Date molasses - How much for a Belgian Quad?

Hi all,

I've been itching to brew a belgian quad for a while and have been looking around for ingredients. Some recipes include date sugar, but the closest I've found so far is date molasses - is this the same kind of product?

I plan on making some candi syrup in as well, but I'm undecided as to the ratio of syrup to molasses in the sugar portion of the grain bill. Would 50/50 work?

What say you?

James

I am a huge fan of very dark candi sugar (make my own), but don't care for some of what I think of as off flavors from molasses.

I'd recommend buying it for your first time brewing a quad. That will give you a baseline to work from to compare your ingredient substitutions.

Cyclman said:

I am a huge fan of very dark candi sugar (make my own), but don't care for some of what I think of as off flavors from molasses.

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Yeah I can imagine that traditional molasses would be pretty powerful stuff, but in this case I don't know if it's a bit of a misnomer. It's a middle eastern product (from Basra in Iraq of all places, so I'll be checking mine for depleted uranium deposits) so I wasn't sure if it was really molasses or if it was just boiled date syrup as they're black anyway.

They also have something called 'Date Paste' which looks like ground up dates, so this might be a better option as it doesn't appear to have been refined.

Is there any upper limit for the proportion of the grain bill something like this should take up? I'm thinking no more than 5% at the moment, if that much!

James

b-boy said:

I'd recommend buying it for your first time brewing a quad. That will give you a baseline to work from to compare your ingredient substitutions.

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Good call, but as quads usually take considerable bottle conditioning time to hit their stride I wanted to see if there was any prevailing wisdom. I'll probably just buy some, see what it tastes like and guesstimate it.

James

dried date palm molasses is called Jaggery.
I get it at the Indian grocery store.
I use it in a stout.

good stuff, not sure how it would be in a quad as it has a pronounced flavor.

good luck

let us know how it turns out.

Dr_Jeff said:

dried date palm molasses is called Jaggery.
I get it at the Indian grocery store.
I use it in a stout.

good stuff, not sure how it would be in a quad as it has a pronounced flavor.

good luck

let us know how it turns out.

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Jaggery is boiled palm sugar, whereas this stuff is made from boiled date syrup I think?



Saying that, I thought of using some jaggery to put the indian in an IIPA today to lighten the body a little. It tastes almost fudgey in it's raw state, what kind of flavour does it lend to stout?

James

secondratemime said:

Good call, but as quads usually take considerable bottle conditioning time to hit their stride I wanted to see if there was any prevailing wisdom. I'll probably just buy some, see what it tastes like and guesstimate it.

James

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Yes - Quads suck!

I brewed one in November, bottled it last week, and won't even think about popping one till sometime in May. It had better be good!

It has a distinct flavor, I know it doesn't help but I really can't describe it, but it works in stouts


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You can get date sugar from Shields online. I just visited them and came home (Idaho) with a 1lb bag of date sugar and 20lbs of dried dates and I'm really not sure how to use them. Probably in a brown, porter or stout. Keep us updated and let me know if anyone has suggestions.