SWMBO Commandeth me to make....

A dark, sweet, summer time beer.

Of course, there's some problems with this request and that this is a brewing challenge of the highest order does not escape me.

She likes Optimator, she likes sweeter stouts. The ABV can be be low. I'd probably shoot for about 4.5%. Dunkelweizen is out, she's not a huge fan of wheat beers.

Any ideas? Either a style or else just some general recipe ideas of what you might throw into such a beer?

Maybe a darkish farmhouse ale might satisfy?

A sweet stout sounds perfect. Brew a dry stout and add lactose until it's sweet-enough.

Make a simple ESB and add 4 oz of chocolate malt to it to darken it.

Rogue Mocha Porter might fit the bill. 1.5 lbs of C120L makes for a sweet treat.

does she like/has she had warstiener dunkel? my SWMBO likes it because it's dark in color, but malty/sweet and easy to drink. i have some in my primary right now from a recipe my LHBS helped me work out.

I did AHS's Double Chocolate Stout and added some lactose and got a very smooth finished beer. I would think she would go for that or just a plain sweet stout.

Good luck. At least she isn't asking you to brew some Lite.

If you can do lagers I'd highly suggest a Schwarzbier.

http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category4.html#style4C

It's not super sweet but nor does it need to be. Awesome style IMO.

I bet she would love a Belgian Saison. They are slightly heavy and pretty sweet.

My wife has the same request and loves Negro Medelo, which is a vienna lager. It's malty, but crisp, great in the summertime. I'm getting a clone from AHB.

At least we narrowed it down for you!

chillHayze said:

At least we narrowed it down for you!

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LOL Yeah, thanks a lot!

I kinda like the schwartzbier idea. I think I'll wait and see what she thinks of the Hob Goblin clone. Mine's a little darker and maltier than the original so that might be a good starting point to discussing the finer points of what she likes about Optimator.

If she likes hob-goblin then she likes real beer. No reason to not just brew lots of good stuff, I'm sure she'll like it all...

knipknup said:

If she likes hob-goblin then she likes real beer. No reason to not just brew lots of good stuff, I'm sure she'll like it all...

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Personally, I think hob goblin is a little on the watery side. I go for the more syrupy brews that stick to your ribs on the way down. The goblin clone is actually a favor for my SWMBO's brother who likes Hob Goblin- it's his favorite beer... followed by Bud Select. LOL.

Ok.. Here's what I got. I wish I could call the beer "Alienator", but since it's an ale, it's not a doppelbock, so I'm going to save that name for a different beer. This one, I'm calling.....


The Alien Nader



10.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) 78.4 %
1.00 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) 7.8 %
1.00 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) 7.8 %
0.50 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) 3.9 %
0.25 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) 2.0 %

1.50 oz Tettnang [4.80%] (60 min) 23.5 IBU
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.80%] (30 min) 6.0 IBU

White Labs European Ale Yeast (very malty)



Any ideas how I can darken it a bit more without adding too much bitterness?

you could add a bit more chocolate malt, or use this stuff called sinimar.

For darkening without bitterness, look into some Carafa malt. It's roasted and de-husked to leave most of the bitterness behind.

I hadn't read this thread at all, but my first instinct was to reply with, "try a schwarzbier." Someone beat me to it.

I would drop your pale malt bill a few pounds and add a couple pounds of either Honey Malt or Munich malt. You can get your sweetness from either of those malts, moreso the honey malt.

A couple POUNDS of honey malt???!!!!! In a 5 gallon batch?

I would try to find a nice Edmund Fitzgerald clone. It's been known to have odd effects on women.

Toot said:

A couple POUNDS of honey malt???!!!!! In a 5 gallon batch?

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Yeah, she said she likes it sweet. Now, other than me coming over there and dipping my finger in it, cuz i am so sweet, a couple pounds of honey malt is the only other thing i can think of to give it a real big malt sweetness.

I added 2 pounds of honey malt to a Munich Dunkle and scored 38 i think it was out of 50 possible points based on the BJCP. So no, i don't think 2 pounds or so of honey malt will ruin a brew if that is what you are going for.

Cheesefood said:

I would try to find a nice Edmund Fitzgerald clone. It's been known to have odd effects on women.

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I've been trying to find a good clone of this to no avail. Anyone had any luck?

Toot said:

Any ideas how I can darken it a bit more without adding too much bitterness?

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Add a half pound of quick oats. It'll make the beer more opaque (and give it a darkenning effect) and lend a creamy mouthfeel.

BierMuncher said:

Add a half pound of quick oats. It'll make the beer more opaque (and give it a darkenning effect) and lend a creamy mouthfeel.

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Yeah... SWMBO loves my creamy mouthfeel in her mouth... she will appreciate that!

how about a scotch ale. something along the lines of a McEwans clone?

Funny thing... after 48 hours, I had no fermentation, so I freaked out and took a sample from the carboy. I tasted it and thought, "I'll be damned! It must be done fermenting because this is delicious!" Then I took a gravity reading and realized it hadn't budged! This was the best tasting wort ever!!!

10 lbs 2 row belgian
2 lbs honey malt
1.5 lbs aromatic
.5 lbs chocolate
.33lbs Black patent
.25 lbs special B

1 oz Tettnang @ 60
.5 oz Tettnang @30
.5 oz Tettnang @15

White Labs European Ale Yeast (Low attenuating yeast for high residual sweetness)


Then today, after work I come to check on my wort and I'll be damned... it's fermenting. 3 bubbles per second!!! :rockin: The airlock is going rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!!! Freakin awesome!!!

I stole a taste from the primary today... Recipe:

10.0 lbs Belgian 2 row
2.0 lbs honeymalt
1.5 lbs aromatic malt
0.5 lbs chocalate malt
0.3 lbs black patent
.25 lbs Special B

1 oz Tettnang @ 60
0.5 oz Tettnang @30
0.5 oz Tettnang @15

Yeast: White Labs European Ale Yeast (65-70% attenuation)


The result? A Guinness-like beer. What's doing that? Is it the black patent that gives it a slight bitterness? Should I have left that out and found another way to darken the beer? I just wish it was sweeter. To me, it tastes like an "Imperial Guinness". It tastes ok, but not really what I was shooting for. And the attenuation was unusually high for this yeast...

OG 1.059
FG 1.008

The combo of chocolate, black and Sp. B is what did it.

If you want to sweeten it up, that should be simple. Do a very small supplementary boil. Steep some toasty grains (victory works). Then boil the liquid down and maybe add some hops to account for the added liquid volume, and then add lactose to it at the end. Then cool it and mix it into the secondary. I've done this twice before (I used maltodextrin rather than lactose because I was looking for body and not necessarily sweetness) and it worked great.

Thanks for the tip, Evan. But I am seriously shooting for a lactose-free brew.

With the OG of 1.059 and the low attenuating yeast, I really thought I'd pull off a FG of 1.018 or so. You are probably right about the dark grains though.

Next time, skip the chocolate and increase the grains to get an OG in the low 1.07's maybe...