The Dark Lord ....cloning this massive beer!!

Ok..I have only talked to people who have had it..and I am only a few hours from Three Floyds but unless I want to wait it out with thousands to only be turned away for this massive Imperial Stout I figure I would try to brew it..

First off this recipe is based only on what I read about it and so it is a work in progress..anyone who has had it or brewed something the same help is needed...:

18# 2 row
2# munich malt
2# Roasted Barley
1# Chocolate malt
8 oz Flaked Barley
8 oz Crystal 60L
8 oz Crystal 120L
8 oz Black patent malt
8 oz flaked oats
1.5 # honey
.5# molasses

3 oz Chinook @ 60 min shoot for 85 IBU..thats what I have read anyway

Cali yeast(massive starter or yeast cake)

1.123 OG
1.031 FG 13% ABV

I would probably shoot for 153 or 154 mash to keep it from going too dry..
vanilla bean and coffe or espresso in secondary...

The Dark Lord can be made\

I got 66 SRM (so black as the dark lord himself I would say 10w30 motor oil for sure..)

J

Thats one hell of a beer!

Yep at 13%ABV and darker than anything I have brewed. I do not know how the cali yeast will do but I think it should do fine..I do not expect the munich to do much..so might remove that. I have seen both M.O. and american 2 row as base malt...not sure on this one.

I will probably brew up 3 gallons of it and put it in one of my empty 5 gallons and leave it for a few months..I also read it was hard to taste any late addition hops..normally the case in such big beers but some american versions of Imperial souts load up late additions..

J

A previous edition of BYO has an imperial stout that potentially could get up to 17%. For something this big, you will need to pitch on a yeast cake. Good call on the headspace, chances are you'll need it.

Not only for head space but I figure as a work in progress no need to go all out. I probably will brew up stout or brown with cali yeast and transfer to secondary and pitch on top of that after I crash cool it..should give me a nice yeast cake to pitch on for this big beer..with cali..I could always pitch a few packs of S-05 to up the yeast count..

J

Good Luck and let us know how it goes.

talk to evan! he has experience brewing up big stouts, i think he did mephistopheles last fall.

Sweet Jesus, I'd pay you to ship me a "live yeast sample" of this one!

As in the yeast in a bottle!! I plan to pitch on top of a cali yeast cake...

I make my Imperial Stout once a year around new years..so this will be made a bit later..I think this is a bit big and complex to go all out in a full batch so 3.5 gallons in either a 5 gallon glass or 6 gallon BB.

Anyone have thoughts on the recipe?? It seems like a lot of roastes barley..but from what I read this seems to fit...the honey should help up the gravity..

J

Any news??

NAW..this guy is on hold for a bit. Possibly give it a go this spring.

I will let you know.

J

I just priced out the ingredients for this in a 2.5gal batch and its nearly $30! Good (Dark) Lord!!

I am getting a lot higher OG than you though.

You want to mash big beers low to maximize fermentability since there's realistically no risk of this beer being "too thin"...

You have to get there pretty early to get bottles, but they have it on tap all day long during dark lord day. Good stuff!

Mash low, around 147-148
Add sugar or something that will allow for the ferment to go towards dry. Up to 10%
Ferment a little warmer than you think, around 69 for a few days and then up to 72 for the last week or two.
That much roasted will taste delicious! I haven't had the original beer but adding the black patent to me needs that Chocolate as well to counter.

What's the latest on this? Darklord Day 09 is 25 days away. Unfortunately I was out of town when the tickets went on sale.

RedIrocZ-28 said:

I just priced out the ingredients for this in a 2.5gal batch and its nearly $30! Good (Dark) Lord!!

I am getting a lot higher OG than you though.

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That's not bad, you would pay more than that for 2 bottles of Dark Lord.

Even if you don't have the tickets for bottles at Dark Lord day you still can get it on tap all day.

I think that I am at a place now that I would be able to make a huge Imperial Stout next. I have just accomplished three really big brews and gotten them to finish out at dry enough (missed it on my Belgian Barleywine though). I figure that if I add 10% sugar I should be able to dry this puppy out to around 1.015.

Matt Up North said:

I think that I am at a place now that I would be able to make a huge Imperial Stout next. I have just accomplished three really big brews and gotten them to finish out at dry enough (missed it on my Belgian Barleywine though). I figure that if I add 10% sugar I should be able to dry this puppy out to around 1.015.

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Have you had DL before? I've had 10-15 different RIS that are at or above 12% ABV and of those DL is by far the thickest sun of a gun I've ever had. I don't think you would want to dry it to anywhere near 1.015 if you're going for an authentic DL experience.

I haven't had it before, Perhaps some day though.

I'm looking into cloning Dark Lord. I had some on tap that was wonderful. The one I had was Dark Lord '08 with vanilla bean and aged in a bourbon barrel. I'm going to try to make that. When I do crack open a bottle of my DL '09 I'll get a SG reading. So far I've read that it is 1.064 as measured by a guy on beeradvocate. Even when I do brew this it will take a year before it is ready to compare to the DL I bought, which really needs to age itself.

By the way if you plan to go to Dark Lord Day next year I hope they do the golden tickets again. I got my tickets and hung out getting food, talking etc until 3 pm, I then went and got my bottles when the line was 10 minutes long. I got there at 11 am and the line was around the block, absolutely huge. It took 4 hours for it to shrink.

conpewter said:

So far I've read that it is 1.064 as measured by a guy on beeradvocate.

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That is insane! :rockin:

So that would put the OG ~1.162 to get 13%, right?

bdnoona said:

That is insane! :rockin:

So that would put the OG ~1.162 to get 13%, right?

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Yep! I have it worked out on beertools right now
BeerTools.com Recipe Library - Dark Lord Clone

It is in line behind 3 other brews I already have the ingredients for. So I need to get to brewing! I'd like this to get done this summer so that I can have a nice aged sample for DLD '10

bump...

Any progress here? Any changes to the recipe? I think you need to bring down the base malt to around 60% personally.

bump again!

I've only recently started brewing (5 batches, all extract) but this is my ultimate goal, my Everest. I'm planning on making the switch to all grain within the next 3 batches and to take it from there.

I missed 2009 but I've been to DLD 07 and 08. I've still got 5 bottles of the 08 and I'll be taking a hydro reading on the next bottle I open for sure. I'm hoping someone has tried brewing this monster and can comment on the recipe and how close it was.

FWIW, I would say DL is the best beer I've ever had and as far as RIS go, the Oak Aged YETI is damn good too, but Goose Island has an RIS, I forget the name, that is even better than the YETI, imho. OH, and Ol' Rasputin is great too, especially for the price!

I don't know about this recipe but this thread by saq is good
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/my-shot-dark-lord-brewed-dark-lord-day-116043/
and by all accounts seemed to turn out really well. My attempt at this so far is too acidic, too many roasted malts etc. We'll see how it ages out. The small beer I made off of the 2nd runnings turned out really nice though.

my work in progress for this...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/dark-lord-clone-help-recipe-technique-120103/

Tonedef131 said:

That's not bad, you would pay more than that for 2 bottles of Dark Lord.

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Thats what i was thinkn. $60/5gallon is nothin for that.

I was looking for a good RIS recipe and came upon this. The recipe looks pretty good, I make a stout thats a toned down version of this minus the crystal and the vanilla beans and its a really balanced brew. If I may make a suggestion to anyone checking this recipe out; think about freeing up an extra carboy and an extra hour or so on the day you brew this and make it a parti gyle batch. Theres more than enough left in those grains to make a nice session beer to keep your brain oiled while this big bastard ages. If youre going to drop fifty bucks on a grain bill you may as well squeeze as much out of it as you can.

Has anyone made this yet?

I might try making this within the next few weeks with a massive starter two vials or activator packs in 4000ml

ctbrewer227 said:

I might try making this within the next few weeks with a massive starter two vials or activator packs in 4000ml

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Same here, some feedback on the recipe would be awesome before buying this massive grain bill

To give credit and an update. I've brewed this annually for the past 3 years. I have never even been close to a bottle of Dark Lord, so cannot to a comparison for anyone looking for an exact replica.

With that said, this is an excellent recipe. It's a HUUUUGE beer with lots of flavour. It only gets better with age. I've got a some bottles from my 2013 brew on reserve in the cellar and am working through the 2014 edition, having brewed a fresh batch yesterday. This one is in high demand and gets rave reviews from friends and family. I've tried lots of RISs and this is one of the my favourites . The alcohol is smooth for such a big beer. Very warming and not harsh. Great coffee and roast notes. The ONLY thing I would change is to try and add a little more mouthfeel as it's a wee bit thin for such a big beer. (it's a super minor change).I also replaced some of the honey with maple syrup which seems to work well.

Awesome recipe and has a permanent place in my rotation.

Thanks for the update

Also, BYO just published a clone recipe. Nothing like this.

Jwin said:

Also, BYO just published a clone recipe. Nothing like this.

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care to share?

I read it in this months BYO also. The all grain version does 2 mash processes. The grain bill is huge. I will have to try to remember to post up the recipe when i get outta work.

CrimsonYeti said:

I read it in this months BYO also. The all grain version does 2 mash processes. The grain bill is huge. I will have to try to remember to post up the recipe when i get outta work.

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I glanced at the recipe when the magazine came in the other day. I think there were three pages of grains listed! (maybe a little exaggerated, but man that's a bunch of grains)

atom said:

care to share?

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Has anyone tried to make the published Darklord recipe?