First Brewing Attempt: Black Plague Lager. Comments?

Hello everyone. I'm Ed, from Buffalo.

This is my first post and below you'll find my first recipe that I made a few days ago. I researched the process pretty carefully but I made the recipe my own, based on what I thought would be good. The basis is a black-lager extract kit. I decided to kick it up a little. I envision a relatively sweet, aromatic, hopped up beer with a nice dark brown color.

How can I build on this and make this even better, cleaner, more sophisticated tasting?

Tell me what you think. are my ingredients and my process decent?

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BLACK PLAGUE LAGER

Ingredients:

1lb Carafa roasted malt
4tbsp grounds coffee (I used Starbucks espresso roast)
1 large can of Munton's light extract
2 lbs Munton's dried light malt extract
2 tbsp molasses
2 tbsp brown sugar
.5 oz. Northern Kettle hops (pellets)
1 oz. Liberty hops (pellets)
1 oz. Simcoe hops (pellets)
1 oz. Centennial hops (pellets, for dry-hopping)
5 oz. priming sugar

Equipment:

6 gallon glass carboy
4 gallon glass carboy
12 qt. pot
funnel
big spoon

Directions:

Boiling:
1. Boil 1.5 Gallons clean water, remove from heat
2. Heat extract can in smaller pot of hot water, do not boil
3. Steep 1 lb roasted barley and 4 tbsp ground bold coffee in boil bag for 25 minutes until boil water turns black and smells like roasty coffee
4. Discard boil bag, return water to boil
5. Open can of malt, slowly pour into boiling pot while stirring
6. Add 2lbs dried malt extract
7. Stir in molasses and brown sugar
8. Take care to avoid boil-overs - use big pot, stir while adding extracts, stir sparingly otherwise
9. Boil until foam-build up stops, and boil is clear.
10. Add northern kettle hops and liberty hops to taste (1.5 to 2 oz. pellets)
11. Boil 30 minutes
12. Add Simcoe hops
13. Boil 15 minutes
14. Cool.

Fermenting:
1. Add 2.5 gallons cold water to sanitized carboy
2. Add boil mixture
3. Fill to about 5 gallons, leave room for foamy build up in carboy
4. Place in cool, dry place for a week, or until fermentation has slowed significantly
5. After a week, move to secondary carboy for second stage fermentation, take hydrometer reading to get feel for fermentation levels
6. Add Centennial hops to secondary carboy
7. Wait 2 weeks

Bottling:
1. Add 5oz. priming sugar to sanitized bucket; add beer through siphon, gently mix sugar in.
2. Siphon into bottles
3. Wait 3 weeks.

DRINK!

Even though this is only a 4 gal batch I think you will suffer in hop utilization by only doing a 1.5 gal boil. Also, I can't imagine simcoe playing out very well in a darker beer like this, especially with the coffee. Adding them for aroma with a coffee beer sounds pretty rough, but I've been wrong before. I'd have boiled 3 gallons, added those centennials at 15, and dry hopped with like saaz or hallertau just for a little added nose. I'd love to drink one of these after a month or so and see how it turned out though. Good luck buddy!

RyanK2 said:

Even though this is only a 4 gal batch I think you will suffer in hop utilization by only doing a 1.5 gal boil. Also, I can't imagine simcoe playing out very well in a darker beer like this, especially with the coffee. Adding them for aroma with a coffee beer sounds pretty rough, but I've been wrong before. I'd have boiled 3 gallons, added those centennials at 15, and dry hopped with like saaz or hallertau just for a little added nose. I'd love to drink one of these after a month or so and see how it turned out though. Good luck buddy!

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Keep in mind that the little things I added are in pretty small amounts (coffee, molasses, brown sugar). People should be able to tell they're there and that something interesting was added, but it won't overpower or really be identifiable. I hope I didn't misjudge this stuff and actually add too much!

The smell coming out of my airlock is amazing; hop-heaven. I hope I didn't over-do it. Maybe I won't dry hop? Is that a good idea?

Oh, and on another note, you didn't mention yeast strain. You're calling this a lager but you didn't describe a lagering process in your recipe. If you want to follow your process, use Wyeast 2112 California Lager and let it ferment at around 65F and then once you put it into secondary try to hold it at around 55-60F for 2 months. Add your dry hops the last 5 days. It will clean up quite a bit and although not a true lager, will be damn close.

RyanK2 said:

Oh, and on another note, you didn't mention yeast strain. You're calling this a lager but you didn't describe a lagering process in your recipe. If you want to follow your process, use Wyeast 2112 California Lager and let it ferment at around 65F and then once you put it into secondary try to hold it at around 55-60F for 2 months. Add your dry hops the last 5 days. It will clean up quite a bit and although not a true lager, will be damn close.

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Not sure about the yeast; I just used the packet that came with the lager kit.

mnemonicus said:

Keep in mind that the little things I added are in pretty small amounts (coffee, molasses, brown sugar). People should be able to tell they're there and that something interesting was added, but it won't overpower or really be identifiable. I hope I didn't misjudge this stuff and actually add too much!

The smell coming out of my airlock is amazing; hop-heaven. I hope I didn't over-do it. Maybe I won't dry hop? Is that a good idea?

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Just follow your vision through and see what it gives you. I've made some outstanding beer through experimentation and this may be one of those times for you. I was just telling you what I may have done differently had this been my brainstorm batch.

RyanK2 said:

Just follow your vision through and see what it gives you. I've made some outstanding beer through experimentation and this may be one of those times for you. I was just telling you what I may have done differently had this been my brainstorm batch.

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Word.

Thanks for the advice. I'm keeping a notebook with all my attempts and I'm going to critique each attempt and take all the feedback I can. I plan two more attempts based on this recipe, and I will actually make one of them based on your suggestion.

If you are a hop head, never worry about overdoing it with hops. Especially dry hopping because you will be working with aroma, not bitterness.