Introduce me to dark beer.

[RobWalker]

Well, I reakon i'm at a stage where my pale and golden ales are very quaffable indeed. That's mostly what I drink, so that's good.

In the meantime, I want to brew a series of 2 gallons brews, get some weird experiments on the go. One thing i've never got on with is dark beer, so it's time to man up and brew something palatable.

The stout and porter are both basically unknown to me, so I want something that's relatively mild and tasty, probably none of the double chocolate stuff :lol: Before you ask, I DON'T want to try commercial equivalents first. This is about getting a recipe together for something i've never tried before.

I'm happy to all grain it for 2 gallons so, any sort of suggestions, advice etc is most welcome!

I have in stock;

Hops

Bobek (open)
Aurora
Fuggles (open)
Goldings (open)
Saaz
Northern Brewer (open)
Bramling Cross (open)
Cascade
Mount Hood (opening these soon.)

Malts - obvs I probably need to pick up chocolate and black.

CaraGold
CaraPils
Caramalt
Crystal Malt
Torrified Wheat

US-05 Yeast

 

[Mark1964]

No maris otter. It forms the base of most beers if you had some you could do a bitter using pale crystal goldings and fuggles

 

[pittsy]

again not what you have in stock but an old bavarian dunkles weissbier is nice its dark and has a wheaty/ale/bitterish taste to it not so much sweet as normal wheats plus i have it as extract recipe you would need dark extract , wheat extract ,using tettnanger or hallertauer hops did this myself any it was rather nice

 

[RobWalker]

No maris otter. It forms the base of most beers if you had some you could do a bitter using pale crystal goldings and fuggles

I'll pick it up as I need it. I do both extract and small AG and don't tend to hold much of a stock, just tend to hold the harder to get malt and hops. I don't intend to make a beer with carapils as the base :lol:

Does that have that weird wheat beer taste pittsy? I really don't like the taste of light wheat beer, I forget what they call it, diacytl? Anyway, that stuff makes me barf! lol. But thanx for the advice, i'm having a google as we speak.

 

[Easy Peasie]

Rob
Have a bash at the porter I posted a few weeks ago. Sweet/ bitter a bit if everything. On my mobile now so will post it tomorrow, it's beautiful. Tried a rat brewery black rat porter last Friday and it was nearly as good as mine.

Andy

 

[pittsy]

regarding dunkles, depends on the way its brewed i guess but i would have to say no (or at least i didn't notice it) it had a bit of nutty/mild coffee taste to it but not that many people seem to like wheats so fair enough :)

 

[Easy Peasie]

pittsy I love erdinger dunkel Fernandes in Wakefield has it on draught, but at nearly 4 quid a pint it's a bit expensive

 

[pittsy]

pittsy I love erdinger dunkel Fernandes in Wakefield has it on draught, but at nearly 4 quid a pint it's a bit expensive

i don't know any where that has anything (wheats) on draught the only thing close (sort of ish well not really ) is 1 place that sells Hoegaarden on draught , i should of been born in Germany or Belgium

 

[deanrpwaacs]

How about starting with a mild.


Pale Malt 2890 g
Wheat Malt or Torri Wheat 445g
Crystal Malt 330 g
Chocolate Malt 235 g


Fuggle Whole 90 min 38 grams
Yeast Nottingham


Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.037
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 3.5% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.2 Litres
Mash Liquor: 9.8 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 22.6195063904831 EBU
Colour: 100 EBC

A nice easy drinking dark beer.
Regards Dean.

 

[BIGJIM72]

I hear many good things about Sarah Hughes dark ruby-you would only need pale malt with the stuff you already have in.

 

[zgoda]

pittsy I love erdinger dunkel Fernandes in Wakefield has it on draught, but at nearly 4 quid a pint it's a bit expensive

i don't know any where that has anything (wheats) on draught the only thing close (sort of ish well not really ) is 1 place that sells Hoegaarden on draught , i should of been born in Germany or Belgium

You'd pay 10-15 euros for a pint of ale and had to drink 5% ABV lagers as session beer, effectively making your "sessions" much shorter lol.

Plus homebrewing in Germany is subject to excise duty if you exceed 200 litres per year.

There's no perfect place for beer lover on this earth.

 

[Easy Peasie]

Rob
Big jims spot on there Sarah Hughes is a great pint brewed it about 5 times out of GW's book. :thumb:

 

[Hawks]

If you don't want to do the commercial ones I can highly recommend Wez's Big Kenny from the recipes section.... :thumb:

 

[RobWalker]

How dark is sarah hughes? Im all for hobgoblin so although it sounds great, is it dark enough to be adventurous? :-P
Thanks for the ideas guys, plenty.to keep me pondering while im working in the rain!

 

[Hawks]

I just re-read your post which says stout or porter, so ignore my earlier one ( although Big Kenny is still v good )

What about aleman's oatmeal stout ? That is also really good and more the colour you are after maybe... :thumb: