Orkney Dark ISland

[mirsultankhan]

Not sure sorry. Possibly the dark grains, which will have affected the PH. I have usually steeped dark grains separately, but last time I added them half way through the mash, and got very high efficiency.

I see, hmmm you also have soft water I believe. Do you simply steep them overnight and introduce them into the boil? I see how this would avoid the problem and half way through the mash makes excellent sense as well, thanks man, will do that next time.

 

[clibit]

I steep separately during the mash.

 

[MyQul]

Rather than carry on disrupting the Newcastle Brown thread, I'll stick my attempt at a recipe for Dark Island in this new thread. the brewery website tells us the ingredients:

A classic Scottish dark ale with chocolate and roasted malt flavours. Brewed with Pale Ale, Crystal, Chocolate and Wheat malts and hopped with First Gold and Goldings hops. So...

Batch Size (L): 23.0
Original Gravity (OG): 1.045
Final Gravity (FG): 1.011
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.42 %
Colour (SRM): 25.9 (EBC): 51.0
Bitterness (IBU): 31.7 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

3.900 kg Pale Malt (85.25%)
0.275 kg Chocolate (6.01%)
0.200 kg Crystal Medium 145 EBC (4.37%)
0.200 kg Wheat Malt (4.37%)

40.0 g East Kent Golding Leaf (5.7% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes
30.0 g First Gold Leaf (8.3% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes

(I've used First Gold as the flavour hops purely out of my love for them, it may well be the other way round. And the real thing may well use less hops than this per litre)

The pint I had was more chocolate than crystal. I've no idea which crystal it uses, so I've gone for the standard medium. But it may be dark crystal. The amount of chocolate and crystal, and the type of crystal, are the main unknown factors.

Mash at 67°C for 60 Minutes.
Ferment at 18-20°C with Safale US-05 or Nottingham. The pint I had seemed very neutral on the yeast front.

Going to UBrew later to pick up the grains for this. I'm assuming they'll have wheat malt but if they don't can I use something like torrified wheat instead? And at the same amount?

 

[clibit]

Yes, and yes. It's there for foam purposes, I reckon. Both will do the job. But wheat malt is widely used, they are likely to have it - for wheat beers.

 

[MyQul]

Cheers Clibit :hat: I think they probably will have it but it's a pain they don't list what grains/hops they do have. I know they've got terrified wheat as I've bought it before so was going to go for that as a back up if they didn't have wheat malt. I know that wheat malt is there for head retention but wasn't sure if it brought anything else to the party that terrified wheat doesn't

 

[clibit]

Cheers Clibit :hat: I think they probably will have it but it's a pain they don't list what grains/hops they do have. I know they've got terrified wheat as I've bought it before so was going to go for that as a back up if they didn't have wheat malt. I know that wheat malt is there for head retention but wasn't sure if it brought anything else to the party that terrified wheat doesn't

It tastes a bit different but shouldn't be noticeable in that quantity.

 

[Halfacrem]

Not sure sorry. Possibly the dark grains, which will have affected the PH. I have usually steeped dark grains separately, but last time I added them half way through the mash, and got very high efficiency.

At the risk of hi-jacking this thread, could you please expand on dark grains in the mash? My recent Dry Stout had terrible mash efficiency. The grain bill had a total of 11.5% grain made up of Roasted Barley and Choco Malt. I mixed these in with the pale malt and flaked barley at the beginning of the Mash? Would another method have improved the efficiency?

 

[clibit]

At the risk of hi-jacking this thread, could you please expand on dark grains in the mash? My recent Dry Stout had terrible mash efficiency. The grain bill had a total of 11.5% grain made up of Roasted Barley and Choco Malt. I mixed these in with the pale malt and flaked barley at the beginning of the Mash? Would another method have improved the efficiency?

I'm not an expert but I know that dark roasted grains affect the PH of the mash. I was advised to keep them out of the mash if I wasn't going to use water treatment to adjust the PH. Which I have done quite a few times. Last time I made a stout, recently, I just added them to the mash after 30 mins and it worked well, I got 80ish% efficiency.

It's also possible I guess that software will over-estimate the efficiency you will get when including dark grains, as they won't contribute a lot of fermentable sugar, if any - though the software should take that into account.

 

[MyQul]

I went to ubrew to buy my grains but the order got messed up and 500g of crystal went in instead of 200g. I don't normally have all my grains mixed up but this time I did as it was a complete recipe so couldnt get em back out again.

Guess the beer is going to come out a bit different from expected. Do you think the extra crystal will be ok or do you think I should mash a bit lower?

 

[clibit]

It'll be different but I'm sure it'll still be good, and not wildly different. I wouldn't mash much lower, maybe 66.

 

[MyQul]

That's what I planned to mash at before the extra crystal.

 

[clibit]

Well maybe 65 but I wouldn't go any lower. Can you not buy the grains separately?

 

[MyQul]

Yes, and thats what I normally do but they didnt have any spare bags so had to use an empty 25kg grain bag. They're not really geared up for selling to HBers although they do. They're core business is hiring their equipment and brewing onsite

 

[mirsultankhan]

I tasted mine yesterday when i was checking the gravity. It has a wonderful coffee flavor at the back end imparted by the dark malts.

 

[private4587]

Not sure sorry. Possibly the dark grains, which will have affected the PH. I have usually steeped dark grains separately, but last time I added them half way through the mash, and got very high efficiency.

I am lost being a thicky here but do you steep then over night and then just add liquid to wart or do you just add chocolate to he tun halfway through the mash time

 

[private4587]

Rather than carry on disrupting the Newcastle Brown thread, I'll stick my attempt at a recipe for Dark Island in this new thread. the brewery website tells us the ingredients:

A classic Scottish dark ale with chocolate and roasted malt flavours. Brewed with Pale Ale, Crystal, Chocolate and Wheat malts and hopped with First Gold and Goldings hops. So...

Batch Size (L): 23.0
Original Gravity (OG): 1.045
Final Gravity (FG): 1.011
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.42 %
Colour (SRM): 25.9 (EBC): 51.0
Bitterness (IBU): 31.7 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

3.900 kg Pale Malt (85.25%)
0.275 kg Chocolate (6.01%)
0.200 kg Crystal Medium 145 EBC (4.37%)
0.200 kg Wheat Malt (4.37%)

40.0 g East Kent Golding Leaf (5.7% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes
30.0 g First Gold Leaf (8.3% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes

(I've used First Gold as the flavour hops purely out of my love for them, it may well be the other way round. And the real thing may well use less hops than this per litre)

The pint I had was more chocolate than crystal. I've no idea which crystal it uses, so I've gone for the standard medium. But it may be dark crystal. The amount of chocolate and crystal, and the type of crystal, are the main unknown factors.

Mash at 67°C for 60 Minutes.
Ferment at 18-20°C with Safale US-05 or Nottingham. The pint I had seemed very neutral on the yeast front.

Hi Clibit sorry for my ignorance as i am totally new to home brewing, but i do so like Orkney Dark Island. I have looked on various sites for Crystal Medium 145EBC but the nearest i have found is a 130EBC would this make any difference

 

[Brewdoug]

Hi Clibit sorry for my ignorance as i am totally new to home brewing, but i do so like Orkney Dark Island. I have looked on various sites for Crystal Medium 145EBC but the nearest i have found is a 130EBC would this make any difference

Don't think you'll get an answer from Clibit cos he doesn't post on this forum anymore.
The homebrew company do Crystal 145 EBC. I'm no expert but I would have thought the difference between 145 and 130 EBC crystal in this recipe would be pretty minimal. And hey, it would just be your interpretation and may even be better.