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Thinking of doing this one, subject to everyone elses opinions...

1 x Coopers Stout

1 x Coopers Mexican Cerveza

500gm homemade candi sugar

500 gm Yellowbox honey

200gm Uncle Tobys Oats - steeped in 65degree water for 30 mins

200gm choc grain - steeped as above

10ml aniseed essence

Craftbrewer dried Belgian Ale yeast ( T-58 so i believe ) either vigorously aerated or pitch two satchets, depending on other people's experiences or recommendations, - supposedly they can go to 11.5% .

Please don't laugh if this sounds stupid, would appreciate guidance or constructive criticism.

Wow, that's some awesome experimentation there!

I'd be very eager to hear how it turns out!

11.5? excelent i'v got a sachet of this and no idea what to do with it, belgian strong ale it is

-Phill

MagooMan wrote:500gm homemade candi sugar

500 gm Yellowbox honey

I would cut both of these in half and sub in more oats (1 KG of home brand oats $1.45) or 500g of LDME unless you REALLY like the taste of that honey.

MagooMan wrote:either vigorously aerated or pitch two satchets

I would do both.

Also I would dry hop with about 20g of Wilamette Fugles or Goldings for a few days near the end of fermentation.

Keep the 500g of candi in there, i used 500g in a duvel clone i made and i'll use 500 more next time in secondary.

gibbocore wrote:Keep the 500g of candi in there, i used 500g in a duvel clone i made and i'll use 500 more next time in secondary.

It is personal taste I guess, in that brew it seemed a bit much to me.

Just suggestions anyway, I am sure it will be quite nice just the way it is!

Can you just steep oats or do you need to mash them with another fermentable with the right enzymes for proper conversion?

I imagine it would be OK to steep them if you used something like Promalt 163. The 200g Chocolate would probably not be enough. Though some of the best malts are supposedly able to break down up to 3 times their weight in unmalted grain!

Alternatively you could do an infusion mash with large rests.

Forgive my ingorance but what is promash??

When you mash malted grains they release enzymes which break them down into sugars. These enzymes are necessary to make the wort we ferment into brew. With unmalted grains you sometimes need to add these enzymes (when the ratio of unmalted grains far outweighs the malted grain) like in your case.

However I think if you did a proper infusion mash the 200g of choc would be enough even if you did use a full kilo of oats as I suggested, I am however just guessing.

Maybe someone will come along that knows a bit more than I?

I pitched two sachets of that T-58 into a brew i made, and after a couple of hours i thought the fermenter was possessed.... That yeast was out of control... but i had no trouble at all getting the brew up to 10% using it... nice yeast for the ol high gravity beglian ales.

James, did it have a decent head?

When it was fermenting? the krausen wasnt too bad... it was about 2-3 inches high. The airlock was bubbling quite violently but nothing but air came out ... not as bad as other yeasts (3944)...

As for the final product. it is about 10% (belgian ale), and although i used carbonation drops, the head disappears quite quickly...

I did however just taste a Grand Cru i made and primed with candi sugar, and that had a luscious and fine head that stayed till the last drop.