Best beer style and/or recipe for using molasses?

[Radegast]

The neighbors recently boiled a whoooole mess of sorghum molasses in their backyard and were nice enough to give us some. If you've never had sorghum molasses, it's pretty great. It has as much flavor as blackstrap cane molasses, including some vaguely malty notes, but it lacks the intense bitterness and harsh minerality of blackstrap. The neighbors have also shown some interest in my brewing. They let me use their mill to grind a bucket of sorghum juice for a go at sorghum juice wine (All the stuff that's usually skimmed off during the boil formed a massive foam in the neck of the carboy. I had to degas after 24 hours in primary! The foam was thick enough to hold in my hand!).

I was thinking about maybe using the finished product for something. I could make "sorghum mead" or Washingtonbrau or something but I figured it would be a lot more efficient and palatable if I used a small amount in beer.

So, I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations for a beer where molasses might really shine through? I've heard good things about molasses porter, and I've seen discussions of old ales where molasses is highly spoken of. Some even say it's a signature flavor in certain brands like Theakston's Old Peculier. I've heard a lot about T.O.P. and was sort of leaning towards the clone from Clone Brews except replacing the sugar additions with molasses. However, I'm open to anything. If anyone has a good suggestion on a beer to showcase high quality molasses, I'd love to hear it, or any stories about brewing with molasses in general.

 

[neosapien]

robust porter. it's subtle and really, really smooth

 

[TNGabe]

There is no such thing as 'sorghum molasses'. Molasses come from sugar cane. Sorghum syrup is awesome. Molasses are disgusting and shouldn't sully the good name of sorghum!

Now that I'm done ranting, good luck on your brew. I've tried to find ideas for a beer with sorghum syrup, but can only find information on gluten free beers. I'm tempted to try sorghum syrup in place of a portion of dark candi syrup in a dubbel or quad.

 

[Radegast]

Molasses is terrific if you can find the good stuff. We have McCutcheon's around here, and it beats Brer Rabbit or Grandma's any day of the week. Maybe I should do a double batch and use McCutheon's blackstrap in one and my neighbor's sweet sorghum in he other.

So far the candidates are old ale, porter, and dubbel. That covers some pretty good ground.

Does anyone know if dark sugar is ever used in schwarzbier? I think this syrup might be a good way to make it dark while keeping the body light and not too roasty.