I just bottled my 2017 version.
In my previous batches, I didn't find it had enough chocolate flavor. Last time I tried to add cocoa powder but found this gave a mild milk chocolate flavor instead of dark. This time I decided to go with increased roast grains and since Urbain notes somewhere that the idea behind this beer is to be a cross between a "soft export stout & a strong dark belgian", I'm convinced this is the way to go. I used a mix of 2/3 roast barley & 1/3 black patent at half the level I use in my export stout.
I left the spices the same except that I increased the orange by 50%. This time my orange zest was very juicy/oily and I realize that this method probably doesn't give the most consistent result so I may consider using dried peel or tincture next time.
In my previous 2 batches I had trouble with head retention after leaving in primary for 2 and 3 months and priming to 2.4v. To attempt to resolve this, I added a small portion of wheat flour to the mash which I do with several of my other brews to get a nice head. I also bottled more quickly after only one month in primary, and increased the priming to 2.7v.
I was intending to ferment this with windsor which was I going to carry over in all my brews this season but it became infected so I had to improvise by using a blend of t-58, windsor & nottingham in a previous lighter ale and I carried over the slurry.
This is my recipe:
[8L, 1.102-->1.028, 68% efficient, 70% attenuation]
3.200 2-row
0.040 munich [/.5%]
0.080 special-b [/1%]
0.080 roast barley [/1%]
0.040 patent [/.5%]
0.240 white wheat flour [/3%]
0.240 candi syrup [/3%]
---mash w/ 7.912L (215%) 71c x 40m
---sparge w/ 5.560L (151%)
---boil x 1h, 4L boiloff
-7.5g centennial 8.7% [202 AA, 25 IBU)
---flameout spices:
-0.8g cinnamon [/.01%] (powder)
-5.0g orange [/.0625%] (mandora tangerine zest)
-0.3g thyme [/.004%] (dried)
-1.3g coriander [/.016%] (crushed)
---aerate w/ drill, pitch 500g slurry
I was very happy to hit my OG. However it attenuated a bit more than I desired down to 1.025, so I'll should end up with 10.5% ABV after bottle conditioning.
Tastings so far have been mostly fruity and not too much detectable roastiness so I'm at least confident that I didn't over-do it. I'll try to be disciplined and wait a good six months before trying it. Cheers!