Rescuing my Munich Dunkel

[bottle top]

Hi guys

After nearly 20 years of brewing I've decided to have a crack at my first AG lager, a Munich Dunkel. I created a recipe based on others I found online, but on review I think I have gone way too heavy on the spec malts. I included the melanoidin as I'm not doing a decoction, but I probably should have dropped the Caramunich to compensate.

I have already ordered the grain (mixed) so it's too late to remove any, so I'm looking for ideas on how to adjust the recipe to turn it into a decent lager. E.g. increase the base malts and batch size, or increase the hops to balance out the sweetness from the crystal. Or is there another style I can aim for with this grain bill?

Thanks in advance, recipe below:

Fermentables
3.2kg (67.4%) Munich I (Weyermann)
1kg (21.1%) Pilsner (Weyermann)
0.25kg (5.3%) Melanoidin (Weyermann)
0.25kg (5.3%) Caramunich II (Weyermann)
0.05kg (1.1%) Carafa Special II (Weyermann)

Hops
Hallertauer 40g @60, 20g @20

Yeast
2 x W-34/70

Expected OG 1.050
Expected FG 1.012
Colour 13.6 Brown
IBU Total (Rager) 22.7 Normal
IBU Total (Tinseth) 23.5 Normal
Calculated ABV 4.8%

 

[Jack of all biers]

Your recipe is not outrageous and looks quite reasonable for the 'style', so RDWHAHB. If you had all Munich malt and not cut it with the pils, I'd still not worry, as for example, I have a published recipe for a Dunkel (and have brewed it) with 94% Munich II and 5.8% caramunich. I would argue that your mix of munich I, Pils and Melanoidin malt roughly equal the Munich II in my recipe. It is a good one by the way.

Re tweaking your recipe. If you are worried about the sweetness from the caramunich being overly present, then maybe mash at a low 60-62C to dry out your base malts a bit. Personally, I'd brew your recipe 62C for 60mins then up to 70C for 20mins (then mashout at 75C if such a thing is for you) or be lazy and just go for a 66C single infusion.

Re your IBU's. Don't play with them too much as to high IBU's can ruin/taint this 'style' (if that is what you are going for). You want malt forward richness, just balanced by the hop bitterness. Somewhere as you have them and not above 25 would be ideal. I once did a 24 IBU with a dry mash (low 60's) and the bitterness was noticable to me and kind of took something away from it. Again, I'd go with what you have above and see if it needs tweaking rather than worrying about it before you've tried.

 

[bottle top]

Thanks for the detailed response Jack.

I like the idea of mashing lower to dry it out a bit. I will stick with the original recipe, following your suggested mash schedule, and see how it turns out.