Belgian Stout?

I stopped into my lhbs the other day just to bs and brain storm a bit and noticed he had a few cans of dark lme marked down. I was thinking of taking advantage of that and the warm weather and brewing up something like the following:
For 3.5 gallons:
Steep:
4 oz each:
Chocolate malt
Belgian biscuit
Belgian aromatic

Boil:
6.6# dark lme
.5# Amber Candi syrup
4oz brown sugar

1 oz centennial @ 60
.5 oz hallertau @ 30

For yeast I was thinking belle saison or some Abbey yeast

What I'm going for is a base stout with a low but noticeable roast character and some fruit notes from the Belgian yeast and Candi syrup. I'm open to changing up the bittering hop and steeping grains if anybody has different ideas.

My main concern would be that Ill just end up with a Belgian dark ale (not that that's a bad thing) but I do kinda want this to be a stout first and finish with those Belgian yeast flavors.

Thoughts/feelings/opinions?

 

It's hard to say how it'll come out without knowing what the lovibond contributor from the LME will be. Does it say on the package?

Instinct says up your chocolate malt by least 2 oz, 4 oz might be safer.

I might also suggest swapping centennial for something more flavor-neutral like nugger or magnum. It's going to have complex flavor as it is, clean hops will help the other flavors shine through.

 

What is the Dark LME composed of?

You'll want to more than likely use a hefty amount of Pale/Light DME/LME rather than using Dark.

If you do use the Dark, I'd eliminate any steeping grains and use a darker candi syrup.

I would figure:

70% Light LME/DME
15% Dark Steeping Grains
10% Dark Syrup

A more neutral bittering hop (magnum)

1762 Rochefort Yeast

Commercial examples of "Belgian" stouts I have tasted arent that great. They more often taste like roasty/acrid messes than effective hybrids.

An effective method may be to just look up a RIS recipe, sub for some of the darker roasted specialty grains with suitable Belgian replacements (debittered black, special B, Caramalts, etc.) and boost the gravity and flavor with D-90 or D-180. I would pick the most neutral Belgian yeast you can find and ferment it cold.

 

I brewed this last year and thought it was an awesome beer! http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/mustache-envy-belgian-stout-limited-edition-all-grain-kit

Easy enough to convert the base grains to LME and keep the specialty grain amounts.

Anyway, my tastes can vouch for the recipe, and it may give you a starting point. Good luck!

 

http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Assets/PDFs/Briess_PISB_CBWSpecialDarkLME.pdf

Briess has links that give the makeup of their extracts. Could start there. I wouldnt say the rochefort strain is the "cleanest" belgian yeast. Maybe cleaner than chimay, but Id maybe try WLP550/WY3522 first

 

Thanks for all the feedback so far! Especially that last link, I've been looking for that for a while and haven't been able to find it.

I know the better practice is to use light extracts but I'll probably stick to the dark just cause they're on sale. I've actually brewed a couple really good beers with dark extract so I'm not really to afraid to use them.

Still deciding on yeast...a cleaner strain would probably be a safer bet but honestly I kinda want some of those typical Belgian yeast flavors

 

If you can get your hands on some Midnight Wheat Malt, I would highly suggest this. Lots of coffee/chocolate without any ashy roastiness. Good combo to have it with chocolate malts. Tossing 2oz extra won't hurt and if anything will just help it. I think it adds a level of creaminess as well thats very enjoyable. (it acts like a debittered roast/black malt)

Also if you can, most of the Belgian strains will express strong Belgian qualities if you can keep the temp nice and high (I've had success pulling very Belgian-y characteristics with 3068 in the low 80F's, lots of stone fruit esters, less banana, but very floral fragrant alcohol with stone fruit ester).

 

I made a Belgian style stout with regular old Nottingham, and it still tasted pretty Belgian. It was kind of similar to your situation, it actually used some Rye LME I got for free that I needed to use. I used Syrian Goldings exclusively for the hops, and added about 1.5 lbs of candi sugar.

People will tell you it's not Belgian if you don't use Belgian yeast. But you're the one drinking it, so it's your opinion that counts.

 

The Truth.