Belgian Barleywine

[erockrph]

A while back I had some Konigs Hoeven Dubbel, and thought the flavor profile would be fantastic in an English Barleywine (I'm a huge Thomas Hardy fan). I ended up taking a clone recipe for the Konigs Hoeven dubbel and stepping it up/combining it with a recipe for Thomas Hardy. My biggest concern with the recipe is that I do want to end up with a fair amount of sweetness (I'm shooting for a Barleywine with some Belgian flavors, not a dubbel/BDS with some English character).

I haven't brewed with the dark Candi Syrup before, so I'm not sure how much residual sugar that is going to leave. Anyone have any thoughts on the recipe below? My thought was to either add some Special B or maybe bump up the mash temp a bit, but I'm open to any suggestions.

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Belgian Barleywine

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: English Barleywine
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 2 gallons
Boil Size: 3.3 gallons
Efficiency: 65%

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.108
Final Gravity: 1.027
ABV (standard): 10.62%
IBU (tinseth): 62.14
SRM (morey): 25.43

FERMENTABLES:
4 lb - Belgian Pilsner (48%)
3 lb - Maris Otter Pale (36%)
0.67 lb - Belgian Candi Syrup - D180 (8%)
0.67 lb - Lyle's Golden Syrup (8%)

HOPS:
0.67 oz - Ultra (AA 9) for 60 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil
0.67 oz - Willamette (AA 5) for 20 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil

MASH STEPS:
1) Infusion, Temp: 152 F, Time: 90 min, Amount: 2.5 qt, Sacc rest

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 each - Whirlfloc, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil

YEAST:
Wyeast - Belgian Abby Ale II 1762

[Joe Sr.]

I recently brewed a quad (Denny's 400th Batch recipe) with 2 lbs of dark candi syrup.

There's definitely sweetness there, but it fermented out further than I expected (after a long stall in the mid 20s).  I may have gotten more attenuation than typical, as I pitched some more yeast from the yeast cake of a recent batch to get it going again.  Regardless, my experience is that the dark syrups are highly fermentable.

My other thought is that the Abbey yeast is going to give you a beer that is more BDS with some English character.

It's been YEARS since I brewed it, but I did a strong ale previously where I fermented with a low-attenuating ale yeast (can't remember which) and then transferred the batch onto a cake of 1762 to finish.  This gave some Belgian character, but not over-powering.  At the time, I was just looking to get it to ferment out to a lower FG and not looking for any specific character. 

I'm not sure that it's repeatable, or that it would give you what your looking for, but it might be another option to consider.

[erockrph]

Thanks for the info. I think I'm going to stop by the LHBS and grab 1/4lb of either Special B or some English Dark Crystal.

My other thought is that the Abbey yeast is going to give you a beer that is more BDS with some English character.

To clarify a bit, I'm looking for the phenols/esters/flavors from the Belgian yeast and Candi Syrup, but the body/sweetness and sherry-like components of an English Barleywine. The only part of the Abbey yeast that scares me is that it might dry things out a bit too much for me. Hopefully by adding some crystal malt and maybe bumping the mash temp a few degrees will keep some sweetness.