Back in February I brewed a black lager. My goal was to make a crisp, quaffable summer beer with some character. I'm calling it by the more generic term 'black lager'* rather a schwarzbier* because what I was really after was a light, semi-sessionable lager that happened to be black. Jet black. I wasn't really after the chocolate/roasted character and medium body the few shwarzbier examples (mostly German imports) I had tried exhibited. I'm a member of the "you drink your beer with your eyes first" camp and believe a pint glass of jet black malted goodness will usually be perceived as having more character than a traditional light colored lager -even if it doesn't- simply because, going into that first sip, you are expecting bold flavors.
*perhaps eventually I'll study to be a BJCP judge and better understand the difference between the two styles and how my goal aligned with those guidelines. However, for this beer, I did not take style guidelines into account.
The base recipe for this beer was (I believe - it's been a while so at this point I'm guessing a little) in the vein of traditional German lagers. Pilsner (Belgian because German wasn't available) and Munich malts, plus a little melanoiden in a weak effort to simulate the flavors of a decoction mash without all the work. I honestly have no idea why I chose to include Crystal malt in this recipe, but I did. In an effort to obtain the dark color I desired with minimal flavor impact, I chose to cap the mash with Special (dehusked) Carafa III. I am not able to reliably reach lager fermentation temperatures, so I attempted to use White Labs' German/Kolsch yeast fermented cold to attain lager-like qualities.
Recipe:
Batch Size: 6 Gallons
Planned OG: 1.050 (Actual: 1.051)
Planned IBU: 23
Planned Efficiency: 70% (Actual: 81% - stopped sparge early to avoid high OG)
Grain
8# Belgian Pilsner
2.5# Munich (9L)
1# Crystal 60
2oz Melanoidin
7oz Special Carafa III
Hops
1 oz 7.5AA Perle @ 60
Extras
Irish Moss @ 10
Yeast
White Labs German Ale (WLP029 Gen 1)
Water
Target Profile (ppm):
*perhaps eventually I'll study to be a BJCP judge and better understand the difference between the two styles and how my goal aligned with those guidelines. However, for this beer, I did not take style guidelines into account.
The base recipe for this beer was (I believe - it's been a while so at this point I'm guessing a little) in the vein of traditional German lagers. Pilsner (Belgian because German wasn't available) and Munich malts, plus a little melanoiden in a weak effort to simulate the flavors of a decoction mash without all the work. I honestly have no idea why I chose to include Crystal malt in this recipe, but I did. In an effort to obtain the dark color I desired with minimal flavor impact, I chose to cap the mash with Special (dehusked) Carafa III. I am not able to reliably reach lager fermentation temperatures, so I attempted to use White Labs' German/Kolsch yeast fermented cold to attain lager-like qualities.
Recipe:
Batch Size: 6 Gallons
Planned OG: 1.050 (Actual: 1.051)
Planned IBU: 23
Planned Efficiency: 70% (Actual: 81% - stopped sparge early to avoid high OG)
Grain
8# Belgian Pilsner
2.5# Munich (9L)
1# Crystal 60
2oz Melanoidin
7oz Special Carafa III
Hops
1 oz 7.5AA Perle @ 60
Extras
Irish Moss @ 10
Yeast
White Labs German Ale (WLP029 Gen 1)
Water
Target Profile (ppm):
Salt Additions (grams / gallon):
Brewed 15-Feb-2015
Mashed in sans carafa III with 1.33 qt/# at 151*. Mash pH was 5.15 (calculated value was 5.4). Left lid off mash tun and stirred frequently to allow temperature to drop to 145* over 45 minutes.
Mixed in boiling water to bring back up to 158* after 45 minutes.
Heated sparge water to 170*, added special carafa III malt and batch sparged after 60 minutes. Vorlaufed and drained to kettle. Efficiency was higher than anticipated so stopped after 7 gallons and added 1.5 additional gallons of untreated RO water.
Boiled for 90 minutes then chilled to 70* using immersion chiller (no pre-chiller - amazing how much more efficient those things are when the ground water is cold!). Ended with 6 gallons of 1.051 sg wort.
Placed into fermentation chamber to cool to pitch temp of 56*. On Feb 16, pitched decanted starter and shook carboy for O2. Adjusted fermentation temperature to 58*. Signs of fermentation after less than 8 hours.
After 4 days, heated chamber to 65*. Continued to see slow bubble (1-2/minute) until ~ 8 days after pitching yeast. Final Gravity was resulting in % ABV.
Kegged on March 25. Force carbonated w/ 32psi for 48 hours then adjusted to serving pressure of 12psi.
Tasting
This keg kicked about a three weeks ago, and I don't have any notes to go off. That said...
The beer started out just okay. I enjoyed drinking 1 or 2 pints every now and then, but it really had more roasted character than I had hoped for (not too much, but enough to be the focus of an otherwise shy beer). After a week on tap I told myself that, despite not being a total strike out, I wouldn't brew the recipe again. However, after several months in the keg, the roasted flavor faded and the body seemed to lighten. It became the beer I had hoped for! Almost. If you have had St. Arnold's Santo (one of my favorites by them - served it at our wedding), which is a black kolsch, mine had slightly less roast character, slightly more body, and less yeast character. As is usual, the last few pints were the best.
Overall it was a good beer to have around and I'm sad it's gone. Despite my early reaction, I'll probably brew this again somewhere done the line. When I do I'll cut the crystal malt (either drop it drastically or cut it altogether) and might consider midnight wheat malt instead of the Special Carafa just to try it out. I'd also plan to age it for an extra month or two to allow any roasted flavors that make it through to mellow. No sense in drinking half of it before it hits it's stride!
Other options I'd consider would be to "cold brew" with the dark malts to see how that method impacts the beer. Or maybe I'll just straight up add Sinamar and truly test out that "eyes first" concept.
Cheers!