dark steam beer??

i have some leftover wyeast cali lager yeast from the steam beer i just brewed. does anyone have any good recipes for a darker style "steam" beer?? i dont have the means right now to lager at cold temps.

thanks

Sorry, I haven't tried this. It's the only thing that came to mind


Black Steam

by Scott Russell





(5 gallons, partial mash)

Ingredients:

2 lbs. pale malt
0.5 lb. dark crystal malt, 90° Lovibond
0.25 lb. black patent malt
0.25 lb. dark Munich malt
5 lbs. unhopped light dry malt extract
3 oz. Northern Brewer hops (plus or minus 8% alpha acid): 1 oz. for 50 min., 1 oz. for 20 min., 1 oz. for 5 min.
Wyeast 2112 (California lager) yeast culture, built up to 1 qt. starter or more
7/8 cup corn sugar (for priming)

Step by Step:

Heat 1 gal. of water to 165° F. Crack grains and mash in. Hold mash at 154° F for 75 min., run off, and sparge with 2 gal. at 168° F. Add dry malt extract to kettle and bring to a boil. Total boil is 50 min. Add 1 oz. hops and boil 30 min. Add 1 oz. hops, boil 15 min. more. Add the rest of the hops, boil 5 min. more, and remove from heat. Add to your primary fermenter along with enough cooled pre-boiled water to make up 5.25 gal. Cool to 70° F, aerate well, and pitch yeast culture. Ferment between 65° F and 70° F for five to eight days, rack to secondary, and chill to 55° F to 60° F. Lager for two weeks, prime, and bottle. Bottle condition three weeks near 50° F.

Options:

All-grain brewers: Increase pale malt to 9 lbs., mash water to 4 gal. and sparge water to 5 gal. Follow the same mash schedule and temperatures as above, but plan your boil and hop schedule to reduce kettle contents to 5.25 gal.

All-extract brewers: Steep crystal, Munich and black malts in 2.5 gal. of water, raising heat in kettle to 170° F. Remove grains and stir in 6 lbs. light unhopped dry malt. Boil and hop as above.

Yeast: Although the California lager strain (Wyeast 2112 in particular) is a very warm-tolerant lager strain, it is still best not to ferment too warm. Some ale-like fruitiness is desirable, but it’s easy to overdo. Begin fermentation warm and gradually cool the fermenter down. A short lagering stage will finish off the beer without drying it out excessively, and will help clarify it.

A note on packaging: I may be a heretic, but I prefer bottled homebrew to kegged. Some brews, including this one, just seem more balanced, more alive from the bottle than from a keg. The live yeast continues to contribute flavor compounds in the bottle and keeps the beer fresher tasting for a longer time. Also, the natural carbonation from bottle conditioning adds a smoothness that can’t be matched by force carbonation (unless you want to get into a nitro mix setup!). This style of beer needs to be relatively highly carbonated, so if you are going to keg it, adjust your pressure accordingly.

that actually sounds really good. i'd go with something as you would with a dunkelweizen and just add a small amount of chocolate malt the first try. you can experiment from there.

i may have to try this. i was going to brew a california common this weekend anyway...darkening it up a bit sounds like a great idea.

cheers!

DeathBrewer said:

that actually sounds really good. i'd go with something as you would with a dunkelweizen and just add a small amount of chocolate malt the first try. you can experiment from there.

i may have to try this. i was going to brew a california common this weekend anyway...darkening it up a bit sounds like a great idea.

cheers!

Click to expand...

It does sound good. SWMBO and I plan on trying it after our next common. Love the steam. Have a good one DeathBrewer.

If you used de-husked carafa III instead of the black patent and substituted a noble hop (like Saaz) for flavor & aroma, you'd have a steam Schwartzbier.