When I spent a few days in Prague last year I tried the dark beer and (being more of an ale drinker) prefered it to the normal Staropramen/Urquel etc. Does anyone know of any kits for that style of beer?
Cheers.
Dark czech beer
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PeteH
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PMH0810
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mysterio
You could probably do an authentic version with extract and steeping grains and a good Pilsner yeast.
If you wanted to do a simple version here's what I would suggest. Pick your favourite lager kit (Coopers Bavarian Lager is not bad), add to that 500g of light dry spraymalt and 300g of plain sugar. When you are preparing these extra sugars, add them to the pan cold with a 3L of water and buy a muslin grain bag and steep 300g of Carafa Special I (ground) in the sugar mixture. The purpose of the Carafa is to add the black colour with very little roasted flavour. Bring it up to about 65-70C on the hob, let the grains steep for 15-20 minutes or so, and then remove the grains and boil the mixture. Then mix your kit, boiled sugars in your FV with cool water (treated with campden) to get to the correct temperature. The mixture should be black. Throw away the yeast that came with the kit and buy a couple of packs of Saflager and ferment around 12-15 C.
If you wanted to do a simple version here's what I would suggest. Pick your favourite lager kit (Coopers Bavarian Lager is not bad), add to that 500g of light dry spraymalt and 300g of plain sugar. When you are preparing these extra sugars, add them to the pan cold with a 3L of water and buy a muslin grain bag and steep 300g of Carafa Special I (ground) in the sugar mixture. The purpose of the Carafa is to add the black colour with very little roasted flavour. Bring it up to about 65-70C on the hob, let the grains steep for 15-20 minutes or so, and then remove the grains and boil the mixture. Then mix your kit, boiled sugars in your FV with cool water (treated with campden) to get to the correct temperature. The mixture should be black. Throw away the yeast that came with the kit and buy a couple of packs of Saflager and ferment around 12-15 C.
Last edited by mysterio on Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sorry Pete, I must have launched the Mr Bung recipe. As far as I remember the ingredients included a proportion of Munton's Cedarex A (the lighter malt extract?), Cedarex B (the darker malt extract?), and a small can of black treacle. Saaz hops and lager yeast.
I've had a brief search and even Munton's don't say on their website what the different varieties are. Which of the HBS canned extracts are equivalent to which of the bulk extracts for colour and so on.
I've had a brief search and even Munton's don't say on their website what the different varieties are. Which of the HBS canned extracts are equivalent to which of the bulk extracts for colour and so on.