Ok this thread needs bumping.
Another member and I decided to have a crack at Lethal's recipe above....svyturys(Alan) and I got together for a brew day after meeting on the site here and only being 5 mins from each other in the same suburb.
We dubbed this brew 'honeygate' as I made the mistake of putting in the whole 500ml of honey rather than the 250ml as above. All this did really was bump up the alc % to that similar to Red Ducks Big strong Belgian 10.5%.
Al cracked a bottle a few weeks ago and his father a beer drinker that knows some world class beers dubbed it 'best beer he has ever had'!
I cracked and had to have a sample myself at near the three month mark although I'm intending on not touching it for another 3 months.
Well........This beer is simply superb!
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
After letting the longie sit for a while I poured a nice chalice of dark beer with a beautiful thick head. At first it had the definite harsher alcohol to it but when left to a temp best suited to this beer the flavour....oh the flavour comes thru! Perfect esters, perfect carbonation, perfect mouthfeel and just about spot on. I can't believe home brew can be this good and created such a complex beer. And the Mr's hates these so I get two glasses out of every longneck to myself LOL Would love to do this with a liquid abbey ale yeast for comparison.
We are getting together to do another batch and recreate the 'honeygate' mistake as why mess with a good thing I say LOL
From memory it sat at about 20 degrees the first week and then was allowed to reach 22 degrees in the second week. Not a lot of time in the primary for a beer with such a high SG but its created a great beer none the less.
Props to Al for watching over this brew and bottling it. Al's introduction of sorts to steeping grain and extract brewing and know he knows its a piece of cake and he already makes great beers.
Great work Al but my liver might not be so happy about the success LOL