Schwarzbier May The Schwarz Be With You

I brewed this on Oct. 25, 2009 and after lagering at freezing temps in the garage for the last eight weeks, I put this on tap last night (Jan. 11, 2010) to carb up. I pulled a sample, had a taste and I have to say that this is a winner! Just enough roast character to know it is there; it reminded me a lot of Kostritzer, which was what I was shooting for. I'll do a side-by-side in ~three weeks. I am already wishing I had brewed five gallons instead of ten.

Recipe: May The Schwarz Be With You
Brewer: Mark Pannell
Asst Brewer:
Style: Schwarzbier (Black Beer)
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (47.0)

Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.84 gal
Actual OG: 1.060 SG
Estimated Color: 33.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 28.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 83.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 50.00 %
4.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 40.00 %
**0.63 lb Carafa III (525.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
0.25 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 2.50 %
**0.13 lb Roasted Barley (550.0 SRM) Grain 1.25 %
0.50 oz Perle [8.20 %] (80 min) Hops 15.8 IBU
1.50 oz Hallertauer [6.00 %] (10 min) Hops 11.9 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer [6.00 %] (1 min) Hops 0.9 IBU
0.50 items Campden tablet (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
5.00 gal Chicago, IL Water
1 Pkgs Bavarian Lager (Wyeast Labs #2206) Yeast-Lager

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10.00 lb
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Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 14.91 qt of water at 151.oF

Notes:
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** 10oz. - Carafa III; 2oz. - Roasted Barley added in the last ten mins. of the mash.
D'rest for two days @ 65oF

That sounds and looks great!!!! I assume the dark malt goes in at the end, just for color, and not flavor?

Do you use campden due to a chloramine/chlorine issue?

YooperBrew said:

That sounds and looks great!!!! I assume the dark malt goes in at the end, just for color, and not flavor?

Do you use campden due to a chloramine/chlorine issue?

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It was great drinking it flat!

Yes on the dark malts, although there is just a hint of roast flavor in the finish. And yes, for chloramines. As you probably know, you can let water sit overnight and it will dissipate the chlorine. Chloramines, you can't get rid of that way, nor can using a charcoal water filter (which I use) rid you of them. It seems every municipality is now adding chloramines, so I use campdens. It's cheap insurance.

hey Rhoobarb,
Did you ever do that side-side compare w/Kostritzer? That is what I was shooting for in my Scharzbier, which I'm drinking now. It turned out very good, but too much of a chocolate note and none of that subtle coffee thing I get from Kostritzer.
I just modified my grain bill to this:

24.5 3.00 lbs. Munich Malt(light) America 1.033 10
32.7 3.00 lbs. Munich Malt(light) Canada 1.034 15
32.7 4.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.038 3
2.0 0.25 lbs. Carafa Germany 1.030 400
2.4 0.30 lbs. Roasted Barley America 1.028 450
1.6 0.20 lbs. Chocolate Malt America 1.029 350
4.1 0.50 lbs. Crystal 40L America 1.034 40

What did you accomplish by adding those malts at the last 10 minutes of mash? color without flavor?
Cheers

zakleeright said:

hey Rhoobarb,
Did you ever do that side-side compare w/Kostritzer?...

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Yes, I did. It was pretty close. Kostritzer had a mellower chocolate and coffee flavor, ~10%-15%, which I chalked up to age on the Kosti. I plan to brew 10 gals. of this again in a couple of months. I'll compare the two again when I put the second keg on tap, which should have some age on it and might yield a closer result to Kosti.

zakleeright said:

...What did you accomplish by adding those malts at the last 10 minutes of mash? color without flavor?
Cheers

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Exaclty, color w/out flavor. You don't want a strong roasted flavor in an SB.

How do you think this would work with a Kolsch yeast? Great recipe, I'm intrigued.

ErieShores said:

How do you think this would work with a Kolsch yeast? Great recipe, I'm intrigued.

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Try it. It wouldn't be a true lager, but I bet it would be good.

I'm thinking of trying this as my first AG batch - any comments? I've spent a fair amount of time in eastern Germany for work and actually visited Bad Kostritz so I figured it would add some motivation to brew a Kostritzer clone.

My only fear is bottling. My last 2 brew kits were exquisite in kegs. But when I transferred them to the kegs I also bottled off a case of each to be able to age them easier. In bottles both of them have a very yeasty flavor.

Is the yeast in this recipe going to produce a nice stable sediment? How would you suggest carbonating it in bottles? I was less than impressed with using Munton's carb tabs last time, but for naturally carbonating bottles and force carbonating the remainder in the keg it seemed simplest.

johngaltsmotor said:

... I also bottled off a case of each to be able to age them easier. In bottles both of them have a very yeasty flavor. ...

Is the yeast in this recipe going to produce a nice stable sediment?

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I've never bottled this beer, but I have other lagers using WY2206 and had no issues. As for the yeasty flavor, maybe it has something to do with how much you used at bottling. FWIW, I always use DME when I bottle condition. Normally, I bottle from the keg.

Try using this calculator: http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

I think you'll get better results than the "just toss in 1-1/4 cups for a five gallon batch" belief.

I think I might brew this again in a couple of weeks.

Well, I took the plunge to all-grain today. One batch of Klone-stritzer in the fermenter.

I have to do some number crunching to figure out what went (not right) in the process. I won't say something went wrong because I was able to correct - thanks to reading enough other forum topics. As I told a friend, I know it will be good beer, just might not be what I expected.

I figured my efficiency would be lower than your stated value since this was my first all-grain and had it ground at the local brew store (some grains completely untouched in cracking) so I added an extra 0.5lb each of the Munich and Pilsner to attempt to compensate.

However, my mashout (pre-boil) gravity was 1.022 instead of the 1.045 it should have been. BUT... when I added 3.25lb DME to correct the gravity deficit (23pts*6.8gal=156, 156/45=3.5lb DME) it took it up to 1.062 instead. I'm thinking I should have stirred the wort to mix the mash and sparge water, I'm wondering if the sample I took was mostly of the sparge water on top and unrealistically low. Now I'm thinking I have no clue what my actual efficiency was in order to compensate in the future.

On the positive side, I'm consoling myself with a few glasses of young beer from the yeast starter - sure it's got no hops and is ridiculously sweet but at least it went as planned.

Did you mean wished you'd brewed 10 gallons instead of 5?

wacko said:

Did you mean wished you'd brewed 10 gallons instead of 5?

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Yes! I tried to edit it, but it is so old, I can't.

just transferred this from lager to keg yesterday so it hasn't really taken carbonation well yet but still...wow! Plus it was only 6 weeks in lager but winter ended faster than I expected so my lager varied from 30 to ~50F. There is still a bit of harshness that I think some bottle conditioning will take off nicely.

My memory isn't great so I can't recall how close it is to Kostritzer but it is great. I'm likely going to Germany for work in a few weeks so I might stow away a bottle or two for a taste test in Der Vaderland.

This is definitely one to keep in the repertoire.

johngaltsmotor said:

just transferred this from lager to keg yesterday so it hasn't really taken carbonation well yet but still...wow! ...
This is definitely one to keep in the repertoire.

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Glad it worked out well for you! I need to brew this again myself. So many beers, so little time.