OVHA Chat

Hay,all.Sorry i haven't been aroud much .Missed a scad of meetings;poop happens .Gonna come to meetings more often in 09 .Anyway,I want to brew a regular,garden variety"Dark Beer".Not a Stout,Porter or Brown Ale,Just a good ole Dark Beer.How can I do that w/o crossing the line oin the above mentioned 'nots'? Where does DARK end and STOUT,Ect.end?

You might try brewing a psuedo-Schwarzbier. That would be a Schwartzbier brewed with a neutral ale yeast instead of the normal lager yeast.

I’ve been playing around with this recipe:

Psuedo-Schwarzbier (5 gal)
7.00 lb Pilsner
2.50 lb Munich Malt
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt
0.33 lb Carafa I
1.50 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00 %] (60 min)
0.50 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00 %] (20 min)
0.50 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00 %] (10 min)
1 Pkgs Fermentis US-05

I haven't gotten a chance to brew it yet.

I'd say start off with a base recipe: Bock, Maibock, American Brown Ale, Northern English Brown Ale, Southern English Brown Ale, Brown Porter, Dunkelweizen, or Dwayne's (I see your Pseudo-Schwartz is as big as mine...) and go from there.

Diversions:

Spicy: Rye, Chocolate Rye, Chocolate Wheat
Smoky: Smoked Malt
Bready: Biscuit, Victory, or roast some base malt in the oven for just a little bit
Malty: Aromatic malt or Caramel Wheat
Toffee: 60L + Caramel (Crystal), Dark Belgian Candi Syrup
Organic: Cocoa nibs, vanilla beans
Yeast: Hefeweizen yeast or Belgian yeast

If you have a light colored ale recipe that you really like and you just want to change the color, some breweries just add Sinamar, a coloring agent that is made from dehusked, dark roasted barley. If you want to change the flavor, add 1/4 to 1/2 pound of chocolate malt to the grain bill. Lots of ways to go on this. Happy experimenting!!