White Rabbit Dark Ale Clone

[jbirbeck]

I doubt very much that there is fruit in the beer. Disappointed to hear that Kai is dry hopping, but that's a phase that many young brewers go through and I'm confident that he'll grow out of it. If you guys are tasting berry-like fruit flavours, I'd put my money of Pacific Gem as the mystery hop.

Not had the beer but I get a big whack of berry like flavours from Pacific Gem so it was my first thought too...not fruit.

 

[LLoyd]

Yeast strain selection was based on the following criteria: 1. had to be a genuine top fermenting, top cropping ale strain that would work mechanically in an open fermenter (ie, not 1056), 2. Had to be a strain that didn't mute hop characters excessively as hops were always going to be an important aspect of this beer and many ales strains dumb hops down too much, 3. Wanted a yeast that produced subtle but pleasant esters that would integrate harmoniously with hop and malt flavours, and 4. needed to be a strain that didn't flock too heavily and require agitation in the fermenter. Tick, tick, tick, tick, job done.

I'd vote for 1187.. But I nearly always vote for 1187...

 

[dabre4]

Hey Guys.

Anyone had a crack at brewing this one yet? I'm keen to give it a go, but thought I might wait for some feedback from some results on the suggested recipes of this thread.

 

[beerbrewer76543]

Hey peeps,

Planning to do a 26L extract batch of this on the weekend, just after some feedback on the grains and hops in my recipe:

2.5kg LDME
500g Sugar
500g Munich II
250g Carafoam
150g Carafa I
70g Chinese Cascade @60 [24 IBU]
15g Fuggles @20 [2 IBU]
15g US Cascade @0 [0 IBU]
26L
100ml Re-cultured White Rabbit Dark Ale yeast

OG 1.052
FG 1.014
IBU 26
EBC 26
ABV 5.2%

Boil is in a 5L pot

Cheers :beer:

 

[dabre4]

Hey Guys.

Anyone had a crack at brewing this one yet? I'm keen to give it a go, but thought I might wait for some feedback from some results on the suggested recipes of this thread.

Bump

 

[Acasta]

also interested in feedback from some of the above recipes.

 

[dabre4]

G'day all,

I have had some luck and got some info out of one of the brewers at White Rabbit! Apparently the malts are Pale, Munich for the base, and light, medium and dark crystal (medium and dark are Simpson's malt), and a "slight bit" of carafa special to help get the colour. Hops are Kettle, hopback and slight dry hoping in the open fermenters. Hops are Cluster, Pacifica, and Tasmanian Cascade. Apparently WRDA will be on the shelf at 4.9% soon because they found this is be more rounded on the palate, and it will have "fresh hops" whatever that means. Sounds like something to look forward to.

He also mentioned that we should be seeing White Rabbit White Ale in the shops within the month!

Anyway, it looks like Screwtop nearly had the Malt base spot on. The hops are interesting, I don't know where I can get Pacifica from, but apparently a combination of Mittelfruher and Amarilo will give a similar profile. In this light I've attached my attempt at a clone. What are your thoughts?

White Rabbit Clone
11-C Northern English Brown Ale

Size: 24 L
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 167.34 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.050 (1.040 - 1.052)
Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.008 - 1.013)
Color: 21.96 (12.0 - 22.0)
Alcohol: 4.95% (4.2% - 5.4%)
Bitterness: 28.8 (20.0 - 30.0)

Ingredients:
4.1 kg Traditional Malt (Joe White)
0.7 kg Dark Munich Malt (Joe White)
0.29 kg Carafa Special TYPE II
0.2 kg Light Crystal (Joe White)
0.15 kg Crystal Malt
0.15 kg Dark Crystal
23.0 g Cluster (7.9%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
10.0 g Hallertau Mittelfruh (6.3%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
10.0 g Amarillo (8.6%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
15.0 g Cascade (7.8%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
10.0 g Cascade (Dry Hop) (7.8%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
1.0 ea WYeast 1318 London Ale III

Schedule:
Ambient Air: 70.0 F
Source Water: 60.0 F
Elevation: 0.0 m

00:03:00 Mash in - Liquor: 14.58 L; Strike: 76.35 C; Target: 69 C
01:03:00 Rest - Rest: 60 min; Final: 67.1 C
01:04:00 Infusion Step - Water: 4.71 L; Temperature: 98.6 C; Target: 74 C
01:14:00 Rest - Rest: 10 min; Final: 74.0 C
02:14:00 Sparge - Sparge Volume: 23.32 L; Sparge Temperature: 74 C; Runoff: 23.32 L

 

[dabre4]

Oh, and I forgot to mention, no rasberries!!!!

 

[hazard]

Did the brewers also tell you to use Wyeast 1318?

 

[Duff]

Finally got to try this beer recently as Dan's at Smithfield in Cairns had some in.

Great beer Kai. Will wait until someone has a tried receipe before brewing.

Cheers.

 

[Screwtop]

This is what's happening this week

Batch Size: 47.00 L
Boil Size: 58.63 L
Boil Time: 90
Estimated OG: 1.054 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.21 %
Estimated Color: 22.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 41.4 IBU
Bitterness Ratio: 0.767
Brewhouse Efficiency: 82.00 %


75.00% Pale Malt, (Joe White)
12.00% Munich, Dark
5.00% Carafa II
3.00% Cara-Pils
2.50% Crystal - Simpsons (Dark)
2.50% Crystal - Simpsons (Pale)
35 IBU Super Alpha (90 min) hops
1g/l Cascade (15 min) hops
2 Whitelabs WLP022
1g/l Sticklebract (Flowers) (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops -

Mash
Water adjustment 120ppm CaSO4
Mash-in/Saccharification 75 min @ 66.0 C
Mash Out 10 min @ 77.0 C

 

[dabre4]

Did the brewers also tell you to use Wyeast 1318?

He just said they used a traditional English yeast strain which they sorced. If you want to get it spot on you'd be best to struggle your way through a 6 pack and culture the yeast yourself.

 

[MattC]

Just to add to the discussion re ingredients..

I was in Melb for the Beer and Brewer Expo and went to a Beer tasting masterclass hosted by Roger Protz. One of the beers that we tasted was the White Rabbit Dark Ale. Roger stated that the ingredients were Pale, Munich and Crystal malts, hops were super alpha and american cascade in kettle, hop back were tas cascade, NZ hallertau and NZ green bullet and the last which he listed separately (im guessing dry hopped) were cascade (TAS?) and Cluster.

No mention of yeast..

Cheers

 

[Acasta]

Good to see this thread but up and people trying recipes!
Hope someone can nail this one!

 

[dabre4]

Just to add to the discussion re ingredients..

I was in Melb for the Beer and Brewer Expo and went to a Beer tasting masterclass hosted by Roger Protz. One of the beers that we tasted was the White Rabbit Dark Ale. Roger stated that the ingredients were Pale, Munich and Crystal malts, hops were super alpha and american cascade in kettle, hop back were tas cascade, NZ hallertau and NZ green bullet and the last which he listed separately (im guessing dry hopped) were cascade (TAS?) and Cluster.

No mention of yeast..

Cheers

Thats interesting. I wonder why he said there were Pacifica hops in there, or is this another name for one of the other hops? (I don't know too much about Pacifica). Anyone want to have a crack at a hop schedule? It sure does have a hell of a lot more hop varieties than I thought! I'm assuming you could get similar hopback results by adding the hops to the kettle after its cooled down a little, anyone had any experience with this?

 

[MattC]

After all this talk of White Rabbit I was pleased to see IGA liquor stock it so I grabbed a 6 pack. We have really shiite bottlos up here in nrthn NSW. We may have a slight improvement in the shape of a rumoured Dan Murphy's coming soon but we will wait and see.

Anyway, just wondered if anyone else apart from randyrob had cultured this yeast from the bottle. just wanted to know their technique as there appears to be much much less yeast than in a bottle of coopers, which I have cultured before.

How many stubbies did you use the yeast from to get the starter cranking?

 

[Acasta]

So has anyone got anything to say about their crafted beers? I really wanna try making one of these, but i have no idea what to go for!

 

[beerbrewer76543]

My extract attempt is in the fermenter still after 3 weeks... I've been shaking up the fermenters every couple of days to get it to drop down to 1.014. It's getting there slowly. Hopefully I can bottle it this weekend then it's a long 4 week wait for bottle conditioning. I think it will come out a cracker after it mellows out a bit!

 

[Screwtop]

This is what's happening this week

Batch Size: 47.00 L
Boil Size: 58.63 L
Boil Time: 90
Estimated OG: 1.054 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.21 %
Estimated Color: 22.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 41.4 IBU
Bitterness Ratio: 0.767
Brewhouse Efficiency: 82.00 %


75.00% Pale Malt, (Joe White)
12.00% Munich, Dark
5.00% Carafa II
3.00% Cara-Pils
2.50% Crystal - Simpsons (Dark)
2.50% Crystal - Simpsons (Pale)
35 IBU Super Alpha (90 min) hops
1g/l Cascade (15 min) hops
2 Whitelabs WLP022
1g/l Sticklebract (Flowers) (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops -

Mash
Water adjustment 120ppm CaSO4
Mash-in/Saccharification 75 min @ 66.0 C
Mash Out 10 min @ 77.0 C

No can do, have to wait for yeast, only available around Feb, unless someone has some to share. Maybe a good reason to drink a sixer :lol:

Screwy

 

[Fatgodzilla]

No can do, have to wait for yeast, only available around Feb, unless someone has some to share. Maybe a good reason to drink a sixer :lol:

Screwy

Whitelabs WLP022 - is that the Essex Ale. Not played with that baby, what you hoping it will bring to the brew ? Unless I missed something I was assuming the yeast was a Ringwood - commercial brewers don't sem to stay from the mainstream .... do they?