White Rabbit Dark Ale Recipe

[dig]

I was asked if I cared to comment on this thread. As a matter of fact, I don't care! However:

Recipes must change over time. If they don't, the beers can only get worse. Raw materials change seasonally, and if you're not constantly tweaking, adjusting or even making complete changes to ingredients or processes, you're going backwards. That's what happened at Malt Shovel: Lock it in Eddie and just keep doing it the same. Kai and the team at WR are great brewers and I have absolutely no doubt that recipe changes have been to the benefit of the beer. I'd love to bowl up there one day for a fresh pint as I reckon it would be bloody excellent. A good take-home message for home brewers: keep tweaking, keep adjusting, keep going forward. Developing a great beer is far more rewarding than jagging it on your first and only attempt.

And how's life as a brewer in Canada? Bloody good actually! Check out Lighthouse Brewing on Untappd for a list of the great brews I get to play with. Good times. :icon_cheers:

 

[QldKev]

Thanks for the clarification. I'd better get tweaking. I don't feel so bad having 10 different version of my house MIDAPA now.

 

[Screwtop]

Thanks Dean,

Had a look over at Untapped, Chuck H has been busy doing a little research

Screwy

 

[dig]

Has he now! The master turns student! Don't freak out Chuck, but you'll need to bypass the filter and the pasteuriser.

 

[wessmith]

Hi Dean, great to see your Canadian adventure is bearing fruit. All the best, Wes

 

[Lodan]

Here's my summary of the other thread:

So I took Malted's summary, a mixture of the attempts by other brewers and then made my own white rabbit

Boy is it off but boy is it fantastic! :chug:
I brew with a 19L pot and on this occasion my make up water was less than it should have been. The result is something darker and a little more hoppier/bitter than the standard WR dark ale.
It could be compared to a slightly milder black ipa; black pale ale anybody? :icon_cheers:

 

[Kai]

Just a note, there is no longer any primary strain yeast in bottles of the dark ale. So for those of you hoping to culture up something from the dregs of a sixer... I'm sorry.

Furthering my past suggestions for how to brew this... you need a mix of crystal malts (without ending up too sweet), nothing too roasty on the dark malt, some munich and some wheat won't go astray... through the brewhouse definitely Pacifica / Hallertau Pacific and some locally grown Cascade. Dry hopping is a nice medley but it is also quite gentle so feel free to choose what you will. There's a real dark-horse aroma hop in the dry hopping though

 

[DarkFaerytale]

thanks for the heads up Kai i was seriously about to buy a sixer for just that reason next week. still might for the beer though

so are we thinking ringwood ale yeast?

cheers

-Phill

 

[Screwtop]

My latest is the closest I've come yet on all fronts but colour, tasted side by side it's there but a tiny bit darker that the LWB version.

Simpson Crystals a little flaked wheat, whirlpooled with sticklebract @ 80C for 20 min. Fermented using WLP022, finally. Still a touch green, need to cc it for a few weeks for the yeastiness to go.

Well happy.

Screwy

 

[Midnight Brew]

I made a variatation of this based on this thread and failed on colour and was a bit too roasty. None the less ended up fantastic American Brown but would half the carafa special next time. I think I had it at 6% of the grain bill. I also french pressed a generous amount of cascade and super alpha but for me it didnt come through enough. Great time of year to be drinking it too.

 

[Acasta]

Now we can't use the bottle strain, any wyeast alternatives to WLP022?

 

[Danwood]

I made a variatation of this based on this thread and failed on colour and was a bit too roasty. None the less ended up fantastic American Brown but would half the carafa special next time. I think I had it at 6% of the grain bill. I also french pressed a generous amount of cascade and super alpha but for me it didnt come through enough. Great time of year to be drinking it too.

Define generous please Mid ?

26g of each too much ? I'm going for Summit, not Super A though.

Having my first crack at dry hopping an APA.

23L in the FV and 37 IBUs at present.

Many thanks, Dan

 

[Midnight Brew]

Define generous please Mid ?

26g of each too much ? I'm going for Summit, not Super A though.
Having my first crack at dry hopping an APA.
23L in the FV and 37 IBUs at present.

Many thanks, Dan

I had half n half 30g of each cascade and super alpha in 44L and not gonna french press next time just boil it up in a pot and dump it all in. Also going to add a whirlpool addition and adjust the FWH down to keep it at 40IBU. Im still new to all of this but tasted a few batches now that are missing those key flavour and aroma additions and think i've sorted it out.

Im thinking the super alpha was heavily masked by the 6% carafa special. Still was a great beer but could be massively improved.

26g would be fine if not a bit more. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Danwood]

Ok, will do.

 

[Screwtop]

My latest is the closest I've come yet on all fronts but colour, tasted side by side it's there but a tiny bit darker that the LWB version.

Simpson Crystals a little flaked wheat, whirlpooled with sticklebract @ 80C for 20 min. Fermented using WLP022, finally. Still a touch green, need to cc it for a few weeks for the yeastiness to go.

Well happy.

Screwy

Now........................Yummmmmmmmmmm!!!!

Love this one, fermented one with 1084.......mmmmeeeehhhhhh! The one fermented using WLP022 is just fantastic.....

Screwy

 

[Acasta]

Now........................Yummmmmmmmmmm!!!!

Love this one, fermented one with 1084.......mmmmeeeehhhhhh! The one fermented using WLP022 is just fantastic.....

Screwy

Screwy or anyone else,
How long do you find this one takes from grain to glass to come good? Being a darker beer I'm assuming it need a bit of time on it?

 

[Xarb]

Now........................Yummmmmmmmmmm!!!!

Love this one, fermented one with 1084.......mmmmeeeehhhhhh! The one fermented using WLP022 is just fantastic.....

Screwy

Do you have an updated recipe for this one? I have been meaning to make your older recipe from the other thread for ages and was just about to order the grain when I saw this post. Would love to have a crack at your latest recipe!

 

[Screwtop]

Screwy or anyone else,
How long do you find this one takes from grain to glass to come good? Being a darker beer I'm assuming it need a bit of time on it?

Cleaned up a beer of show with one of mine. The longer the better a couple of months min. Bloody beautiful beer.

Screwy

 

[mfeighan]

hey screwy do you have an updated version of your recipe. Will have a crack next weekend

 

[tiprya]

Screwy is on the right track.

Heard from a White rabbit guy that the yeast is WLP022 - Essex ale for the dark ale and Wy3522 for the White ale.

Thanks Kai for the recipe tips, I'm thinking of making something similar at some stage.