Belgian strong dark ale recipe

Recipe Type: Partial mash
Yeast: Wyeast Abbey II
Yeast Starter: 3 quarts
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.091
Final Gravity: 1.020
IBU: 15
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60

Ingredients

1 oz tettnang hops (60 min)
1 oz saaz hops (20 min)

Munich LME (6 lbs)
Pils DME (3 lbs)
1 lb Belgian dark candy syrup (5 min)

3 lbs Belgian pils
1 lb Belgian cara 45
.5 lbs cara 120
.25 lbs special b
.25 lbs Belgian aromatic

mash 5 lbs grain in 6 quarts of water @ 156 for 45 min and sparge with 3 - 4 quarts @ 170

I just put this into the secondary. Its been 8 days in the primary and it tastes pretty awesome already. Let me know what you think

It sounds like a good recipe.

Was 1.020 your actual final gravity or your estimated? 8 days seems too quick to take it off the yeast cake for something this big. I know I let mine sit for 5.5wks, not to finish out, but so the yeast would chew up the extras and the complex flavors have time to blend and mellow. But if it's good, it's good, and that is all that matters.

It was the actual FG. I was surprised too. I wasn't planning on racking it for a while but I was shooting for 1.020 and it came out to that exactly. I guess the yeast were feeling pretty ambitious!

How's the malt sweetness/hop balance? The malt bill looks lovely, but any bitterness you have to balance out that 1.020 may fall off during the cellaring these beers can handle. Just my two cents -- as KyleWolf said, if it tastes good, it's all good.

Is the gravity continuing to drop in secondary?

-aaron

Its not super hoppy but the hops are noticeable. I haven't checked the gravity since I racked to secondary, but I'm assuming the gravity will drop a few notches.