Dark Pivo

when i was in prague last year, many of the local brew houses offered up two types of house beers, a light and a dark lager. i have seen plenty of places that offer up clone recipes for the light lager, but how do i replicate the dark?

the light was very much like budvar or urquell. do you think that if i made a budvar clone but switched the pale malt out for vienna malt i might get the same results?

...or you could substitute 1/2 lb of malt for a dark malt...to make it darker.

I would also love to know how to replicate a dark czech beer. I loved the Kozel Cerny which was probably about 10 or 12 degrees plato (probably 12) and a sub-5% abv. Semi-sweet with a nice maltiness.

Staropramen dark and the Budvar dark were also good. If anyone has a recipe I would greatly appreciate it. Otherwise, I'll have to learn some Czech and fly back to Praha.

Thanks,
Doug

I would brew a budvar clone and add about a half pound of dehusked black malt. I think it's called carafa special?

I used to live 1.5 drive from Cheb...

tockeyhockey said:

the light was very much like budvar or urquell. do you think that if i made a budvar clone but switched the pale malt out for vienna malt i might get the same results?

Click to expand...

Using Vienna malt will also change the taste substantially and will not go in the direction you want . A good example of a commercial Vienna lager is Negro Modelo.

Try looking for recipes for German Schwartzbier or Munich Dunkel.

Austin Homebrew is offering a U'Fleku style dark lager, which I'm going to attempt this month. That was some good stuff - a little hoppier maybe than Kozel Cerny or Budvar dark or Staropramen granat.

Or try a Schwartzbier:

Mini-mash

1.25 lbs German Pilsner
1/2 lb C90L
1/4 lb Carafa III (de-husked)
1.25 lb Munich
45 minutes in 2.5 gallons @ 155F

4 lbs Dark LME
1 lb Munich LME

1 oz. NB @ 60
1/2 oz. Czech Saaz @ 15
1/2 oz. Czech Saaz @ 5

OG 1.051

German/Munich lager yeast

Pitch at 80F, start cooling (1F/hour) when fermentation starts (12-16 hrs)
Ferment at 50-55F
Raise to 60-70F for two days

Rack, cool to 40F over two days
Lager 3-4 weeks

TG 1.015