Dark Lagers - What Kits&bits Do/would You Use?

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wyane

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Hi all - am interested to hear what any of you kit and extract brewers do for the darker lagers.

Got inspired by the Schwarzbier aka Black Pils recipe on the Coopers site. yeah i get inspired easily ok :)
But also wanted to polish off the last 200g of a bag of chocolate malt ... then on brew day (just done) I realised I had way less dark dry malt than i thought.

The magic spreadsheet gave me all green lights for gravity, colour and ibu -- but will this produce too much of a roasted/burned flavour? According to the styleguide "The roast can be coffee-like but should never be burnt." Oh and don't laugh at my use of the good ol' Ringworm!

Cheers

can Thomas Coopers Pilsner
Kit yeast + w-34/70
1kg LME
200g Chocolate malt } steeped 30 mins
200g pale crystal }
180g dark dry malt
100g brown sugar
100g golden syrup
5g PoR 45min
5g PoR 15min
 
I'm by no means an expert so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I would use hallertau hops instead of ringworm. I think that would suit the style more.

I don't think it is a style many kit users make so I'm not sure how many replies you will get. Just try it and see - if it tastes okay, tweak it and try again.
 
I'm interested in this as well. I recently tried Negra Modelo and quite enjoyed it, so would like ideas on a kits and bits Vienna Lager.
 
I'm by no means an expert so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I would use hallertau hops instead of ringworm. I think that would suit the style more.

I don't think it is a style many kit users make so I'm not sure how many replies you will get. Just try it and see - if it tastes okay, tweak it and try again.

+1 for hallertau, it will definitely suit the style more.
 
+1 for hallertau, it will definitely suit the style more.

Noted. I try to not have too many types of hops on hand at once ... if the hops jump this out of style moreso than the choc malt then I'm ok with that. An Aussie Schwarzbier perhaps? :)
 
I put down my first dark lager about 10 days ago as an experiment. It was something like:

Can of morgans blue mountain lager
1 kg dex
500 g dark DME
100g each of pale choc, crystal and roast barley
15g of hallertau at 15 mins
Coopers pilsner yeast (14g) which according to their website is a proper lager yeast that works best at 11-14 deg.

The spreadsheet said yes.
It seems to be going okay, but I have the flu so it's hard to tell taste wise. SG atm is 1.008. If it turns out crap I'll use a better yeast and take out the barley and try again.
 
made a 25L batch as follows and loved it
1.5kg coopers light malt
1.5kg coopers amber malt
400g light dry malt
400g dark dry malt
280g Light Crista(60ebc)
120g carafa 1
280g choc malt(600ebc)
120g roasted barley
200g dextrose
hops were hersbrucker and mittelfruh yeast s23

think the recipe was based on docs schwarzbier recipe off the DB and have brewed it a couple of times(love it)
will be brewing it again soon(needs 2-4weeks conditioning in the keg to balance out a bit)
 
Welcome to thw wonderful world of dark lager, they can be great beers.
Great time of year to brew these, nice and cold.

The Coopers receipe has a whole 1.5kg can of Dark Liquid Malt and is not really a true Swarzbier, more of a
Black Lager. You have much less dark malt in your recipe which still looks good, enjoy the beer.

There's no reason you can't go overboard next time and add as much burnt/roast character as you like
and get something the colour of cola. It's not Swarzbier anymore, but really Black Pilsener. And if you go too far you just get an Irish Stout or a weak version of Baltic Porter.

Last year I made this:

Bohemian Black Pilsener 23 litres 6.2%abv

1 can Thomas Coopers Pilsener
1 can Dark Liquid Malt
1 kg Morgans Roasted Black Liquid malt
250g Dark Brown Sugar
250g Brew Enhancer 2
50g Saaz ( boiled 8 minutes )
Yeast : Lager of your choice

ferment at 11-14 deg C for around 3 weeks

I love serving up a glass of beer the colour of cola and people ask what kit I used and they
fall off their chair when I answer with Coopers Pilsener!

Just about to launch into this winter's edition as the weather turns freezing which will be based on Cascade hops.

And forget the style officianados, if you want to put Ringwood into YOUR beer then go ahead, just remember that
'if you mix it then you drink it'. You can always change the hops next time.
 

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