Munich Dunkel - too complicated?

Hello,

Trying my hand at a Dunkel, to try to copy Warsteiner Dunkel. Used what I could from the brewstore. But now I'm home with the ingredients and I'm worried it's too complicated. Thoughts?

4.5lbs German Pilsner Malt
1.5lbs Sugar (Because I'm cheap)
3/4lb Munich 10L
1/2lb Belgian Carapils
1/4lb Aromatic 40L (brewstore told me to sub this for dark munich)
1/5lb English Chocolate
1/5lb Coffee Malt (hope this was a good substitute for CarafaIII)

1oz Hallertauer @ 60min
.5oz Tettnanger @ 60min
.5oz Tettnanger @ 5min

US-05 Yeast (washed from previous batch, wasn't about to spend $7 on Lager yeast) fermented @ 56°F

Am I worrying too much, or is this just too many ingredients for my own good?

aomagman78 said:

Hello,

Trying my hand at a Dunkel, to try to copy Warsteiner Dunkel. Used what I could from the brewstore. But now I'm home with the ingredients and I'm worried it's too complicated. Thoughts?

4.5lbs German Pilsner Malt
1.5lbs Sugar (Because I'm cheap)
3/4lb Munich 10L
1/2lb Belgian Carapils
1/4lb Aromatic 40L (brewstore told me to sub this for dark munich)
1/5lb English Chocolate
1/5lb Coffee Malt (hope this was a good substitute for CarafaIII)

1oz Hallertauer @ 60min
.5oz Tettnanger @ 60min
.5oz Tettnanger @ 5min

US-05 Yeast (washed from previous batch, wasn't about to spend $7 on Lager yeast) fermented @ 56°F

Am I worrying too much, or is this just too many ingredients for my own good?

Click to expand...

Wow thats a very complex recipe. While I dont know Warsteiner Dunkel (never really a fan), most dunkels are all Munich malt with a touch of carafa. For Warsteiner, Id cut some of the munich and add some Pils malt. If you can ferment that low at least do a dry lager yeast.

Wow that's slot of ingredients. My Dunkel is as simple as possible.

97% Munich
3% carafa special II

20 IBUs all from a 60 minute hallertau addition.

WLP830

aomagman78 said:

But now I'm home with the ingredients and I'm worried it's too complicated.

Click to expand...

It is too complicated and as bh10 said a Munich Dunkel is based on Munich malt and colored with German dark roast Carafa malt. Too late to worry now if the malt is bought and milled. Next time use German dark Munich as the majority base malt perhaps blended with some Pilsner malt and darkened with a small addition of Carafa.

Oh and ditch the sugar. Are you so cheap that you can't buy another couple pounds of malt?

A Munich Dunkel is a great beer. It's "clean" and crisp, and a great lager with rich malt flavor.

SO5 fermented below about 63 degrees gets weird "peachy" esters, and I would not use it to simulate anything resembling a lager. If you must use an ale yeast (bad idea for such a great lager), I'd suggest nottingham at 57 degrees. It still won't be a lager or a great imitator, but it'd be 100 times better than S05.

The sugar needs to go. That will play with the body of the beer. I don't know what "English coffee malt" is, but Carafa III is a black dehusked malt that is simply black in color for dark colored beer without roast flavor. I suspect the coffee malt will give you some roasty flavors out of place in a dunkel. That, with the chocolate malt and the ale yeast will give you more of an English brown than anything close to a dunkel.

This is the recipe I based it on, from chainsawbrewing:

Ingredients
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.25 lbs. German 2-row Pils
.5 lbs. Weyermann CaraFoam®
3.5 lbs. German Dark Munich
.20 lbs. American Chocolate Malt
.20 lbs. Weyermann Carafa III®
1.5 oz. Hallertau (Pellets, 4.50 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
.5 oz. Hallertau (Pellets, 4.50 %AA) boiled 15 minutes.
.25 oz. Tettnanger (Pellets, 4.50 %AA) boiled 5 minutes.
Yeast: WYeast 2565 Kolsch


So I didn't modify it that much, except for the sugar. The rest were modifications due to LHBS availability and additional light munich for a not so dark beer. So I didn't change it that much. But splitting the munich's into two types and then adding the sugar seemed to muck it up. Live and learn I guess.

As for sugar - i'm both cheap, and 6lbs is about the limit of my brew pot. Anymore and it becomes a real hassle. And LHBS was charging $7 for Saflager yeast, so I just went with my washed yeast. I'll let you know how it comes out in 2 months.

Thanks Yooper. Learn from my failures/impatient-ness I guess.

I didn't realize that about US-05, noted for next time definitely.

aomagman78 said:

As for sugar - i'm both cheap, and 6lbs is about the limit of my brew pot.

Click to expand...

If you need to augment the fermentables beyond your 6 lb limit try using the lightest dry malt extract you can find. Munton's Extra Light or Briess Pilsner dry would be fairly easy to find and IMO are much better choices than plain sugar for this beer.

Warsteiner Dunkel is not, to my recollection, a Munich style Dunkel. ISTR that Warsteiner just takes their regular lager and colors it up with caramel or Sinamar or similar.

A Munich Dunkel should be Munich (duh) malt based, with chocolate or Carafa to get the SRMs up, and an unobtrusive hop profile.

Ah, gotcha 944, so that's why my recipe is so strange. I had the incorrect type. Thanks.

If anyone cares, this actually came out superb. Nothing like Warsteiner Dunkle, cause that coffee malt is really dark. But it's a great hybrid brown ale. I got good reviews from dark/light beer drinkers alike. I think this was a rare gem of a mistake. I will definitely make this again, but simplified.