It's Schwarzbier time!!

[Trough Lolly]

As the rainclouds make their long overdue appearance over Canberra, it's time to start stocking up on lagers for yet another cold winter...well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!! I had a look at Ross's schwarzbier recipe and tomorrow morning I'll be brewing the following recipe...



Trough Lolly's Schwarzbier

Batch Size - 21L
OG - 1.050 FG - 1.012
IBU - 33.2 EBC - 68.3

Grainbill
2kg Weyermann Vienna Malt 42.9%
1.2kg Weyermann Pilsner Malt 25.8%
1kg Weyermann Munich II Malt 21.5%
160g Weyermann Carafa I 3.4%
150g Weyermann Caraaroma 3.2%
150g Joe White Chocolate Malt 3.2%

Hops
22g Hallertauer Pellets 4.2% A/A 60 mins 14.4IBU
8g Northern Brewer Pellets 10% A/A 60 mins 12.5IBU
20g Hallertauer Pellets 4.2% A/A 20 mins 4.4IBU
20g Tettnanger Flowers 3.9% A/A 5 mins 1.9IBU

Yeast
Repitch on a WLP 810 San Francisco Lager yeast slurry. Recommend W34/70 or S-189 dry lager yeast.

Notes
90 minute boil
1 teaspoon of gypsum and 1 teaspoon of Chalk in the mash

Cheers,
TL

[warra48]

And yet another great looking recipe to add to the to do list.

The list gets ever longer, but the available brewing time doesn't seem to keep up.

A bit like the model kits I buy. I need to live to 320 years of age to build all the ones I've bought at my current rate of construction.

In case anyone is wondering where TL finds all those delectable beer porn images, here's a link:
http://www.germanbeerinstitute.com/styles.html

[Chris]

Love that carafa!

[Trough Lolly]

Yep, the Carafa I is very noice! To my palate, it's a heap smoother than patent malt...

One point I noted was that the Vienna/Pils/Munich II generated quite a bit of protein (more than I expected) that I skimmed during the boil to reduced potential haze issues. I did this with a Munich II ale that I'm drinking now and the kegged beer is star bright...no filtering needed.

Well, it's bubbling away in primary right now with a very thick krausen that I skimmed last night and has returned with a vengeance! An active foaming krausen is handy when you want to remove the hop flowers and solid matter from the fermenter - and not have them block the outlet when you rack the beer.

Overshot the OG and got 1.055 at 21L, or, around 83% efficiency by fly and not batch sparging!!

Cheers,
TL

[Chris]

Patent in a schwartz tastes very wrong to me. I fully agree on the smoothness factor.

[BierMeister]

As the rainclouds make their long overdue appearance over Canberra, it's time to start stocking up on lagers for yet another cold winter...well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!! I had a look at Ross's schwarzbier recipe and tomorrow morning I'll be brewing the following recipe...

Let us know how it compares to beers such as Koestrizer as I am forever searching for the perfect receipe

[Trough Lolly]

Ok, I've had a bottle of this last weekend. It served up a tad too cold to give a complete sensory profile but I was too impatient to wait for it to come a bit warmer before finishing off the bottle!!

I'll try to be humble....It's a bloody cracker! Despite being only 1 month old, the beer has an excellent dark lager profile that's smooth, full flavoured and very clean with a subtle roasted quality that lingers on your palate. The WLP810 did surprisingly well - I feared that it would push the sweetness levels too high and unbalance the flavour profile, but in this case, the WLP810 was a very fresh and active slurry in the fermenter after a few batches and thus did an excellent job. I watched fermentation temps like a hawk and it seemed to work well.
No esters, diacetyl and the finish is clean - very moorish for a strong dark lager. I'd like Ross to sample some of this for a comparison with his award winning version - and I might even put this in the local comp if it's not too late!!

I'm very happy and if you like dark lagers, this is worth a go!

Cheers,
TL

[Ross]

Sounds like a ripper...Hopefully get to taste it when I'm down this week - you going to be about TL?

cheers ross

[BierMeister]

TL,

How pure is the water in Canberra? I'm thinking that in Adelaide with our hard water I'll be able to skip the chalk and gypsum. What do you think?

[Trough Lolly]

I'd suggest the Adelaide water, untouched, will be fine...Canberra water is quite clean

Ross - I can't make the meeting this Thursday unfortunately. I will be home during the week and this weekend...I have a nice amberish IPA on tap at the moment - plenty of Bairds goodness to keep the cold winter nights at bay!!

Cheers,
TL

[Trough Lolly]

Ok, I've just poured my first glass from the keg - it was kegged and bottled on 23 March...that's only 10 weeks ago.

Hats off to Ross - this is an excellent brew!

The complexity is amazing - there's an effortless smoothness to the beer that makes irish stouts almost pale by comparison! I've had some London Pride and a pint of Little Creatures beforehand but yet the hop and grain flavour profiles easily stand out despite the well hopped and flavoured beers beforehand. It's great - there's the wonderfully rich yet not cloying sweet caramel vienna malt that starts the flavour profile almost oktoberfest-like, then it gently gives way to a rich yet not overpowering roasted malt flavour profile thanks to the Carafa malt. I was worried that the kilo of Munich II would clash with the 160g of Carafa, 150g of Choc malt and 150g of Caraaroma but it's magically all in balance - none of the grains compete for your attention and the combined flavour effect is brilliant.

The hops are there but they're subtle almost perfume like on the palate and the whole beer is beautifully balanced. Ross, this beer is excellent and the bottled sampler was only a hint at what a full keg of this lager is capable of delivering. Looking at my brewday notes, everything came together on the day - I managed 82% mash efficiency and I batch sparged!

It's seriously good dark lager - and even though I got lazy and fermented the wort with Califonia Lager yeast, it's still wonderfully smooth and drinkable. Dare I say it's enough to stop making stouts and just brew Shwarzbiers instead!!

I've got to check the club comp calendar and decant a bottle of this for the dark lagers flight - it's an absolute belter!

Cheers,
TL

[drsmurto]

Nice work TL.

Dont suppose you could post your mash and ferment schedule?

This one has been added to my list. Just need to buy a lager yeast, thinking wyeast 2206 so make this, a nice pilsner and a dunkel....

[James L]

my 2206 didnt work... i'm really bummed about that.... i had many brews lined up for that yeast trub...

[Trough Lolly]

Nice work TL.

Dont suppose you could post your mash and ferment schedule?

This one has been added to my list. Just need to buy a lager yeast, thinking wyeast 2206 so make this, a nice pilsner and a dunkel....

No probs - this was surprisingly simple...1 hour mash at 66c and a two week ferment before racking to secondary and leaving it at ROOM TEMP for another 3-4 weeks. But that, of course, was due to using the San Francisco lager yeast. There was no diacetyl or sulphur to speak of and that probably helped contribute to such a smooth flavour profile - no lagery notes getting in the way and the grains and hops just stood out on their own.

I would recommend repitching the wort onto an active slurry - I did a boston lager and then repitched the schwarzbier wort straight onto it after I racked the boston lager into a keg. Wyeast 2206 would be nice...

Cheers,
TL

[drsmurto]

Cheers TL!

Really struggling with my to brew list. The order changes daily, sometimes hourly.......

[Stubbie]

Oh, this is just torturous

How's any lover of dark beer supposed to read TL's glowing post and think they've got any chance of not yielding to squeezing in just one more brew into an already impossible schedule

But if Bro Stout suggests this beer is good enough to give up brewing stouts, then I reckon it's a worthwhile use of a soon-to-be-available 2206 yeastcake

Cheers

[Trough Lolly]

Go for it Stubbie - you won't regret it...

Cheers,
TL

[Chris]

Sounds like the dark lager category has already been won. Might have to do a porter instead.

[Trough Lolly]

I'm working with Kurtz to find out what category I can enter it into - I can't see a schwarzbier category...maybe dark lager will have to do!

Cheers,
TL

[Stubbie]

TL,

When you pitched this wort onto the primary, did you use the entire yeast cake?