Köstritzer Schwarzbier

[sam c]

hello again everyone,

i posted a thread a while ago about this black lager which i loved and was trying to find a recipe for it as hopefully from next weekend i will be ready to go for my first AG brew. i wont attempt this as my first but would like to have a recipe for it.

i sent these guys an email and bellow is the response:

Dear Sam, first of all thank you for your interessting in our company. I hope the following informations will help you. If not please do not hesitate to contact me. 1. Which malts and hops are used in the beer? We use Pilsener malt, munich malt and a special malt which is a roasted malt. We are using the roasted malt to produce our Köstritzer Schwarzbier-our favourite black beer. We use hop from the area of the Hallertau (Bavaria). Flavour and bitter hop, as pellet and hop extract best regards,Susan

from this info is anyone able to help me get the quantities for the ingredience right? it is 4.8% but im not sure about the EBU's. it is a very smooth pint!!

cheers

[Frisfur]

found his on the web

sound similar

Weyermann Schwarzbier


Original gravity: 1048 (12º Plato)
Terminal gravity: 1012 (3º Plato)
Makes 1 bbl. (31 gallons)

Ingredients

50 lbs. Weyermann 2-row malt (either Pils or Jahrhundert malts)
3 lbs. Carapils
6 lbs. Munich malt
3 lbs. Carafa malt (from Weyermann)
4 oz. Irish Moss

Mash Program

Mash in at 126º (+/- 1ºF) for 30 min.
Then raise temperature (preferably by decotion) to 150º (+/- 1ºF) and rest for 60 min.


Boil

Boil for 1.5 hrs.
Add 1st Hops = 8 oz. Perle hps (@ 7.5 A.A.) in at the boil
Add 2nd Hops = 4 oz. Tettnanger in at 80 min.
Add 3rd Hops - 6 oz. Tettnanger in at 90 min.
Add 4 oz. Irish Moss
The final color should be 25-35 SRM. Ferment at 55ºF for two weeks or until the beer is beetween 12º and 16º Plato. Then chill and lager for 30-90 days at 35ºF.

[sam c]

cheers.

dont know if it sounds similar. another black beer i guess.

really im looking for a recipe very close to this beer with the ingredience listed.

thanks for that one though, it will be added to the recipe book

[Barley Water]

Just looking at the recipe provided by Frisfur, I would say it would probably come damn close. Just scale it down (or up) to whatever volume you intend to make. However (and you knew this was coming I hope), this particular style will be quite a bit more difficult to make than say your average British or American ale. If you have not done all grain brewing before, I would strongly suggest that you get your processes down by making several batches of the many wonderful ales out there. I might recommend a brown porter if you like the darker, roasty beers. It is relatively easy to make a passable example and the taste is fantastic. I had a quasi religous experience once drinking a pint of Fuller's London Porter and in fact, that brew will be my next effort as I am currently in my British phase. If you want to try a German ale, I also did a really nice Alt Bier, not a lager but kind of a hybrid and you can practice your decoction techniques on that style.

Just a couple of things if you want to venture into the land of lagers, first you must be able to control your fermentation temperatures. Frankly, if you don't have a dedicated refrigerator to do this, I would not even bother trying because I can almost guarantee you that you will be disappointed in the final outcome. Secondly, make sure you pitch just a ton or yeast (at least twice what you should be pitching when doing similar gravity ales) and do everything you can to ensure a healty fermentation.

There is a fairly recent book out by Zamil Zanasheff which has many formulations for just about every style of beer you migh wish to make. I know for sure that there is a Swartzbier recipe in the book and in fact he discusses making the beer just like Kostritzer (he offers up two formulations if I remember correctly, a Kostritzer type and also one which is a little more Americanized). I have not tried either myself but I have done some others in his book and have been really pleased with the results.

[mysterio]

Agree with Mr Barleywater, I would try a couple of AG ales first before leaping into the deep end! You will be looking at fairly precise temperature control and making large starters for lager beers.

[sam c]

yer i was planning on getting a good few ales/bitters under my belt before attempting any lagers but i really wanted to get a recipe for this as i loved it!

thanks very much for everyones advice, i think i will slow things down a notch as suggested and get on finishing up making all the equiptment and get that first AG brew on!!

cheers