enough/too much special b?

[peavis]

This is my first attempt at coming up with a strong dark ale recipe. Was wondering if it looks alright?

belgian pils- 10.5 lbs
special b- 1 lbs
1 bottle of D2 (16 oz)
cane sugar- 2 lbs

.5 oz target @60
.5 oz saaz @20

wyeast 3787

thanks for any input!

 

[Nateo]

Looks good!

Just make sure your starter is big enough and it'll make a good beer. Some people say you should underpitch Belgians, but from my experience, you can't have too much yeast.

 

[SKMO]

Might be having a brain fart here... but what is D2 ?

 

[ayoungrad]

I didn't know either. Googled it. It's dark Belgian candy syrup.

 

[peavis]

cool, thanks nateo.

 

[devilishprune]

I made a similar BDSA recently. If you're feeling ambitious then you can check out this thread and make your own candi syrup: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/20-lb-sugar-jar-yeast-nutrient-114837/ .

 

[Crustovsky]

Just curious, aren't the Special B and D2 combined going to be a bit on the redundant side? You're not exactly going to be short on D2 syrup, seems like it might be a bit excessive to have so much of both. Perhaps dropping the Special B in favour of Aromatic malt or some Munich malt would be preferable.

Maybe a bit heavy on the cane sugar too. About half as much light invert sugar/syrup seems a more reasonable ratio to me.

 

[peavis]

ya i was kinda unsure about using the special b and d2 together. maybe i'll cut the special b half a pound and do a half of aromatic.

 

[Golddiggie]

You might want to reference some of the other Belgian Strong Dark Ale recipes to see what they put into them. Nothing wrong with using one as a base, but putting your own spin onto it...

 

[Nateo]

Shameless self-promotion:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/candi-syrup-experiment-trying-clone-d2-220882/

I've gotten better results with my method than I did with Snickasaurus', at least, closer to D2. You can make a really good lighter syrup with his method.