Cactus Jack Doppelblack

I'm planning on brewing this in early July. I've made a lot of changes to this based on the Dunkel I brewed (which is coming into its own and tastes much better with 1/4oz cold coffee added to each 16oz bottle when poured).

I removed the molasses and I'm using 2 different, equal parts of dark candi syrup to try to make the flavors slightly more complex. I'm also upping the grain bill and will wet toast the grains. I'll still toast them dark, though I found that really did not do much of anything for the color.

I'm using more hops than in a traditional doppelbock based on Bluffwallace saying he uses extra hops with his dark beers and also my findings that hops work well with gf beer.

5 Gallon Batch

3lbs Tapioca Syrup
3lbs Brown Rice Syrup
1lb 8ozQuinoa
1lb Oats, Steel Cut (Pinhead Oats)
1lb D-180
1lb Dark Brown Sugar
1lb D-90
8oz boiled Amaranth

Hops
60 mins 1.5 German Northern Brewer
15 mins 0.5 German Northern Brewer
5 mins 0.25 Tettnang
1 min 1.0 Hallertauer

Thoughts?

Give it a whirl!

Finally brewed this today...my hydrometer is shot so I have no idea about OG. A few changes and observations:

3lbs Tapioca Syrup
1lb 6oz brown rice syrup
1lb Oats, Steel Cut (Pinhead Oats)
1lb D-90
1lb Dark Brown Sugar
1lb D-90
1lb 6oz wet toasted Quinoa (toasted very, very dark).
.6oz maltodextrin

Hops
60 mins 1.5 German Northern Brewer
15 mins 0.5 German Northern Brewer
5 mins 0.5 Tettnang
1 min 1.0 Hallertauer

The candi syrup was D-90 instead of both D-90 and D-180 because I apparently only ordered D-90. I scrapped the Amaranth. That stuff is too small and too much of a hassle, I'll eat it instead. And I forgot that I used one of my rice syrups in my last batch, the grapefruit IPA, so I only had 1 jar left. Oh well.

The quinoa added more color to the wort than any grain I have tested: oats, amaranth, millet, buckwheat, rice and corn. It also added the strongest aroma and just seemed more beer like. If I had the $$ I'd be tempted to brew a batch with a LOT of quinoa. I also doubled the tettnanger because I had more than I thought.

Unfortunately, my bock liquid yeast exploded when I opened it so we'll see what that means.

It has been bubbling away strongly since the very day I poured it...no need for a starter with this liquid yeast! I racked it into the secondary SUnday and poured myself a taste. Chocolate. It tasted like chocolate. How that happened I have no idea. I've added chocolate extract to a beer that tasted less like chocolate than this. The oats? D-90? Dark roasted quinoa?

Yeah, it's the D-90. 2 lbs of it, even in a 5-gallon batch, gets you into porter/stout territory.