for aroma, according to Stan Hieronymous’s Brew like a Monk, the majority of the color in their Dubbel comes from this syrup. Simple sugars play an important role in a lot of Belgian and French brewing traditions, which you can read about in our posts on Biere de Garde and Belgian Tripel. For the Dubbel, it helps not only to darken the color, but also to boost the ABV without creating a full-bodied beer.

You’ll certainly find Belgian Dubbels on tap lists in the states, but they’re a little more rare than Tripel and Belgian Dark Strong. This style can tell you a lot about the Belgian brewing tradition, however, so it’s worth seeking out examples if you’re able. When you open one (and you should have to, they’re meant to be bottle conditioned), you’ll find a very light-bodied, highly carbonated, refined, malt and yeast focused beer with a complexity typically reserved for beers with much higher ABV.