AG#5 - Dark Knight

[GuitarJImB]

Hi everyone!

I'm planning a brew day for Saturday - brewing my second own recipe! It's (hopefully) going to be a very dark yet hoppy and light bodied brew akin to Castle Rock's "Midnight Owl" which I drank about a year ago (don't think it's a regular of theirs). I'm not trying to make a stout here, rather a dark version of a harvest pale/screetch owl type thing... :thumb:

Anyway, here's the recipe (created using GW's Beer Engine) - what do you guys think? :wha:

25 Litre length

Maris Otter Pale Malt - 5 ebc - 3757g
Torrified Wheat - 4 ebc - 450g
Black Malt - 1300 ebc - 400g
Crystal Malt - 130 ebc - 400g
90 mins mash @ 66c

Centennial - 10.5 alpha - 47g @ 90 mins
Cascade - 5.7 alpha - 28g @ 90 mins
Chinook - 11.5 alpha - 9g @ 10 mins
Fuggles - 4.9 alpha - 9g @ 10 mins

OG 1.044
FG 1.013
Colour 178 EBC
Bitterness 75 EBU
4% ABV

 

[Good Ed]

Black malt should be used in moderation otherwise it will just take over, for this I would only use 1%, or if you are just using it for colouring you could cold steep it and then add to the copper or another way is to use say 30g for a 23L brew length ground in a coffee grinder and sprinkled on the grain bed before sparging

 

[GuitarJImB]

Thanks for that Ed! :thumb:

I suspected as much re the black malt! Are there other ingredients which could be mashed and achieve the same level of colour without creating an overly heavy beer? :wha: I've seen recipes using Chocolate Malt but I'm guessing this creates a heavier brew ie Porter/Stout?

If I were to steep the black malt, how would I go about doing this? And how much BM should I steep to achieve the colour? :wha:

Thanks for the advice! :

 

[Good Ed]

Once you decide how much dark grains to use you could steep 3 x the amount with 2.5L of water for 16 hours; have a look at this http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=23681&p=225981

 

[GuitarJImB]

Thanks Ed! Excellent and interesting reading! Think I'll have a go at FWH aswell!!

Re steeping the black malt, do I have to adjust the grain bill, increasing the remaining ingredients, to achieve the desired OG or does steeping extract required sugars from the black malt & therefore I just mash the other grains as intended?

 

[Good Ed]

I've never done cold steeping before, and it depends on how much you want the black malt to effect flavour as well as colour, but if you just formulate your recipe as normal, and then take the quantity of black malt from your recipe x 3 with 2.5L/kg of water and steep for 16 hours.

Just a point on your recipe it is a very bitter beer at 75IBU for SG 1044, and Screech Owl is about 5.5% ABV. Personally I would go for OG of 1055 which will give you ABV 5.5% and drop the IBU's to 50IBU, all dependant on your tastes of course. If you look at OG and IBU this can be looked at as the BU:GU ratio (Ray Daniels) so you divide the Bittering Units (IBU) by the Gravity Units (OG, just the last 2 digits) to get a ratio, I like my pale ales to be about 0.85 - 0.95, but for my recent brews, an American IPA which is 1.65 and a Scottish ale which is 0.58. So anyway you will get used to what you like, good luck.

 

[GuitarJImB]

Thanks so much for your help Ed!! :thumb:

 

[GuitarJImB]

UPDATE!

Dark Knight is now bottled and priming! :

A few more days then it'll be cooled and left for four weeks conditioning - not sure how long I'll be able to wait cos the half-pint sample went down a treat :drink: (though obviously a bit "green").

Final gravity came out bob-on at 1.013 giving abv of 4%. The WhiteLabs WLP001 California Ale Yeast has made it particularly nice & hoppy! :party:

Thanks to Good Ed for the steeping and first wort hopping tips :thumb: :thumb:

Now, planning a Stout so gonna start a new thread to gain more wisdom... :

 

[tazuk]

so wot was final grail bill and hops etc cheers :thumb:

 

[GuitarJImB]

so wot was final grail bill and hops etc cheers :thumb:

This was the final but... I left the Black Malt out from the mash and multiplied it by x3 and steeped it overnight. I then added the steepings to the copper. All thanks to Good Ed :thumb: :thumb: Worked a treat it seems...

That was the only difference between what's shown and what I did! :

 

[tazuk]

sweet : lets see wot it :drink: like mmm

 

[GuitarJImB]

Really can't wait for this one!! It's gonna be a tough four weeks... :lol:

 

[Baldbrewer]

You not had a little test?

 

[GuitarJImB]

You not had a little test?

OYes!! :thumb:

Just by chance, there just so happened to be half a pint left after bottling :lol: Amazing how that happened!! :lol:

It was lovely (if a bit green) and I can just tell its gonna taste a treat in a few weeks!! :