White Rabbit Dark Ale Clone

[Shine]

I tried the dark ale at the brewery in Melbourne this past weekend. Fabulous brew. Brought home a six since the idea of beer in Alice Springs tends to be recycled VB (as in "pissed back into the bottle and sold") and thought making my own might be the go. Not sure on the grains used but one of the guys I talked to said Pacifica (Pacific Hallertau) and Cascade. They had the same hops on a display table by the bar. I'm pretty sure that cascade is a finishing hop and the pacifica is used in the boil. I'm going to start with 60 and 30 minute addtions and go from there.

 

[felten]

I tried the dark ale at the brewery in Melbourne this past weekend. Fabulous brew. Brought home a six since the idea of beer in Alice Springs tends to be recycled VB (as in "pissed back into the bottle and sold") and thought making my own might be the go. Not sure on the grains used but one of the guys I talked to said Pacifica (Pacific Hallertau) and Cascade. They had the same hops on a display table by the bar. I'm pretty sure that cascade is a finishing hop and the pacifica is used in the boil. I'm going to start with 60 and 30 minute addtions and go from there.

Check out this post further back in the thread for an idea on their process/ingredients. There's a few other gems on the first few pages as well.

 

[Aus_Rider_22]

Made this up, its pretty damn good.
Use Simpsons for the crystal and get the yeast cultured from the bottles.
Enjoy.


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 27.00 L
Boil Size: 31.40 L
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 47.6 EBC
Estimated IBU: 30.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.94 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (5Grain 71.9 %
0.84 kg Munich, Dark (Joe White) (29.6 EBC) Grain 12.3 %
0.42 kg Crystal, Dark (Joe White) (216.7 EBC) Grain 6.1 %
0.24 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 3.5 %
0.24 kg Carafa Special II (Weyermann) (817.6 EBC)Grain 3.5 %
0.18 kg Crystal (Joe White) (141.8 EBC) Grain 2.6 %
30.00 gm Cluster [7.90%] (60 min) Hops 20.6 IBU
20.00 gm Pacific Hallertau [5.00%] (20 min) Hops 5.3 IBU
50.00 gm Cascade [5.50%] (5 min) Hops 4.8 IBU
20.00 gm Cascade [5.50%] Hops -
1 Pkgs Essex Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP022) Yeast-Ale

+1 on the use of Simpson's specifically and re-culturing the yeast.

Sticklebract dry hopped for aroma is perfect if you had some on hand. :icon_cheers:

 

[sim]

gonna have a crack at this soon, and if i dont reculture from the bottle my money is on WLP023 Burton. at least thats what my nose was telling me last time i had it on tap. mmmm


sim

 

[mattfos01]

I recultured from the dregs of two Dark ales stubbies a couple of months back. Used it for a kits and bits dark ale
It was great.

 

[Newbee(r)]

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.

Recently bottled a white rabbit inspired dark ale with 15 g of pacific gem at 15 min chasing the blackberry flavours. Hoping to hell it mellows right down as after 3 weeks fermenting and 2 weeks bottle conditioning the woody ( I use this term loosely) type flavours are dominating everything else there is a strawberry element but not a nice one. Recipe below. Efficiency was higher, with OG at 1.058.

Anyone else used pacific gem and found it balances out?

White Rabbitish beer (biab#3) (Northern English Brown Ale)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.050 (P): 12.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.013 (P): 3.3
Alcohol (ABV): 4.91 %
Colour (SRM): 21.4 (EBC): 42.2
Bitterness (IBU): 52.6 (Average)

82% Maris Otter Malt
10% Munich II
5% Carafa II malt
3% Crystal 60

0.9 g/L Super Alpha (12% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.9 g/L Cascade (7.8% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil)
0.4 g/L Pacific Gem (13.7% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
0.9 g/L Stickebract (14% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)


Single step Infusion at 67C for 90 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 20C with Wyeast 1318 - London Ale III

 

[Tanga]

I recultured from the dregs of two Dark ales stubbies a couple of months back. Used it for a kits and bits dark ale
It was great.

Recipe? How'd it turn out? Close to the White Rabbit?

 

[Bizier]

I bought a six pack last night as a default choice and noticed a distinct biscuit flavour to the malt, similar to MO or judicial use of amber. I am unsure why I've never noticed it so clearly before, might have been the mood my palate was in.

 

[ledgenko]

I agree with Rude the use of Nottingham yeast ... works really well.. I have used the real mccoy as well as Burtons and Nottingham on dark ales previously with what I think are excellent results.. SWMBO can vouch for this as the beer seems to evaporate really quickly in my fridge .... actually come to think of it Everything disappears from my fridge .. LOL..

but guys this thread has refreshed my enthusiasm for reculturing yeasts .. I am off to the bottle-o !!

Cheers

 

[phoenixdigital]

I was reading this thread lastnight and there were a lot of people saying that open fermentation would be pretty tricky in a home environment. These guys go through what is required yeast wise and process wise if someone wants to give that a go for white rabbit?

http://www.brewingtv.com/episodes/2010/5/1...rmentation.html

tasting notes of open ferment brew here
http://www.brewingtv.com/episodes/2010/6/8...ting-notes.html

Based on what they are saying the open fermentation appears to add different flavours.

I would try it but I have not even moved to partial or all grains yet Looking forward to trying some of these recipes when I do though. White Rabbit Dark Ale is incredible.

Edit: Personally I would cover the fermenter at least with a breathable cloth as I have had fruit flies work their way into our brewing fridge at times. God forbid what would happen with an open fermenter.

 

[bcp]

I tried it for first time on Sunday.

Here's my recipe for 23litre batch:

23 litres sparkling mineral water
2 cups cadbury's bourneville cocoa.

Guess it's not my thing

 

[phoenixdigital]

Guess it's not my thing

Each to their own.

Our local brewshop suggested we replicate it by doing the following.

1 x tin of Muntons Pale Ale
1 x small bag of stout grain (cant remember the size)
1kg of DME
600g of Dextrose (to bring the OG to 1.040)
20g Cascade hops (added to fermenter)

1 x 6 pack of white rabbit ('borrow' the yeast)

We only had a really small pot so had to steep the grain in a large bowl of boiled water.
The rest we put together the same as any normal extract beer.

We harvested the white rabbit yeast the week before and kept in a tupperware style container at 17 degrees. Feeding it some DME every second days and giving it a shake.

We bottled it on Sunday and it tasted amazing. Disclaimer: We do however think that White Rabbit Dark Ale is one of the best beers we have tasted to date.

I must say it is the tastiest beer (from racking unit) we have made so far of the 8 extract brews we have done. I am not sure if its the yeast or the small stout grain pack or the fact this is the first dark ale we have made?

All our other beers have had that good old home brew twang which we can't seem to shake no matter how much sanitising or Safale yeast we use or brewing at constant 17 degrees. But that whinge is for another thread.

Fingers crossed in 2 weeks this White Rabbit Dark will be tasting great.

 

[user 17974]

I have been told by the guys at Grain and Grape (who said they spoke to the guys at White Rabbit) that the yeast in the bottles is not the same yeast they ferment with. I imagine years ago when they first started making it they used the same yeast but now they have matured as a brewery I would guess they don't anymore.

I'm in the process of brewing (currently boiling) something similar Doog's recipe (page 4) as I type this now except I will be using Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale yeast for fermentation.

I'll follow up in a couple of weeks with tasting notes once it's kegged. I know a few guys who live and die by WRDA so I'll see if I can get them to guess which one is which with a blind test.

 

[manticle]

In clone threads on this forum, Kai has confirmed the yeast in the bottle is the primary strain.

You could be right that it has changed as that was a year or two ago now.

 

[phoenixdigital]

In clone threads on this forum, Kai has confirmed the yeast in the bottle is the primary strain.

You could be right that it has changed as that was a year or two ago now.

Whatever yeast is in the bottle it definitely ferments beer well. I have been told by my brew buddy that our white rabbit dark ale tastes awesome.

It doesnt taste like WRDA but its beer and it tastes good so thats a win in my books.

 

[Damien13]

Had a couple of these and quite like the beer, very close to one of my house faves. So here is my attempt at a clone, uses a good true top cropper also, guess White Rabbit would need to use something similar seeing as they are open fermenting.

Recipe: White Rabbit Dark Ale Clone

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 (Dark)
2.50% Crystal (Pale)
35 IBU Super Alpha (90 min) hops
1g/l Cascade (15 min) hops
2 Pkgs London Ale III (Wyeast Labs #1318)e
1g/l Sticklebract (Flowers) (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops -

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

Ok, so I am about to try the above... has anyone else done this... I am subbing the hops for all 60 min Golding hops...anyhoo... more concerned about the recipe... let me know gents!

 

[bonj]

Screwtop's recipe is apparently pretty close. I do know this beer has gone through incremental changes through its life, so it may not be as close to the current version, but the 2010 version was a great beer. I say go for it.

 

[Damien13]

Thanks Bonj! Thanks for a legend response. I was half expecting someone to tell me to search, or strangle a cat, or use glad wrap, so to get your nice simple answer was awesome. Will give it a crack and report back.

 

[dougsbrew]

i brewed screwys recipe 2 weeks ago, currenlty have this on tap, bloody good drop.
i didnt have all the hops listed, but subbed with similar, and did the us05 instead.
will be brewing this recipe again. cheers.

and ive tasted screwys brewed version btw, which was better than mine..

 

[carniebrew]

I realise the colour's not the most important component here, but if you want something that looks like WRDA, wouldn't you need it a lot darker than 22 SRM? I believe WRDA is 65 EBC, so more like 32 SRM. My (yet to be brewed) 25 litre recipe has 150gm Dark Crystal 270 (ebc) & 350gm Carafa Special III to get an EBC of 64.3.