dunkel dissatisfaction

[TrannyRock]

Brewed a Dunkel back in July which has been keg carbonating for 10 days. During active fermentation this beer had a nice chocolate and brown bread nose/flavor which has largely vanished. Now I am left with what I feel to be too much dark fruit, an almost cola-like sweetness, and an overly roasty back end - closer perhaps to Baltic porter than Munich dunkel.

Grain bill was:
7 lbs Munich 2 - 69.2%
2.5 lbs Pils - 24.7%
6 oz Carafa Special 2 - 3.7%
4 oz Caramunich 3 - 2.5%
all Weyermann.

Mashed at 152F for 80 minutes. Did not decoct or anything fancy.

Used W34/70 (bulk of fermentation at 50F) but there were issues with temp control as after cooling beer for lagering, the beer froze nearly solid, demonstrating issues with my temp sensor. Thawed over a few days and racked to a corny for lagering. Beer may be a bit meaty from yeast lysis as a result or this may just be my imagination. Not ruined in any case. Started at 1.060 (anomalously high efficiency?), finished at 1.018, disappointingly.

Other than just complaining about my beer, specifically I am asking how to make this beer less roasty but still brown. Considering using a smaller % Carafa Special 3 instead - are Blackprinz or Midnight wheat less roasty?

Next time I will forgo Caramunich but may use 3-4% melanoidin. Not sure how to get rich brown bread/chocolate/toffee - maybe I should blend in Munich 1.

 

[Smellyglove]

I've made some dunkels with just 98-99% Munich and 1-2% carafa special 3. The 1% is def on the very lighter side, but you get the whole munich-malt experience. Don't boil it too hard and ferment it cold to retain as much as possible of the aromatics and the delicate grainy/slight roast that munich have. I guess a more "normal" apporach would be to blend in some caramunich and layer it with the other caramunich and maybe the other straight munich. But I had to start somewhere. I just don't like dunkels which are to heavy or sweet-ish.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

It sounds to me like it has become oxidised. Next time, you could try kegging with a few points remaining and spunding for carbonation.

 

[Smellyglove]

Damn, for some reason I didn't notice the recipe. I agree with gnomebrewer above.

 

[TrannyRock]

Yes, oxidation is a concern. This was also my first attempt at closed/pressurized transfer from carboy to corny keg, so theoretically oxygenation during transfer should have been minimal, but may not have been.

I do think I will try a less vigorous boil for the reasons you suggested.

 

[TrannyRock]

After a few more days of resting under carbonation, this beer was much more in line with my expectations, though the roastiness is still a little distracting from the Munich malt character. Next time I will try using Blackprinz instead of Carafa Special (and less of it), omitting Caramunich, attend more closely to boil vigor, and hope for better attenuation (this time I had 1.060 to 1.018). Thanks for the advice.

 

[Smellyglove]

That roastiness will fade, some. But 3.7% is quite a lot. It might mask the delicate grainyness of the munich. I'm currently doing a dunkel as we speak and added 2% special 3, which I feel is the upper limit.