Home Brew Forum

I really shouldn't have started this one...not going to plan.

Grains:
Pale malt 6.4kg
British caramalt 0.219kg
Regular crystal malt 0.165kg
Dark crystal malt 0.127kg
Chocolate malt 0.146kg
Black malt 0.146kg
Roasted barley 0.146kg

Target was 1.052 - not sure I made this...or anywhere near this.

Hops:

Bittering hops (60 mins)
Amarillo 42g
Cascade 14g
Centennial 14g

Flavour hops (20 mins)
Cascade 28g
Centennial 28g

Aroma (5 mins)
Centennial 28g

Flame-out
Amarillo 7g
Cascade 7g
Centennial 7g

Mashed in at 4:50pm...already knowing that this was a daft idea. Despitknowing this, I did hit my target of 66C, so that's getting much better. I left the mash slightly longer than 90 minutes...I was having me tea...so after I had faffed about it was probably a two hour mash.

Looked really nice going into the kettle. Lovely and dark.


Some hop porn...bittering hops


Flavour hops...


Aroma hops...


Finally, hops to go in at 80C...


Bittering hops addition was fun...nearly had a boil over but what a fantastic smell...


I have 27 minutes of the boil remaining and it is half-past nine already.

Oh well. I have had a good day.

Edit: I managed to fix the photos.

Have always liked the idea of an American hopped dark ale. This is very dark though! You'll have to keep updating to let us know what the flavours are like.

Nice. I did one of these recently, although I just used a regular pale ale base with Carafa III for colouring. It was a strange beer to drink - the colour makes you think it should taste one way, then the flavour does something different.

It was good though...

Looks interesting. I have been drinking a few heavily hopped American Ales lightly and want to try one. I'll have to add this to my to.do list.

Well, brought this one home at 10:04pm. When I said I had 27 minutes to go and it was half past nine...I was wrong. It was half past eight!

Finally ended up with about 33 litres at 1.048. So, four points from my target of 1.052 but that will do, I suppose.

Looks like this...


It looks very dark...


Tried a new yeast. WL060, American Ale Blend.


I bought this and a WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast from Hop and Grape on Friday. Didn't have time to do a starter for either of them. So, 30 minutes into the boil it was draw off a litre of wort, fast chill it and chuck in the little devils. Hoping for the best. There is already a head forming on AG9 Oat 66 so I hope it is working.

Knackered. Note to self: just because it seems like a good idea to get two brews in...it probably isn't a good idea to start at 4:50pm on an afternoon.

Still, all in all a satisfying day. Two more brews for Christmas still to come.

take care
Jon

Just a few stats to finish off...

Target IBUs was 55

Target EBC was 154

Reading round this style you are are supposed to balance malt, roastiness and hoppiness. I deliberately kept the % of the dark malts to 6%. I am not counting the crystal or caramalt as dark here. Beer is supposed to be light bodied, have some roast flavours but not too overpowering, and be very hoppy...like an IPA..but black.

just had a quick google of this yeast! it looks very interesting. going to have to get myself a vial! thanks


where abouts in North Yorkshire (or should I say 'God's County') are you matey? I'm from Richmond way origionally!


LB

Good stuff... I have my own Ideas for a Centennial Dark, I might take heed of that lower percentage of dark malts though.

This gave me a bit of a scare...

...as at lunchtime yesterday, only a few bubbles to give any sign that things were alive. I think finishing so late and leaving it overnight had dropped the temperature too much and so a serious lag had set in. Occasional bubbles of CO2 would burst to the surface but nothing like enough.

So, roused gently and applied constant heat using my aquarium heater in a water bath...a head started forming at teatime and, this morning, it looks like nothing I have ever seen before.

It looks evil. All that dark matter, I expect. Stephen Hawking should come round my house.

Smells great though.

I can breathe again.

Jon

Jon474 wrote:It looks evil. All that dark matter, I expect. Stephen Hawking should come round my house.

Careful, it could eat/dissolve/envelop his chair and muffle his voice speaker!

It just won't stop!

After nine days there is still a thick layer on the top of this brew. I fully expect it to start talking to me soon...

I have not used American yeast before...is this longevity and determined fermentation a trait of yeast from over the pond?

Hopefully, it can go in a secondary before the end of the week.

You are out there on the cutting edge, this is a new style so you have plenty of room to mess around. I suspect that these types of beers are going to cause real headaches at competitions over here next year from a judging standpoint and I suspect we will see many examples. One school of thought is that you make a regular American IPA then just darken it, trying to keep the roast down (for which debittered Carafa is the grain of choice). This is sort of the tack taken by the Germans with Swartzbier. Others are adding some crystal and some roast malts as you have done so the beer will end up with a good amount of dark grain character. Since this is such a new style, the pundits have not yet had a chance to dictate how we are supposed to be making this stuff. The water I use to brew is much better suited to dark beers so I would think that this style would work out well for me, I just need to find some time to give it a try.

Thanks for your reply Barley Water. I really enjoy the new styles. Let's go for it. Brew some tomorrow. Having said that...I will brew traditional styles all day, everyday...and be happy doing it.

Tell me about American yeast. Does it go longer? I am serious when I say that this White Labs American yeast blend is going the distance. It just won't stop.

I am going to drop it into a secondary tomorrow regardless of its status. It's going too long for me to be happy.

Take care
Jon

Sadly, I have no experience with the American yeast blend, sorry. I have made many beers with WLP01 however and I get good attenuation with a very clean fermentation relative to other yeast strains. I really have not had any problems with it and in fact it will let you ferment a little colder if you want a really clean tasting beer (I have gone as low as 62F with the stuff). I would recommend the stuff for American IPA's, pale ales, American browns etc. Truth be told however, I really like to mess with the British ale strains because you get some interesting flavors out of them relative to the Chico strain. I just did an American IPA using the Ringwood strain for example. I rather enjoy messing with the fermentation parameters to see what kind of neat stuff I can coax out of the yeast. I guess that is part of the facination for me when making heffeweizen or the various Belgian styles I sometimes try.

Have just tucked this away into a secondary. It is down to 1.012 and is still working. Yeast cake looks lovely and I have saved some to grow. The airlock on the secondary is already bubbling.

It is very dark. It smells and tastes like nothing I have ever tasted.

Light body. Some roasted flavours in the depth - nothing too strong or overpowering - and some good hoppiness.

This is the best thing I have made this year.



Looked so dark in the primary and look at all that yeast...





I think that this yeast has developed its own social structure and highly evolved culture in the last ten days.



Right, ten days in the secondary and then into bottles I think. I wonder what it can drop to?

(Sorry for number of posts in last ten days...I do have a life...really...I have just been on holiday and busy at the old brewing and have been much enthused. I'll go back to being quiet now).

Jon