Dark Ale using left over malts

[thehaze]

I have some left over malts and I want to use for a Dark ale of sorts. These malts have been sitting for some weeks with me and I need to use them, as I am afraid they will go stale. The hops have been in the fridge, but are left overs in resealed bags.

This is what I have come up with:

Weyermann Pale Ale 40%
Weyermann Munich I 26.7%
Flaked Oats 6.7%
Carapils 6.7%
English Crystal 90 L 5.3%
Chocolate Rye 4.7%
Chocolate Spelt 3.3%
SWAEN Coffee 3.3%
Flaked Barley 3.3%

SRM 30
ABV 7.3% / predicted OG:1.069 / predicted FG: 1.013
IBU around 75
Mash temp. 154.4F/68 C
Mash time: 60 minutes
Boil time: 60 minutes
2 x Safale US-05

Hops: bittering with 1 oz Bravo at 60 minutes for 35 IBUs.
Rest of hops are Mosaic, Amarilo, Simcoe and Chinook, which will be added at 15, 10, 5 and whirlpool for a few minutes at 160F/71C.

I would like to dry hop, but have to check if I have something left, after the boil and whirlpool.

I am unsure of the mash temp. Quite possibly too high?

Would it yield a dark ale? Drinkable?

 

[cubalz]

Sure it would be drinkable. My only critique would be to leave out the Swaen Coffee Malt as it is more for Porters and Stouts and would not be so good with the hop additions you are planning.

 

[65C]

it's quite close to one I make every 3rd brew - I use most of same ingredients at some point or other - but I don't use the carapils/crystal etc. any more as I don't like the sweetness - plus I add a bit more bittering

the best one I did (which used US-05 too interestingly) was mashed for 60 at 157F and was using Maris Otter + Special I + Munich + Chocolate with 50G Pilgrim at 60 and 50G Citra at 10 mins - I've kept a dozen bottles of it back it was so good

I use Wyeast 1187 Ringwood for my darks now - but still not had one come out as good as that one with the US-05

 

[chickypad]

Kitchen sink beers can be fun. The grainbill as is looks like it would make a nice porter but personally I'd leave those finishing hops for something else. Or maybe go with just a little chinook or simcoe. That might just be me though, I'm not a fan of big citrusy/tropical hops in porters.

 

[thehaze]

Let's say I get rid of the Coffee malt, add some sugar to raise the ABV and change it to a Black IPA?

1 oz Bravo...............60 minutes
0.5 oz Chinook..........20 minutes
0.5 oz Simcoe...........15 minutes
0.5 oz Mosaic............10 minutes
0.5 oz Amarillo............5 minutes
0.5 oz each again at whirlpool at around 160F. That amounts to aprox. 75 IBU and could raise the ABV to about 8%.

Would it pass for a Black IPA?

*** I assume dry hopping would be in place, but unsure whether I have enough hops left.

 

[rhys333]

I agree you have a decent kitchen sinker there. I can't speak to the chocolate rye and spelt, as I haven't used them, but looks interesting. Also agree about dialing back the hops a bit and perhaps using the chinook for finishing. Reason I'd go that route is that it looks like a malt forward roasty brew to me, and piney hops in low to moderate amounts are a great accompaniment imho.

 

[thehaze]

So I went ahead and started brewing this without taking anything out. I use the Grainfather Connect and so far everything goes well. I had a mash eff. of 76% which is pretty OK for the amount of unfermentables. Pre boil gravity was 1.053 so I am going to boil for 90 minutes.

I think I will just add a big amount of whirlpool and not dry hop the beer.

OG: 1.068

 

[thehaze]

The beer has finally carbonated. It turned out one of my best brews to date.

OG: 1.068
FG: 1.018
ABV: 6.6%

The beer is pitch dark, lots of head and beautiful lacing. Nose is filled with a bit of dark caramel, resin, earthy notes, complex dark aromas. It smells like a beer with no hops in it. The taste is piney, resiny, dank and earthy with a subtle coffee/espresso note. There is some citrusy/fruitty hops in there as well. There is reasonable bitterness to balance the flavours.

This is extremely good.

PS: I am not the best at describing aromas and flavours, but I have tried more than 500 different beers, knwon and less known ( live in Europe unfortunately ) and I can positively say when a beer is bad or not.

I urge you, if you should think this would be a nice experiment to try out, to take a leap of faith and try it out.

I ended up using Simcoe, Chinook, Mosaic ( did not have much of ), Amarillo ( again, did not have much of ) and Citra to balance out the Chinook and Simcoe, for dry hopping. The dry hopping was only for 5 days, but boy, that did wonders.

The mash. temp was lowered to 65C/149F and that helped with the final result. The beer does not feel sweet/cloying, nor is it too dry and watery.

A very great brew ( kitchen sink beer as someone fairly pointed out ).

 

[WestMichBrewer]

It smells like a beer with no hops in it.

The dry hopping was only for 5 days, but boy, that did wonders.

These statements seem contradictory...can you clarify?

 

[thehaze]

When I put my nose in the beer, right after I poured it, I can smell burnt sugar, caramel, a bit of cocoa and espresso. Hence the statement, that it smells like a dark beer with no hops in it.

The taste however, is roasty, but not overly so, a bit of cocoa and espresso ( very subtle ), caramel and liqourice, a nice rounded bitterness, piney and grapefruitty. It's kinds weird, but the taste is different from what I smell and what i expect it to be. But in a good way.