Help with Belgian Stout recipe

[OhioGrown]

A few of my buddies and I are planning to brew a batch of beer over Christmas this year and then age it a year or more. We came up with the idea for a strong Belgian Stout that would include dark candi syrup and Brettanomyces in the secondary. Here's the recipe so far:

5 gal batch
OG 1.098
78 IBU

10 lbs Pale Malt (50%)
5 lbs Munich (25%)
1 lb Carapils (5%)
12 oz Crystal 60L (4%)
12 oz Chocolate Malt (4%)
12 oz Roasted Barley (4%)
1 lb Dark Candi Syrup (5%)

2 oz Magnum - 60 min.
1 oz Northern Brewer - 20 min.

White Labs WLP500 Trappist Ale (primary)
B. Lambucus Wyeast 5526 (secondary)


I was just wondering if there's anyway we could improve or tweak this for the better. I've never used Brett. before but my plan was to mash high (154 or so) and use carapils to really give them something to work on in the year-long secondary. Would we be overdoing the dextrins by way of too much carapils and a high mash temp? Id like a nice malty focus and complexity here, but I want to factor in the bitterness fading over time. Should we use any more hops or change varieties? Any adjustments to the grain bill? Are we missing anything?

 

[RonPopeil]

i don't understand the carapils.

i would consider using a carafa in this. get the depth of flavor without so much roasty bitterness.

the northern brewer probably isn't necessary if this is going to secondary for a year.

 

[dcp27]

recipe looks great to me & should go well with the cherry pie notes from the brett L, but i don't see the need for the carapils along with a high mash. bretts character comes from more than just eating the leftover complex sugars. a year-long secondary won't hurt, but you definitely don't need to give it that long just for brett.

while the bitterness may fade with time, you'll also be creating a drier beer so I wouldn't add any more to the mix. personally i'd probably drop it to around 60IBUs.

 

[RonPopeil]

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2008/06/all-about-brettanomyces.html