Recipe:Dark beer

This section is about developing a dark beer recipe, including the process and necessary equipment.

Recipe

Batch size = 20 l (6% (w/v) alcohol)

Malts

• 5 kg of Pilsner malt
• 1 kg of Munich malt
• 300 g of caramunich 3
• 100 g cara aroma
• 300 g carafa2 (steep separate)

Hops

Kent Golding 4-5% of aa (when hop addition if 90 min boil total? 40 g for 90 min and 20 g for 5 min?)

any spicy hop (10 min boiling) - crystal suitable? other?

Yeast Safbrew T-58

or

Safale S05 (London ale yeast)

Specific gravity of the wort

Specific gravity of the wort - 1.050 SG

Bitterness

Bitterness of the wort - 30 IBU

Brewing procedure

- 10 l of hot water --> 20-25°C higher than you aim for mashing (will cool down when added to the malt so around 95°C)

- 2.3 kg (5 lbs) of pilsner malt, 1 kg of Munich malt, 300 g of caramunich 3, 100 g cara aroma --> add slowly malt to the water mixing a lot avoiding a “dough balls”

- ??? how to work with the carafa 2 which is suppose to be steeped separately?

- prepare the insulated vessel (mash tun) with false bottom and transfer the mash gently to it avoiding compacting the mash - the liquid has to flow through in order to create the “filter bed”

- let the mash react keeping the temperature below 70.5°C (159°F) for one hour

- make sure that you have adequate amount of water heated up to the desired temperature (around 75°C (167°F)) of around 25 l volume to be sure

- after one hour of mashing, start to establish the filter bed adding water at 75°C

- the flux of liquid should be slow and the resulting liquid (wor) should be clean - first few litres will have probably debris in it before the filter bed establishees properly, flush it through the mash again (heat it up in a pan to the proper temperature)

- add the hot water to the top of the mash (which is called sparging) slowly not to disturb the filter bed, keep the level of the liquid at least 5 cm above the mash at all times

- when adding the hot water avoid temperatures above 75°C (167°F) otherwise tannins are going to leach into the wort. If you over sparge, which means adding hot water when the sugars are already mostly gone, tannins will be released too, efficiency of sugar leaching should be between 80-90%

- collect first 2 litres of wort, boil them and added as sparging to increase the temperature to 75°C (167°F)

- collect the rest of the wort and transfer oy to the pot/boiling vessel and bring to the boil so it is ready for the hops to be added

- 40 g of kent golding pellets (4-5% of aa) added to the wort and kept in rolling boil for 90 min - bittering hops

- 15 minutes before the heat switched off submerge clean wort chiller into the brew to sanitize it

- add 20 g of kent golding pellets to the wort and let to boil for 5 min before switching the heat off

- when the heat switched off after 90 min of boiling with the hops with wort of 20 l in volume and specific gravity of 1.050 SG

- apply cold water to the wort chiller submerged in the wort cooling the batch as quickly down as possible

- when the batch is at 18°C transfer the wort into the fermentation vessel first creating the vortex which accumulates the hops in the middle of the vessel

- aerate the wort in the fermentation vessel for 10 minutes and in the meanwhile

- dehydrate and activate the Safbrew T-58 yeast

- measure specific gravity and note it

- add the yeast to the wort, install the airlock and let the brew ferment at room temperature