anyone feel like one-uping this recipe?

hello,fellow newbie and lurker here just trying to ease my way out of the can so to speak.i have a recipe thats from the complete joy of brewing and i want to try it out .
im just curious to see if any of the more established brewers here can help pick it up some(if it needs it).
i really want to get away from the canned stuff and go for something great.
if it means one small step at a time then so be it.
this will be my fourth brew so like i said i want to step out some.
ok, so here is what i would like to brew next:
dubble your pleasure ale
3.3# dark malt extract
3.3#golden light extract
1.5#extra light extract
1.25 oz.styrian goldings:6 hbu
belgian style strong ale yeast
so please,any help,laughter or whatever will help you can throw my way i will be thankful.
chris

Actually it sounds pretty good! Let us know how it turns out.


loop

8 pounds in 5 gallons? You may want a starter for that... Also, consider replacing some LME with DME (Dry Malt Extract) to keep it from getting too dark.

Yea sounds good to me too! imo next try a MM kit next, if you can thats what i did next from the first one i did was. was lots of fun. good luck and have fun!

do you think a wyeast smack pak would do the job?also i can i do the whole thing dme?

make a starter. always a good idea.

and yeah, use dme for anything you can

thanks alot.btw deathbrewer gonads and strife triple sounds awesome.

lol, yeah...it was an expirement gone awry we had to finish it with champagne yeast and it's a bit too fruity due to high fermentation temp, but it really turned out pretty good considering. and it will get you hammered. :cross:

If that recipe is all LME, you will want to reduce the quantities of extract by 20% if you switch it to DME or you'll get a much stronger beer than you originally expected. Unless that's what you want of course.

hmmmmm.....having a stronger beer sounds like more fun than doing the math.now i have to convince my wife that i HAVE to have something in my empty carboy.ps deathbrew if you still have that recipr kickin around i would love to see it.

Here's the Gonads and Strife:

Grains
Honey Malt 0.50 lbs

Sugar/Malts
Ultra Light Liquid Malt Extract 6.00 lbs
German Pils Dry Malt Extract 4.00 lbs
Clear Candi Sugar 2.00 lbs
Corn Sugar 1.00 lbs

Hops, Clarifiers, and Other
Willamette Hops (4.0% AA) Bittering 1.00 oz
Cascade Hops (7.0% AA) Flavoring 1.00 oz
Cascade Hops (7.0% AA) Finishing 1.00 oz
Whirfloc 1.00 tablet
Servomyces 1.00 capsule

Bottled with Corn Sugar

OG: 1.112
FG: 1.024

I let it ferment for almost a month and it died on me. Then i threw in the champagne yeast and let it go for another three weeks or so. I rather like the carbonation, although it has made a few of the bottles go explody!

I am going to modify this recipe, however. First of all, I will NEVER use corn sugar in anything again.

I'd probably use the Pils DME for bottling next time and simply remove the Corn Sugar from the ingredients, as I was shooting a little high anyway. You could probably still get 11.5% with that.

I'd try to get the fermentation temperature below 70F, too. Mine jumped up to 76 and was fermenting too high for far too long. gave it a fruity taste. before i had my fermerator.

Let me know how it turns out if you ever try it.

was the on pound of corn sugar used in the fermentor or was it used for the bottles?
yeah, i have to bottle at room temp here.but in my room it stays about 72-76 degrees with a cool breeze running through sliding glass doors on both sides.
i have a barvarian wheat im about to bottle and i know its gonna be a lil on the banana side.but i can deal with it,i have bananas growing all around my house anyway.

the one pound was used in the original ingredients and i had a seperate stash for bottling, which has since been thrown in the garbage, never to be seen or heard from again.

oh, and the yeast i used was white lab's: WLP570 - Golden Belgian Ale

using a blow-off tube might help your beer stay cooler, since it let's alot of the heat out during a vigourous initial fermentation. other than that, you may want to look into some other cooling options (bath, "son of fermentation chiller", or simply ice packs) to keep it down. it will definitely taste better. also, pitch at 70 degrees, if you pitch at 78, it likes to stay there.

Like i said, tho, mine still turned out pretty good! cheers!

right now in my room i have my brewpot with 5 gallons of water(started this yesterday)with my thermometer in it and its 70 degrees even.so i feel pretty good abou that.
so maybe 3# of candi sugar then?
thanks for all of the help.now i just have to sneak all of this by my wife.
im off to work to play "tiny bubbles"at full blast in memory of don ho.

You mean for your recipe? Most people would say even 2# of candi sugar is too much, but i like it. it gives it really good head retention.

I wouldn't shoot too high to begin with. 8 lbs is probably enough, you'll still make a nice strong ale. add a pound of candi sugar if you want but be sure to make a starter.

While the recipe looks pretty good, you should make a starter to get the yeast population up to handle the strong wort.
However I think the biggest difference you can make with most beers is to steep specialty grains into your water before bringing it to a boil and adding extract and hops. The specialty grains add alot of flavor and character to a beer. For instance instead of using dark dme you can use chocolate and/or special B grains to get the colors and flavor and just use all light DME for your extract. This is a pretty easy step and produces good results.
Wyeast smack packs and WhiteLabs pitchable tubes can be used straight into average strength beers. Anything up to OG between 1.050 and 1.060. Above that point the yeast can really use the help of a 2-3qt starter. If you are using dry yeast then a properly hydrated package usually provides more than enough yeast for most ales, however really large beers and lagers can still benefit from using 2 packs.
Craig