I’m planning to brew my 2nd rendition of a Trappist Quad in a few days and am looking for critiques of my planned recipe, especially with regards to the sugars:
targeting 5.5 gallons into fermenter
12 lbs (68%) Weyerman Pilsner malt (it’s what I have on hand in bulk)
3 lbs. (17%) Munich malt
12 oz (4%) Special B
1 lb Candi Syrup 180L
1 lb of yet undecided sugar… Brown? Turbinado? Molasses?
Northern Brewer or Hallertau at 60 min to 30 IBU
Hallertau or Styrian Golding hops at flameout
For the yeast I plan to use slurry from the Imperial Monastic (wlp500) that is currently fermenting a trappist single.
There are several types of molasses and not all have a “burnt” or bitter flavor. Those flavors typically come with the blackstrap variety. That being said however I completely agree with the suggestion to use dark candi sugar and not molasses for this beer.
The only beer that I use molasses in, albeit sparingly, is my English Barleywine. I do not use blackstrap molasses just stuff from the grocery store (Grandmas’s Dark Molasses). It adds another dimension to the beer and does not give a burnt flavor on my palate. The beer has won two consecutive Best of Show awards in competitions, so I guess I did something right. ;D
I’ve used Molasses in a Scottish beer based on a recipe I came across. I don’t think it added anything I could detect so I dropped it from the recipe. I figure if I can’t tell it’s there why add it.
A lot of people on the internet are turning away from special B and other high lovibond crystal malts for belgians. I overused it once and found it unpleasant. Instead they recommend just more dark candi syrup.
Can’t think of where I found it but you might consider that and simplifying it even further to just base malt, munich and 1kg of dark candi syrup.