TROIS PISTOLES CLONE

Steep at 65-71C for 45 minutes in a grain bag then rinse thoroughly as you fill up the brew pot.

Don't use too much star anise spice.

Wait at least 2 months before drinking this bad boy (consider racking to secondary fermentation). You could even let it sit 6-12 months to ensure whatever bits of star anise that made it into the fermenter have mellowed out.

Instructions for making inverted sugar (scale as necessary):
1 lb sugar (better to use pure cane sugar - I used the brown variant)
1 tsp lemon juice
1.5 cups water
Place all ingredients in a pan
Bring to a boil
Boil for approximately 20 minutes

Original inspiration was from QUAD PISTOLES recipe below. I scaled and tweaked it a little to reduced the alcohol content, and to bring up the IBU a little (as usual!). I don't have access inverted sugar or liquid malt extract. I crushed whole star anise seeds instead of using powder.

Due to the homebrew shop limitation, I made the following swap:
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L --> Caramunich III
Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) --> Melanoidin Malt
Yeast strain
etc...

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=26717
Author "sirsloop":
I made monster sized variant of this beer that recently scored a 40,42,44 at the AHA October National Club only Competition in Michigan, and won a gold medal at the Belgian table at 2008 splitrock beer festival.

QUAD Pistoles
Belgian Dark Strong Ale
Type: Extract Date: 9/17/2008
Batch Size: 5.50 gal Brewer: JD
Boil Size: 4.02 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min Equipment: Brew Pot (4 Gallon)
Taste Rating(42 out of 50)
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
10.00 lb X-Pale LME (3.5 SRM) Extract 58.65 %
3.30 lb Gold Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 19.35 %
1.00 lb Lyle's Golden Syrup (0.0 SRM) Extract 5.87 %
0.70 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4.11 %
0.70 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 4.11 %
0.25 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 1.47 %
0.10 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 0.59 %
1.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (90 min) Hops 9.2 IBU
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (15 min) Hops 1.4 IBU
0.25 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (5 min) Hops 0.3 IBU
0.13 tsp Anise, Star (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
0.13 tsp Anise, Star (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
0.25 oz Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Candi Sugar, Dark (275.0 SRM) Sugar 5.87 %
1 Pkgs
Belgian Golden Ale (White Labs

WLP570) [Starter 3000 ml]

Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Measured Original Gravity: 1.104 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.019 SG
Bitterness: 10.9 IBU Calories: 466 cal/pint
Est Color: 32.1 SRM