February Dark beer competition

[Stu's Brews]

Have you entered it into any other competitions. Judging has made me have a good think about my own brew schedule.

Entered it into both the Scottish and UK nationals.

It didn't place at the Scottish nationals, scoring 32, which I felt was a bit harsh. The main complaint was a lack of body/mouthfeel for the style. I don't necessarily disagree with that particular bit of feedback as I was a little heavy-handed with my finings and probably stripped out too much protein.

Finished 3rd on its table at the UK nationals, scoring 41.

Score sheets are attached if you want to take a look and compare to your own notes.

 

[samale]

32 is harsh, some difference between the both.

 

[Stu's Brews]

32 is harsh, some difference between the both.

Yeah, either it was a dud bottle or just a quirk of subjectively judging a beer. Was quite relieved to see it score much better second time around though!

 

[Twostage]

Well done the placers and winner and thanks to @samale for judging.

I've still got a few bottles of @matt76 black IPA I made with his recipe. Might just have one tonight.

I don't think I've made an oatmeal stout so seeing the recipe would be good.

Oops. @matt76 you gave me your American Amber Ale, not black IPA. The Black one was from @dave_77.

Soooo. I'm having both tonight

 

[matt76]

The beer didn't attenuate quite as fully as intended (FG was expected to be 1.013). I suspect it may have warranted a slightly longer mash given the high proportion of specialty and unmalted grains.

66% AA is pretty good for that strain given 20% of your grist is, I would argue, essentially unfermentable. From my experience of brewing comparable dark beers of similar strength, I'd expect a FG similar to yours, maybe even a touch higher around 1.018-1.021.

I've had this argument on here before, but I'm convinced brewing calculators lie and will tell you chocolate malt or roasted barely will attenuate more or less the same as base malt - to me that just seems absurd.

 

[samale]

@matt76 could you post the black IPA recipe please. If anyone else that placed care to share their recipes

 

[brewhaha]

My Triple Bock is based on this recipe from Michael Tonsmeire - https://www.themadfermentationist.com/2009/05/wheat-triplebock_17.html?m=1

I didn't get up to that FG though & ended up with a 16 litre batch rather than the 20 litres I aimed for. The grain bill was too big for my kit to be honest so if I brew it again, I'd aim for a smaller batch & a longer boil to really concentrate the wort.

I brewed a Helles before this beer & basically used it as a giant starter for the Bock yeast, pitching the Triple Bock wort straight onto the fresh yeast cake. Went off like a rocket!

I added bourbon soaked whisky barrel chunks to half the batch but it just won't carbonate & is rather sweet with the unfermented conditioning sugar in there. A real shame as the oak & bourbon really add to the flavour profile.

 

[matt76]

@matt76 could you post the black IPA recipe please. If anyone else that placed care to share their recipes

In my brew day thread here

 

[pilgrimhudd]

My imperial....

Going for 10l in the FV, Full volume no sparge.

2.5 kg Pale
1.25 kg Pilsner
500g Oats
300g Choc
250g Mucich
200g Roast Barley
175g Caramunich 2
125g Special B
50g Brown
50g Cafe

Mashed for 2 hours in 20l of tap water at 68c. Bag out and squeezed like hell, unsure if amount in kettle is right so sparged with 2l of boiled water at 75c.

In the boil, 60g Target for bittering at 60 mins.

125g Malt extract
125g Brown Sugar
300g Cane Sugar @15

Cup of stove top coffee in the fv.

Kveik yeast og 1092, think it finished at 1020... but it ended 9.5%.

 

[nidge]

Thanks for judging samale and congratulations to all the winners

 

[samale]

I should have all the feedback complete tonight. Sorry but I have been working all week

 

[Jim Brewster]

Massive apologies again, I bottled my entry two weeks ago. I've not been home and then I've been living on a boat. It still tastes ok, so if you want I'll post one off.

 

[Caramel Ox]

Massive apologies again, I bottled my entry two weeks ago. I've not been home and then I've been living on a boat. It still tastes ok, so if you want I'll post one off.

It’s dark beers again for June so why not enter it here:

Thread 'June 2024 - Dark Beers'
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/june-2024-dark-beers.105089/