This is the first beer of my NHC 2015 run. It is a rebrew so I’ve taken the feedback from competitions and from my BJCP judging group and from myself 🙂 and modified the recipe. The general feedback I got was it was too roasted / porter-ish but otherwise a great beer. It took 2nd and 3rd in the two competitions I entered it in so far so it’s not bad, just needs a little tweeking. So, I decided to cut the Munich I a bit from 40 to 30% and replace that with Pilsner (floor malted Weyerman b/c they ran out of standard Weyermen) and then cut the Roasted Barley in half from 3 to 1.5% and replace that with Crisp Chocolate malt. The only other change is I moved from Wyeast 2206 to 2308. So minor tweaks but we’ll see how it turns out.
Schwarzbier 2
4-C Schwarzbier (Black Beer)
Date: 4/1/14
Size: 8.0 gal
Efficiency: 93.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Original Gravity: 1.050 (1.046 – 1.052)
Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.010 – 1.016)
Color: 25.26 (17.0 – 30.0)
Alcohol: 4.92% (4.4% – 5.4%)
Bitterness: 26.7 (22.0 – 32.0)
Ingredients:
7.5 lb (58.3%) Pilsner Malt – added during mash
4 lb (31.1%) Munich TYPE I – added during mash
8 oz (3.9%) Caramunich® TYPE II – added during mash
8 oz (3.9%) Carafa Special® TYPE III – added during mash
3 oz (1.5%) Chocolate – added during mash
3 oz (1.5%) Roasted Barley – added during mash
.15 oz (4.8%) Magnum (14.2%) – added during boil, boiled 60 m
2 oz (63.5%) Tettnanger (3.9%) – added during boil, boiled 60 m
1 oz (31.7%) Tettnanger (3.9%) – added during boil, boiled 15 m
1.0 tsp Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 10 m
.5 tsp Wyeast Nutrient – added during boil, boiled 10 m
2 ea Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager™
Notes
mash salts:
1g Gypsum
2.4g CC
sparge salts:
2g Gypsum
5g CC
acidify sparge to below 5.8 (~10ml of 10% phosphoric in 10G of water)
should give mash pH of 5.4
12.88 lb of grain
1.5 qt/lb = 19.32 quarts = 4.83 gallons
mash @ 152
mash in water temp 162.7 -> check temp with thermometer before mashing in
pitch @ 48 and ramp to 50 over 2 days > hold till day 8 then ramp 5 degrees a day to 60 and hold for a total of 3 weeks minimum. rack to keg and drop 2 degrees a day to 40 then put in lagering fridge @35 and lager for two months. rack to clean keg and force carb to 2.4 volumes.
9/19/14 made 2.5L started w/ 2 pouches of wyeast 2308. lots like stir plate may have spun off stir bar at some point but yeast growth looks good.
9/22/14 pretty standard brew day. mash temp came in a bit low at 150. efficiency was off the charts at 90%. whoa. had to add a little magnum to keep bittering on target. cooled to 45 but creeped up to 51 by the time i pitched. cooled to 50 over 12 hours. 10pm no activity.
9/23/14 no kreusen but slow bubbling
9/24/14 nice 1/2 inch kreusen and solid bubbling
9/27/14 finally started to slow but still solid kreusen and bubbling
10/10/14 kegged. FG 1.012 pH 4.69 (a bit high) clean -> not infected. a bit yeasty but dropped nice and clear. wonderful flavor. very promising. set to slow drop 3 F a day to 40
10/15/14 moved to lagering fridge at 35