Buffalo Stout Clone? Belgian Stout advice?

[john from dc]

edit: WRONG SUBFORUM! I'm sorry. Would a moderator please move to recipes and ingredients?

Has anyone had Buffalo stout from Brouwerij Van den Bossche? The ratings on beer advocate are kind of scathing, but I really liked it.

The following review is based on my unrefined qualitative impresson. I'm not too well versed in the finer aspects of beer tasting but I know what I like.

To me it combined a little of the roasty flavor and robust mouthfeel of a stout, with a moderate ester(?) profile I associate with Belgian yeast, with what seemed like a slightly more pronounced hop character than your typical belgian strong ale.

Basically it combines my favorite aspects of my three favorite styles of beer: stout, belgian ale, and american pale ale. Plus it had a strong kick to it. The ability to create brews like this is the reason I started homebrewing!

Now on to my question. I'm not looking to create a clone per se, although a clone recipe would be very helpful as a starting point. I'm more looking to create a recipe that combines those three components so that they balance and compliment each other.

As a starting point I was thinking about finding a good looking Imperial Stout recipe, and substituting a Belgian yeast. Does anyone who's tried something similar have any words of advice?

 

[DeathBrewer]

not sure about the actual clone recipe, but it was a damn good beer. it's pretty much a stout with belgian yeast.

 

[ColoradoXJ13]

I brewed Brewpastor's Russian Unorthodox Imperial Stout and used Wyeast 3787 which is a belgian strain. I did this from the advice of a brewer at Avery who said they use that strain for Mephistopheles, and the mix of the esters from that strain and the chocolate and roasted malts combine to give a cherry/apricot like nose. I have it aging on oak (been there for a few months) and will bottle eventually. It tasted pretty good, you could start with that and then over-hop it, using a hop you think might work...