New to recipe design, how does this dark belgian look?

I've been brewing for about a year and just started into AG and am NEVER turning back. I feel like i would like to start designing my own recipes and playing around with things. I really like dark belgians (my favorite is Rochefort 10) so i figured that would be a fitting style to start with. Here is what i came up with so far:

12.00 lb Belgian 2 row Pale Malt
3.00 lb Caramunich
1.00 lb Aromatic Malt
1.00 lb Cara-pils
1.00 lb Clear Candi Sugar

2.00 oz E.K. Goldings 60 min.
1.00 oz. Fuggles 15 min.

Wyeast Belgian Abbey II 1762

It's a start. I would like to do just a single infusion mash unless someone thinks otherwise. So could someone help tweak it a little so it turns out good? Thanks!

Bump! Would really like to have an idea how to tweak this recipe!

Try and get some D2 from Dark Candi.

dark candi, inc.

I would try and use dark sugars and leave the clear for Triples.

Also take a look at The Burgundian Babble Belt -- Pushing the Homebrew Envelope

and search Rochefort. Brew Like A Monk (BLAM) is a great read if you like Belgium beers.

Hope this helps.

I was thinking about using dark candi but was worried about it making the color too dark. What about the proportions of the grains? I think i may be using a little too much on the specialty grains.

I just used 2.25 pounds of D2 in a 7 gallon batch and the color was dark orange.

For spec grain it is your personal preference of course. Some of the stuff I have read about dark strongs talk about using 50/50 pils and pale malt with dark syrup for color.

This is what I have been doing for over a year. Using the Amber, Dark and D2 syrup with white sugar 50/50. For yeast I like WLP530 or 3787. You need a big starter and a way to heat it up to the high 70's or low 80's. If it loses heat it will stop and you will need to pitch a new yeast starter and pray.

Lots of good stuff out there to read about Belgium beers. Almost to much!!!

Good luck

You could use some Special B for color and flavor.

BTW - It's Belgian beers - not Belgium beers. Sorry....pet peeve of mine!

According to ProMash, you're looking at an OG of 1.101 - that's a big beer!

17% of the grist is an awful lot of CaraMunich. Remember, even though it says "Munich", it's still a caramel malt. I wouldn't go more than 10% of the grist with it, for fear of it overpowering the flavor.

For why the CaraPils? I'd omit it.

Cheers,

Bob

Lol. Completely forgot about this thread lol. I've been working hard for a while on my Master's paper which just got turned in last week (been drinking lots of beer in celebration since lol)! Well, i made the beer and it's ok. As NQ3X stated it does have a strong caramel flavor (a little too strong for me) but at least it's a start for recipe design. I wanted to add some special B but my LHBS didn't have any. I will have to make another belgian eventually with some special B in it. I have had other people try the one i just made (they try it out of the fermenter bc i'm going to let it sit for a while!) and they seem to like it so i guess i can't call it a complete failure for first try at designing a recipe. I'm tweaking a hefeweizen right now to try next (although there are still a few holiday beers i would like to try to make even though the holidays are over) but as i'm planning right now it will be a little stronger than your typical hefe :cross:. Once i kinda get it more straight i will post up the recipe and see what you all think. Thanks for the input!

Oh yeah. And according to Beersmith, the color would come out almost black if i had used Dark Candi Syrup. Well, i used the dark candi syrup and the color wasn't darkened that much by it. The color actually came out more of a dark red!