Magic Hat Howl inspired Dark Lager

EDIT: The recipe has been modified from the original post. I have kept the original here, for historical accuracy. For the recipe I used, please see this post later in this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/magic-hat-howl-inspired-dark-lager-300546/#post3757258

Original post follows.
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Just had Magic Hat's Howl for the first time last night and I loved it. I immediately thought of brewing something similar. Here's the recipe I have so far:

Grain Bill
5.25# Munich dark (20L)
3.5# 2-Row
1.5# Crystal 120L
10oz Carafa Special III

Hop schedule
.5oz Columbus @60
.5oz Hallertau @20

Mash
154* for 75 min

Yeast
Wyeast 2112 California Lager

I think that should get me in the ballpark, but I'm interested in any tweaks other may suggest.

Thats a ton of a very intense crystal for a lager. Are you sure you want the beer to SCREAM crystal 120?

Oh, I meant to mention in the OP that this is my first crack at recipe design. So I'm really out of my element here. Now that you mention it though, I never have put more than a pound or so of crystal malt in a batch.

Grain Bill
8# Munich Dark
1# CaraMunich
1# 2-Row
12oz Carafa Special III (1/2 at mash-in, 1/2 in last 10 min)
4oz Crystal 120

From what I've read, that might be a bit much Carafa to put all in the mash. So the plan is to save half to cap the mash with to get color without all the flavor.

Magic Hat has listed as grains: Pale, Carafa, Caramunich, and Crystal. Hops are Apollo and Hallertau.

I would sub out the Munich dark for pale 2-row. From what I remember, it was pretty roasty (and not all that sweet or malty) for a lager, so 12oz of Carafa III might be ok in the mash. My guess is the crystal is lighter than 120, but it's just a guess.

I realized that I wanted Carafa III, not Carafa Special III as I want the roasty flavors. That's most of what Howl is all about. My LHBS doesn't have the husked (non-Special) versions of Carafa, so I subbed Chocolate Malt. I also toned down the crystal to 60L, but bumped the quantity to round out the roasted notes a bit. I stuck with the hop schedule, because despite jeburgdo's comment, I see Columbus and Hallertau on Magic Hat's webpage: http://www.magichat.net/howl Here's the updated recipe:

Grain Bill
9# 2-Row
1# CaraMunich
1# Chocolate Malt
8oz Crystal 60L

Hop schedule
.5oz Columbus @60
.5oz Hallertau @20

Mash
150* for 75 min

Yeast
Wyeast 2112 California Lager

I pitched about 1/2 pint of slurry of 2112 @ 64*F. Fermentation was active when I checked on it 6 hours later. Temp slowly came down to 52*F and it's been chugging along there for 3 days now. I plan on ramping the temps up to the mid 60's once fermentation slows down, then lagering in the garage (mid to upper 30's) for several weeks. I have high hopes for this one.

imrook said:

...despite jeburgdo's comment, I see Columbus and Hallertau on Magic Hat's webpage: http://www.magichat.net/howl

Click to expand...

Huh. Here they list Apollo hops: http://www.magichat.net/elixirs/howl

Either way, as just a high alpha acid bittering hop, I don't think it will make much of a difference. I think the recipe you went with looks great! Hope it turns out for you.