Dark Lager Recipe Hops Suggestions - Revisited!

[floydmeddler]

Hi all,

I've used these ingredients (apart from the 1.2kg LDME) in my last Dark Lager brew and it turned out fantastic. I have tweaked it a little for this next brew.

1.5kg Coopers Amber Malt Extract
1.2kg Light Dry Malt Extract
250g of crushed Chocolate Grain (20 mins)
50g crushed Roasted Barley (20 mins)
40g Hallertau (50 mins)
Half tsp Irish Moss (15 mins)
Saflager Yeast

Previously, I used 50/50 LDME and dex but have decided to ditch the dex completely and go all malt. In a previous post I made recently, it was suggested that I use balancing hops to balance out the unfermented sugars from the LDME.

I have two concerns:

1.Will the Hallertau suffice or should I add a different hop? If so, how much, when should I add it and how long for?

2. I actually upped the Hallertau by 10 grams and 30mins for this next batch. Is this a bad idea?

Many thanks folks,

Floyd

 

[Goofinder]

2. I actually upped the Hallertau by 10 grams and 30mins for this next batch. Is this a bad idea?

This will give you more bitterness, but less flavour and aroma than last time. Maybe you could add some for bittering at 60min (say 15g) and the rest at 20min for flavour which would get you close to what you had last time, but with a bit more bitterness to balance out the malt.

 

[floydmeddler]

This will give you more bitterness, but less flavour and aroma than last time. Maybe you could add some for bittering at 60min (say 15g) and the rest at 20min for flavour which would get you close to what you had last time, but with a bit more bitterness to balance out the malt.

Sounds like a pretty good idea and definitely one worth exploring! Thanks!

Floyd

 

[RobboMC]

Ditching the dex is a great idea, all malt brews are 200% better IMHO esp Dark ones.

Sounds like last time you used 30g @ 20 min. If you liked this then keep it and
simply ADD more hop for bittering to balance that extra malt.

Bittering is done by boiling for around 45 minutes. I'd be using
maybe up to 25g @ 45 min, as well as the 30g @ 20 min.

Sounds like one great beer in the making.

Why all light DME, and not some dark?

I'm not sure about the colour contribution of the chocolate grain but this doesn't look real dark to me.
Maybe I just like Dark lager darker than most.

 

[floydmeddler]

Why all light DME, and not some dark?

I was advised to use light and didn't question it. This is only my third brew I'm preparing so still very much a newbie to all of this.

Sadly, I couldn't get the Cooper's Amber Malt Extract and bought Munton's Medium Malt Extract which is made completely from barley. Do you think I should add some Crystal malt along with the Roasted Barley and Chocolate malt?

Cheers.

Floyd

 

[buttersd70]

I've never come across muntons medium, only xl, light, amber, dark, and wheat.......
Even the muntons light has a decent colour, 12ebc. The addition of the grains would push this to 34EBC (assuming that the grains are JW and taking average colour values.)
You could probably add some crystal in if you wanted, maybe up to 250g?. In 23L this would put the colour up to around 40-41 EBC, and give 6.6% total grain in the mix. (the amber, both muntons and coopers, have a small amount of crystal in it already, thats why its darker.

note that the colours I have mentioned are really rough numbers, making several assumptions about the colour ratings of the grain itself, so your mileage may vary quite a bit. But the BJCP colour for the dark lager styles (not that I put a lot of stock in BJCP generally, but as an indication) show 27ebc as being the low end for dunkels.