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’m planning on brewing a Belgian strong dark ale soon and am considering sugar amounts. The recent thread on candi sugar got me thinking, and also Brew Like A Monk, which I have been closely studying for inspiration. Basically, my recipe outline is as follows:
6# liquid pils extract
3.15# liquid munich extract
14oz. Special B (steeped)
1# of the D2 sugar syrup
?# of cane sugar
German saphir hops with a 60 and 30 min additions, probably aiming for 35 IBUs.
Westmalle yeast cake form a blond I just brewed to propagate it up to suitable levels.
Im my mind, I was going for something resembling westy 8, though I really have no idea how close this is going to be. I really just don’t know how much cane sugar to add. I figure with all that extract, including the munich, I’ll want a decent amount to make sure I get the attenuation that I want, which is high eighties if possible. Thanks for any input! 
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Well you already have a pound of the liquid candy sugar, so you probably don’t need to much of the cane. Somewhere between 10-15% sugars (cane+candy) should be about right.
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I like 20%. Go for another pound of cane! It will ferment out a bit drier and I suppose it depends on what you are going for. Thick and sweet, less sugar/more malt extract.
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When you guys are talking about percent sugar you need to say if it is by weight or by extract. I normally aim for around 20% by extract, but that is closer to 12% by weight (since you get so much more gravity from a pound of sugar than you do a pound of grain).
I think 1.5 lbs of dark candi syrup would do well in this beer. I’d also back down the special B to ~6-8 oz, since you will get plenty of similar flavors from the syrup. Other than that it sounds like a great recipe to me.
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Not that you need me to, but I agree.
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Thanks for the feedback! It looks like I’ll probably be adding 8oz of cane sugar and scaling the Special B back to 8oz as well. I’m really afraid of this beer being too sweet though. Would upping the cane to 1 pound be too much?
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actually, my advice would be exactly what you are doing.
1# D2
.5-.75# table sugar
8oz special b
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Ditto, but I’d cut the Special B to 2 oz .
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NO!
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Don’t pitch the entire yeast cake, aerate the hell out of it. Start shaking the hell out of the carboy after the 2nd day to rouse the yeast, use yeast nutrient if you have some, and don’t start the fermentation higher than 66, then let it rise ~2 degrees a day up to 72.
Cheers.
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This thread is pretty technical, I usually just shoot at the hip as far as sugar additions. Then again, shooting at the hip is my modus operandi for homebrew. 
Don’t be afraid to experiment, and don’t forget to report back! The leftover sugars make it uber-palatable for even non beer geeks. Homebrew is 2 parts technical, 1 part voodoo, and 1 part luck.
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