Molasses and honey

Anyone ever used both? I'm looking at doing a darker ale, maybe a dubbel, or even a stout, but wanted to use molasses and honey. Now I'm thinking it might be pointless to use both. Thoughts?

Molasses can really mess up a beer if over-used. It can impart a harsh minerally metallic taste at worst, and at best it seems to add a sort of licorice-like sweetness. It's one of the things that I think makes New Planet's Pale Ale taste twangy and metallic...NOT a good complement to sorghum! If you want a dark-colored syrup, try Belgian Candi Syrup, it works really well in stouts and dubbels. Or try burning some honey--that adds TONS of color (like half a pound of it will turn a beer pitch-black) and can impart a roasted and smoky flavor. Don't overdo it, though--I've yet to make a nice balanced beer with burnt honey, in fact two of them end up dumpers. One thing I've learned is that unlike when brewing with raw honey, you actually want a light-colored clear filtered and processed honey, because the same stuff that makes raw honey flavorful makes burnt honey harsh and rough around the edges.

I've used molasses quite a bit, and I have to agree with igliashon... too much becomes very apparent. It certainly has a place in GF brewing, but after fermentation it absolutely loses that malty flavor and keeps the acrid flavors, so you don't want to use a lot.

Well you guys saved me a headache. I used d45 in my last brew. It is still in the fermentation stage, three weeks today. I would have pulled it out last week but you very same folks told me let it ride. I'm curious, do commercial brewers use candi syrup?

Yep! It's in most darker Belgian beers, or at least was at some point. I believe McChouffe is the canonical example. Also Harvester uses it in their new dubbel, which is delicious!

I agree on the candi syrup, I even make my own. 1 pound dark syrup will color a 5 gal beer black with a bit of flavor, a few pounds of syrup and you can have whatever flavor/color you want. Ages out smooth and ferments quickly unlike the molasses.