The latest batch of beer at the CaBrewery was to honor Mrs. Brew Meister and her affection for Kulmbacher Mönchshof Schwarzbier. This brings back memories of sitting in a middle-eastern restarant, watching German MTV, eating falafel, and smelling the hookahs burning.
The beer is a dark-as-night brew, with lower alcohol, foamy beige head, and has a very low roasted taste. It is a smooth lager, with noble hops in the mid taste, and an incredible finish. I agree with the Mrs.--it is a great beer, so I decided to try to make it.
I could not find any clear recipe for the style, so I took an all grain recipe, translated it into a partial mash, and used whatever I had left from the last few batches of beer, and here is what I have left:
Schwartz Beer
1/2# chocolate malt
1/2# roasted malt
1/2# crustal 40
3.52# BierKeller Dark German DME
3.3# Briess Pilsen Light
60 minutes 1/2 oz NZ Hallertau 6.2AA
15 minutes 1/2 oz NZ Hallertau 6.2AA
Heated water to 160F, added the crushed grains and put the heat on simmer for 50 minutes.
I hang a basket with the specialty grains on my 40qt boil pot and rinsed the grains for a few minutes.
I added the DME and brought up the water to 20L. Brought everything up to a boil and did the hop on schedule.
Cooled to 72F, pitched White Labs WLP830 German Lager Yeast and kept in a warm room (70F) for the night. By morning, the yeast was chugging along. I moved the primary to the basement where it settled to 62F for three weeks. I kegged it and let it sit in the beer fridge for a week. It turned out awesome!
Try it out and let me know what you think. I am going to make another batch next week!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
May the Schwarz Bier With You (Kulmbacher - Mönchshof Schwarzbier clone)
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Beer Hackers For Sure (clone recipe)
The first batch of beer for 2009 was a quick and easy Hefeweisen. My wife is a big fan of many German style wheat beers. She was very fond of Paulaner Natural Wheat, but has recently been turned on to Hacker Pschorr. She now prefers the HP because it has less of the banana notes than from the Paulaner yeast. So I was on a mission to make an extract beer with some specialty grains that fit the description.
While at the brew shop buying a new boiling pot (Note from Mrs. Brew Meister: he decided the larger pot would eliminate boil-over and that the basement brewery will require time and budgeting), I thumbed through a copy of Brew Your Own that had 150 top clone recipes. I patched together an ingredient list that I thought would do the trick, and I changed my yeast from the normal White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale yeast to WLP351 Bavarian Weizen yeast. I think it will create a spicier less banana/bubble gum flavor.
- Start the 4 gallons of water boiling in the main boil pot
- In a separate pot, bring ¾ gallon of water to 160F. Add 1.5# of pils malt
- Steep at 150F for 50 minutes
- Pour water and grains through a strainer into the larger pot
- Ladle hot water through the grains in the strainer for a few minutes.
- Bring everything to a boil for a total boil of 60 minutes.
- Add 4# Muntons wheat dry malt extract 60 minutes
- Add 1oz Spalt hops 2.4AA 60 minutes
- Add ½oz Tradition hops 5.2AA 60 minutes
- Add 3# liquid wheat malt extract 15 minutes
- Add 1/2 oz Tradition hops 5.2AA 15 minutes
With an immersion chiller, I cooled the wort down to 74F in 15 minutes.
I pitched the White Labs Weizen WLP351 and stored it on a first floor room until fermentation started about 10 hours later.
It is now in the basement bubbling away at 64F. So far, so good.
Monday, July 7, 2008
FINALLY! A recipe (or more) for White Beer
We were inspired to create a Belgian Wit beer that would be ready around our anniversary. Mrs. Brew Meister always enjoyed Blue Moon Belgian White. We also just drank a bottle of Unibroue - La Fin Du Monde. Holy cow is that a good spicy beer; and at 9%, one bottle is the perfect size.
I took a recipe from a book at the local brewshop and adapted it to fit what the store had in stock, and the modifications I wanted to make. In honor of the anniversary, I give you...
White Wedding Beer
- 1# Belgian Biscuit Malt in 2 gallons of water @ 160F for 30 minutes
- Sparge with 1 gallon of water @ 168F
Bring the water to a boil
- Add 6.6# of 55/45 Wheat DME, 1oz crushed coriander seeds, and 1oz sweet orange peel
Boil for 5 minutes
- Add 1oz Saaz hops
Boil 40 minutes
- Add 1oz Cascade hops and 1# clear Belgian candy sugar
Boil 15 minutes; cool to 75F
- Add White Labs Belgian White Yeast
It has fermented for a week, I am moving it to the secondary today. It will probably be there for five weeks before bottling.
Here are some other Belgian White Recipes I found on the Interwebs. I have not tried these yet, but they sound good, and have various skill levels.
Partial Mash From BYO: Blanche de Chambly (look halfway down the page)
All grain from jrhomebrewers: Leffe Blonde clone
An extract recipe from BYO: Celis White Clone
Cheers!
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Helluva Hefeweizen (Paulaner clone)
With the increased travel I have been doing lately, I had the need to come up with a fast batch. Ales are great for making a wide variety of beers with a large range of time requirements. This time, we decided that a good hefeweizen would fit the bill. It usually has a fast, vigorous fermentation, didn’t require crystal clarity, and with the use of the recently acquired kegs, the whole thing could be done easily.
I found a recipe at the local HBS with the available ingredients that day:
Helluva Hefe:
4oz Munich Malt
6.6# DME 55% Wheat 45# Barley
1oz Hersbruker 3.8AA
White Labs Liquid Hefeweizen Ale Yeast (WLP380)
Steep the Munich malt for 30 minutes at 152º in 2 gallons
Add one gallon of water bring to a boil
Add the DME for 60 minutes
Add hops for 45 minutes
Bring water volume to 5.2 gallons
Cool to 74º
Add yeast
My OG was 1.052. I planned to ferment for 5 days. It was so vigorous that my air lock filled with wort and blew out after 2 days. I left off the airlock for 2 days and put the fermentor in a bucket to catch any overflow. After a messy 5 days, the bubbling slowed to a crawl. It was at FG 1.012.
I kegged the beer with 1 cup of priming (corn) sugar. I boiled 2 cups of water with the priming sugar and added it to a clean keg. I then added the 5 gallons of beer to the keg. I let the keg sit for five days and added the CO2 at 8psi. 3 days later, all was well.
The beer was the exact Paulaner clone I was looking for. It poured a very thick heady, cloudy yellow. Lots of spice, bubble gum, citrus, wheat nose. Lemony taste, yeasty, tingling bubbles. Light body, smooth, balanced with mild bitterness.
Overall, a great beer that was an easy (11 days from start to drinking) uncomplicated batch that created one of our favorite beers.
