How to add more fruit flavor

I just took a reading on my Dubbel and it hits its target gravity of 1.018. Making the brew at about 8.3%, a bit higher then what I wanted. Was looking for more about 7-7.5%, but no problem.

For this brew I boiled date sugar for the last 10 min of the boil. I was wondering how to add more of the date sugar flavor to the brew. I think it came out good, but was looking to gain more from the date sugar. My only thought is to secondary ferment it with some more date sugar for another week.

I am a bit unsure if I should bottle it, and with age the other flavors might come thru. My only guess is the higher alcohol is taking away a bit from the flavor? But I know adding more sugar is just going to increase that

Any thoughts on this, just looking for advice? Anyone have experience with trying to add more flavor in the secondary?

Best bet for adding more of a date flavor would be adding some date extract right before bottling.

If you add more date sugar it will just start to referment and give you a small hint of date flavor with more alcohol.

As you age the beer, the hop flavor will decline some and the flavor of the dates might come through a bit better.

Date sugar's flavor is dependent on the sugar content. You' probably be better off adding some chopped dates.