My first attempt at a dark beer. I'm not a big fan of dark beers but I like to have one every now and again. I didn't feel like following a recipe, so I 'promashed' one to basic guidelines of low/med IBU and not too over the top with things.
Here's what I came up with. The main object of this brew was to use some black malt. I'm pretty happy with it. Brewday was 23rd sept, kegged it yesterday and force carbed. Nice rich malt flavour that rounds out into a slight coffee/dark chocolate flavour. Good body, bitterness is around where I wanted it (lowish) and there's no aroma (no aroma hops addition). Chocolate milkshake colour head, not overly longlasting unfortunately but still OK.
Fermentation was super fast, climbing out of the fermenter, the krausen stretching the gladwrap upwards about 15cms !! Done in 3 days, I waited 2 more and turned the ferment fridge down to 0 deg for a couple of days then kegged. Finished up at around 6% ish, so not
too heavyhanded.
Missus likes it, neighbour across the road came over for a few and loved it, reckoned it was dangerously drinkable (then stumbled off home after about a litre of it with a big smile on his face
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
). I was thinking of bottling some from the keg with a little vanilla extract to try it out. Generally happy with the result. Might figure out some hops/malt tweaks next time. Recipe for those interested...
A ProMash Recipe Report
BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
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Stout
Min OG: 1.048 Max OG: 1.065
Min IBU: 25 Max IBU: 48
Min Clr: 22 Max Clr: 60 Color in SRM, Lovibond
Recipe Specifics
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Batch Size (L): 27.50 Wort Size (L): 27.50
Total Grain (kg): 5.65
Anticipated OG: 1.052 Plato: 12.78
Anticipated SRM: 20.4
Anticipated IBU: 27.3
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------
Evaporation Rate: 15.00 Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 35.48 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.040 SG 10.01 Plato
Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
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88.5 5.00 kg. Cryer Ale 1.038 2
1.8 0.10 kg. Melanoidin Malt 1.033 35
1.8 0.10 kg. CaraPilsner France 1.035 10
4.4 0.25 kg. JWM Amber Malt Australia 1.038 23
3.5 0.20 kg. TF Black Malt UK 1.033 645
Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.00 g. Goldings - E.K. Whole 4.75 10.2 60 min.
12.00 g. Simcoe Pellet 12.00 17.1 60 min.
Yeast
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Danstar Nottingham