guinnessface

Recipes 

To piggyback on the candi sugar question: will it affect the taste of the beer, or just bump up the fermentable sugars? I assume I've had beer brewed with candi sugar, but I'm not certain. A lot of New Belgium styles (1554, Snow Day) seem to have a sweet finish......could this be the culprit? I've heard most of the Beligian ales use it in the process.

SilverZero

Recipes 

Candi will bump up the ABV, but will also add a slight bit of flavor, in proportion to how dark the candi is. Not really a lot of sweetness, as the sugar will be converted, but the "other" parts of the flavor, more caramel/molasses flavor. It will also thin out the beer a bit, but with all the other malt it's still going to be chewy.

Here's another thread with some discussion on candi sugar.

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Seeking the perfect IPA recipe, 5 gallons at a time.

guinnessface

Recipes 

Awesome, thanks.

drainbamage

Recipes 

In the beers I've had with candi sugar (including Stone's 15th Anniversary Ale), it adds kind of a brown sugar/molasses flavor. Mostly, it just boosts fermentables.

Sounds like a good recipe, and it's cool that you got feedback from the brewery!

skeezerpleezer

Recipes 

Ok, so I was lazy this weekend and had company, so didn't get this brewed, but will try to do it when I get home Thursday. I also forgot to put Mitch's notes up, but will try to do it when I get off of this airplane.

The LHBS I went to Friday didn't have carafe III, but did have black patent. Anyone think that would work alright if I just mashed it for the last 10 minutes or so? If not, I drive by several other shops on the way home from the airport and can grab the carafe III Thursday.

skibb

Recipes 

Black patent would add a significant flavor difference compared to carafa III - adding it late to the mash is more for avoiding the astringent flavors associated with highly roasted malts rather than the roastiness itself. Dingemanns makes a de-bittered black malt that is probably the closest thing to Carafa III. Also, Briess makes a malt (blackprinz perhaps?) that is along the same lines - color without much flavor.

djfriesen

Recipes 

Heading over to pick stuff up right now. Planning on brewing it, along with a BIPA on Wednesday.

coroboto

Recipes 

Subscribed and awaiting a verdict...I need to sit this beer and an Arrogant Bastard down and have a hard talk about which is better...

skibb

Recipes 

I really would like to see what Mitch said - Personally, after looking at all of Stone's published recipes, 10% crystal seems waaaay too much. Being of such a high OG, there will already be lots of residual sweetness, even with higher attenuation, and IMHO, all that crystal will make this too cloying of a beer. For example, Stone's Old Guardian barleywine only has 4% crystal total and attenuates fairly dry with such a high OG (1.103 down to 1.016). Similarly, Stone's last Black IPA (Sublimely Self-Righteous) finishes around 1.016 as well.

Personally, I would shoot for less Crystal malt and a lower OG, more dryer and less like a barleywine.
I wanted to see his actual response b/c it seems his response differs from the ingredients listed on Stone's official blog: The Stone Blog » Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA

That's why I'm curious if there is actually any dark candi sugar in recipe, rather than a suggestion from him to make it more fermentable, given you have 10% crystal malts in your recipe.

Edit: Just found a posting by Mitch about 11-11-11 where the percentages of the beer are given; 4% CaraBohemian (only other Stone recipe I can find where this particular malt is used). http://blog.stonebrew.com/?m=201111

RallyintheValley

Recipes 

I must brew this beer. This is up there with my favorite of all time. Can't wait for the updates on this thread.