Munich Dunkel Uncle Crunkel's Munich Dunkel (AG)

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scinerd3000

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2008
Messages
2,123
Reaction score
16
Location
Milton
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
WLP838 Southern German Lager
Yeast Starter
Large 1/2 gal (see below)
Batch Size (Gallons)
5.5
Original Gravity
1.051
Final Gravity
1.011
Boiling Time (Minutes)
75
IBU
25
Color
16 See Below
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
10 Days (75% attenuated) @ 55
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
Lager at 34 (+/- 1) for 8-10 weeks
Additional Fermentation
36 Hr Diacetyl Rest @ 70
Tasting Notes
chocolate, hops drop off palate quickly, very smooth(with another month until finish)
Uncle Crunkel's Munich Dunkel
-Recipe is based on brew365's.

7.5 LBS Munich
3.5 Lbs Pilsner
.25 Lbs Crystal 120 (+ tossed in some vienna)
.25 Lbs chocolate malt 350L

1.00 Oz Tettnanger @60
.5 Oz Tettnanger @30
.5 Oz Tettnanger@ 10
i went for about 25 ibus (cap of the spectrum for the style is 28)
ABV~5.3%

Mashed in a MLT cooler at 153 for 60-70 minutes. Batch sparged hot and hit 168 in the grain bed. 75 minute boil just to drive off DMS from pilsner (and possibly get a little extra color)...I didint feel like 90 minutes was nessesary here.

For my starter i used WLP838 Southern Lager yeast with a half gal of Starting wort (sg: 1.045). Once this started fermenting i dropped the temperature down so it would be starting at the same temp as the lager. Pitched cold. When gravity is 75-80% of where you think its gonna finish (pulled mine at just under 1.020) pull to warmer area for a diacytal rest at 68-70. After 36 hours taste for diacytal and move to lagering fridge if not present. Dropped 4 degrees per day until at 34 and lager for time desired.

laggered at 34 (+/-1) for 8-10 week.

Drinking it now as im typing and it turned out great! Extremely sessionable and smooth. Chocolate overtones, restrained sweetness and a balance toward the Munich malt. A very creamy head :)
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Update: So after about almost 6 months on gas it really has lost some of its mouth feel. For the first few months it was like liquid bread- delicious! and now its more reminescent of a newcastle type smoothness. Either way its still great but i think next time im going to try a decoction mash to add even more melanoidins. The chocolate comes through better with age also!
 
Looks REALLY good. I would love to try it right now, but can't since I don't have anything to control the temp as well as a fridge. Bummer HUH?

Anyway, couple questions...When you did your yeast starter and you mentioned Starting Wort...

Is that the wort right out of the MLT?

What temp did you pitch the yeast in the starter? and, How long did you let it ferment?

And lastly, What does diacetyl taste like???

Thanks...
 
Is that the wort right out of the MLT?

What temp did you pitch the yeast in the starter? and, How long did you let it ferment?

And lastly, What does diacetyl taste like???

Thanks...

I'm not sure why i wrote it that way, it was a DME starter.

I had the starter in the temp controlled freezer at around 50 ambient temp. I let this ferment for around a month. WHen it started to die down i kept checking the gravity every few days until i was close to being attenuated fully.

Diacetyl comes across as a slickness in the mouth. The beer seems to coat your tounge and in severe cases will actually taste buttery. This one is smooth and crisp and matly
 
if anything i may add a # of munich and subtract a # of pils. I also though about combining the 10 minute hop addition and the 30... It was really really good though. Its deffinitly on my list to brew again.
 
Cool ! Im going to try it with Munich 30L and see how it goes.
Thanks for the recipe :mug:
 
I made this in October and finally transferred it to the keg tonight. Even though it isn't carbonated it is the best brew I have made to date!!! awesome recipe...much appreciated!!
 
This is definitely on the to do list, looks great. Think I'll go for a double enhanced decoction mash to develop it a bit. This October is gonna be a heavy one:mug:
 
This is definitely on the to do list, looks great. Think I'll go for a double enhanced decoction mash to develop it a bit. This October is gonna be a heavy one:mug:

This will turn out great with a double decoction! I wish i would have had the patience but maybe next time I brew. Enjoy :)
 
I cant seem to source any tettnanger, i was thinking of substituting for some hallertaur hersbruker. Would this be suitable for the style? Also the alpha acid content for what i have is 3% Do you have any recommendations for quantities to be used?
 
Brewed this at the weekend and everything went pretty well apart from the fact my keggle was tripping the earth leakage device for about a half an hour, very annoying. I just aerated and pitched a few minutes ago so now the waiting game begins
 
not that you can do much now but i believe mine were about 4% when i made this. You should be ok with a 3% although its gonna be a bit sweeter possibly. Which hops did you use? hallertau should be fine :)
 
not that you can do much now but i believe mine were about 4% when i made this. You should be ok with a 3% although its gonna be a bit sweeter possibly. Which hops did you use? hallertau should be fine :)

I used some hallertau Hersbrucker in the end.I checked up some tettnanger and saw they were 4% so I upped my hersbrucker weights by a third, not exactly scientific i know but i'm sure it's gonna be great beer
 
Really really good. I had intended putting up a picture at the weekend but I went to Ireland's only homebrew expo and things got a bit disorganized from there. All the feedback from other brewers was good so I think i did the recipe justice. It would be great to have one of yours to do a compare and contrast and see is there any benefit from the decoction approach but Pennsylvania is a bit far!

Don't see myself straying from this recipe when i do Dunkels in the future, cheers for sharing a great recipe!!!
 
looks awesome. Decoction is how this is traditionally done and would make the recipe a bit darker....The one i just brewed I used wlp029 kolsch yeast instead of the lager yeast to see what would happen. It's good but not nearly as awesome as the true lagered version. Haha yea Ireland is a bit far- but if you ever come to the states....

Thanks for doing this justice :rockin:
 
Has anyone tried this with a decoction mash? I am going to brew this as my first lager (very excited!) but I'm trying to decide if doing a modified double decoction (as explained by the BrauKaiser) will make a significant improvement or if I should focus on the lagering and then worry about the more advanced mash later. I'm well versed in turbid mashes so I don't think the decoction mash is beyond my skill level...just not sure if it is really necessary (especially since this recipe already includes dark malts).
 
I just did my first decoction mash this past weekend - it was also my first lager. If you are thinking about and have studied it a bit, I'd recommend you do it. The decoction was not that difficult. My brew was a marzen/fest beer.
My understanding is that the primary benefit of decoction is to develop the full flavor of the malt.
I think my next lager will be a munich dunkel and this looks like a pretty good recipe.
 
Well I just made this. I did a straight infusion as per the original recipe because I was also taking care of my 1-yr-old. Got a big starter crashing, completely rebuilt my kegerator to hold the carboy and I can't wait to watch 'er fly! Thanks for the recipe! I will compete it at my local club in a few months and report back.
 
The chocolate is as much for color as it it is just as a slight dark grain character. You dont actually get any "chocolate" per-se however it comes though and ballances nicely.
 
This recipe looks and sounds wonderful! I am an experienced extract brewer and have done a BIAB 2 gallon batch with pretty good success but I'm starting to get more into Beersmith and would like to understand how to convert this recipe so that I might use this partial mash method.

I have entered the recipe into beersmith as is shown above, with a batch size of 5.5g and a boil volume of 4.5g (my pots are 5g). I exchanged the 3.5#s of Pilsner malt for 3#s of pilsner LME (which I have checked "Add After Boil" on). I assumed a 65% efficiency for the partial mash of the 7.5#s of munich malt but want to make sure this will actually work before I go brewing it.

Am I understanding this all correctly? I don't quite get some of the beersmith terms and it doesn't seem to account for my equipment when doing calculations, which makes me doubt its accuracy on things like IBUs and color.

Any help/advice/direction would be greatly appreciated! Thank you ^_^
 
I did a slightly modified version of this recipe (based on malt availability) as my second all grain and first double decoction. I'm 2 months in and it tastes downright authentic. I gave my distilled water a Munich profile and used Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager on a big starter. Taste is very clean, but still needs some aging. I racked it from primary a week ago when I purchased my first keg setup. This was the first beer pulled from my tap. I'm very pleased...It reminds me of a very good meal at Hofbräuhaus Las Vegas. :)



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I am making this tomorrow. I am getting my well water as close to Munich water as I can and I am using Fermentis S-23 yeast.

Barry
 
Here was my day...

Just finished brewing this recipe. Started at 9am and finished at 5pm.

7lbs Munich malt
1lbs 12oz Pilsner 2 row
4.5oz Crystal 120
4.5oz Chocolate malt
1oz Tettnang 75min
.5oz Tettnang 45min
.5oz Tettnang 15min
Saflager S-23 West European Lager

Mashed at 153 for 60min, collected 9.5gal and boiled for 90min. Was planning on 1.056 and hit 1.058. Measured efficiency is 94%:rockin:

Plan on fermenting at 54 until 75% complete and then raise to 70 for a diacetyl rest for 3 days and then lager for 30 days taking the temp down slowly.

Barry
 
Mashed at 153 for 60min, collected 9.5gal and boiled for 90min. Was planning on 1.056 and hit 1.058. Measured efficiency is 94%:rockin:

Jesus, 94% is impressive. Efficiency goes up when i do a decoction but 72-73% is my absolute roof on a single infusion mash.

I really have to brew this again!
 
Jesus, 94% is impressive. Efficiency goes up when i do a decoction but 72-73% is my absolute roof on a single infusion mash.

I really have to brew this again!

I have a Kal clone electric brewery and get 90-95% efficiency on every brew.

I have beersmith set to 90% so it reduces the grain bill by about 2lbs and still hit 1.058.

Barry:ban:
 
Fermentation is complete, after a 3 day diacetyl rest, final gravity stopped at 1.012. With OG at 1.058 and FG at 1.012 that is 6%A ABV. Now starts to slow drop to lagering temps.

Just measured the final reading on the lager I made a few weeks ago, the starting specific gravity started at 1.058 and ended after fermentation at 1.012. This means that this dark lager or "dunkel" that I have named "Dark side of the Mun(ich)" will be 6% alcohol. It is now slowly being lowered to 34 degrees where it will sit for 8 to 12 weeks before bottling.

Barry
 
What a great recipe. Double Decoction, thin then thicker. Made 10.5 gallons by doubling the original recipe. Entered this one into the Ohio State Fair a couple weeks back. Placed for style characteristics. Each of the 3 judges gave it above 40. What a great beer.

Did crack the carafa and chocolate seperate and added at the end of the mash like Gordon Strong talks about in his book. Used the same 838 yeast and made a big starter. Just be patient with this one and you won't be disappointed.

BB
 
We brewed this one up a couple of months ago. Last weekend I took a keg out to a friend's as the house beer for her pig roast. It was gone before 10. Today a guy called up wanting to buy a keg-guess I am going to have to brew it again!
 
Brewed this up yesterday, it was my first lager and decoction so was a looong brew day. Wort tasted great, hoping it turns out as good as everyone says!

I will report back in about... 2 months.
 
What a great recipe. Double Decoction, thin then thicker. Made 10.5 gallons by doubling the original recipe. Entered this one into the Ohio State Fair a couple weeks back. Placed for style characteristics. Each of the 3 judges gave it above 40. What a great beer.

Did crack the carafa and chocolate seperate and added at the end of the mash like Gordon Strong talks about in his book. Used the same 838 yeast and made a big starter. Just be patient with this one and you won't be disappointed.

BB

Great to hear! above a 40 is fantastic-I drank all of this long before I sent it out to contests.
 

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