Looking for Darkhorse Black Bier Clone

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Tlylebrew

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2009
Messages
216
Reaction score
0
Have to say my Favorite beer right now is made by a local brewery here in Marshall, MI. Dark Horse. It is called Black Bier Ale. Would love to know if anyone has attempted or has any idea on how to go about creating an extract recipe of it.

If anyone see's it in a store, pick up a six pack. It'll be the best $10 you ever spent!!
 
I just tried their Double Crooked Tree IPA the other day and it was really good. Nice balance of malt and hops with 13.5% alcohol. Unfortunately, I don't have a recipe for Black Bier Ale. Sorry.
 
Have to say my Favorite beer right now is made by a local brewery here in Marshall, MI. Dark Horse. It is called Black Bier Ale. Would love to know if anyone has attempted or has any idea on how to go about creating an extract recipe of it.

If anyone see's it in a store, pick up a six pack. It'll be the best $10 you ever spent!!

Go to there website and E-mail them tell them your a homebrewer and you would like to try your luck at cloning there Black Bier. They are very helpful and will e-mail you back.
 
I live in Battle Creek. Don't want to live too far from Dark Horse. They have beers there that can hurt you with a quickness.

I haven't found one there I don't like yet. I will send em an email. They have been getting a lot of my loot lately. I think they owe it too me :)
 
Yes I did.. They have an all grain recipe, I will need to convert it, but haven't researched on how to do that yet. Not ready to make the jump to all grain. Looks like too much time and work. Besides, the majority of kits I have brewed so far have tasted very good.

Here is the recipe (hope they don't mind me posting it):

Grain
2 row- 9.25 lb
crystal- 77 - 1.15 lb
crystal - 45- 1.15 lb
chocolate- 1.15 lb
Roasted Barley - .50
Black - .25

Hops
Ctz - 90 min - .56 oz
Ctz - 30 min - .44 oz
Ctz - end of boil - .54 oz

Sac rest 152 for 45 min
sparge temp 168

Boil time 90 min

Yeast - Nottingham

Still is the best beer I have had to date and can't wait to try to clone it with an extract.
 
just a heads up but DH ferments quite cool for notty like down into the 50's so keep that in mind when your setting up this beer.

and as for ctz maybe crystal?
 
email them back and ask for the full name of the hop and what IBU's they hit with each addition. And as Eric pointed out ask about fermenting temps.

Founders had a black IPA that was great so I have been wanting to do a black ale. :D 37 gallons?
 
you should just make the jump to AG... its easy... just takes a bit more time than an extract brew. Realistically you just need a cooler with a braid on it and you are set....

Look for Denny's Cheap and Easy Batch Sparge method on google and you will see how easy it really is.
 
email them back and ask for the full name of the hop and what IBU's they hit with each addition. And as Eric pointed out ask about fermenting temps.

Founders had a black IPA that was great so I have been wanting to do a black ale. :D 37 gallons?

when? i already know where
 
Would love to do all grain, but the extra time investment isn't really worth it to me.. Maybe in time I will change my tune.
 
Zombie update: CTZ is Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus.

Dark Horse FTW. Love this brewery.

IIRC CTZ is one of the most mass-produced hop varieties thanks to the high alpha acids that lead them to be used by the macros. It's nice for a bittering hop (like this recipe), and could probably do a decent job for aroma.
 
I am going to attempt this shortly. I plugged the recipe into Beersmith with a 5.5 gallon batch size, and it's giving me a 6.4 ABV instead of 7.5 of the real thing. I left all the efficiencies and what not at the defaults (70%), I'm a noob and I'm not sure I am doing everything correctly, according to Beersmith, estimate OG is at 1.059 and FG at 1.010. It looks like it'd need 1.066 OG or so to hit the mark.
 
I am going to attempt this shortly. I plugged the recipe into Beersmith with a 5.5 gallon batch size, and it's giving me a 6.4 ABV instead of 7.5 of the real thing. I left all the efficiencies and what not at the defaults (70%), I'm a noob and I'm not sure I am doing everything correctly, according to Beersmith, estimate OG is at 1.059 and FG at 1.010. It looks like it'd need 1.066 OG or so to hit the mark.

If you take the original recipe and calculated at 5 gallons and 75 percent efficiency, you will get very close to your target.
I get 70 percent efficiency and brew 5.5 gallon batches, so I adjusted accordingly.
 
Brewed last Sunday, it's been in the fermenter a week, took a gravity reading today and tasted a sample, it isn't even finished and tastes very close the original.
 
Well I transfered this yesterday because I wanted the yeast to pitch into a new batch2.
ha2.jpg
 
I would love to hear reports once the beers are conditioned. I chickened out of making it for fear that the heavy roast presence would take too long to mellow.

Did you all use Nottingham? What temp to ferment?
 
I used 1 pack of rehydrated Notty, fermented in my 60 degree basement, highest it got to was 66 for a few hours when it was really kicking, but mostly stayed around 63 or so for about a week and then fell down to 60. It's really not that heavy, it's like a good cup of strong coffee (not taste-wise but smoothness-wise), not super burnt tasting or harsh/biting, and this is only after 1 week.
 
I bottled 10 days ago, tried one today, it's pretty damn close, perfectly clean, I love the way Notty glues itself to the bottom of the bottle. Best batch to date for me (well, to date is 8 batches or so), and it's still got some time to age out.
 
Back
Top