"Dark" Dunkelweizen

[seilenos]

I want to brew a dunkelweizen and have been searching and comparing many different recipes.
I'm looking for one that is >20 SRM (for looks, not flavor) and has that notes of fruitcake and banana.

The closest to what I've been looking for is from TheApartmentBrewer on YouTube:

It is a little lighter than what I had in mind. The grain bill is:

6 lb German Wheat Malt (51.6%)
4.5 lb Dark Munich (20L) (38.7%)
0.5 lb Melanoidin Malt (4.3%)
0.5 lb Special B (4.3%)
2 oz Carafa II (1%)

which comes in at around 14 SRM.

I was thinking about replacing the 2 oz of Carafa II with 4 oz of Special Carafa II and then adding 8 oz of carawheat to keep balance.
That would come in around 21 SRM.

Does that seem reasonable or will it really screw with the flavor?

 

[VikeMan]

You could just add some Carafa Special to hit your target color. It will add a little roastiness, but not a whole lot. Or, since you want just color, consider Sinamar.

I don't know what you mean by "adding 8 oz of carawheat to keep balance." Balance of what? A half pound of Special B is already plenty (i.e. more than enough IMO) crystal/caramel malt.

 

[seilenos]

I don't know what you mean by "adding 8 oz of carawheat to keep balance." Balance of what? A half pound of Special B is already plenty (i.e. more than enough IMO) crystal/caramel malt.

My assumption is that doubling the Carafa II would bring additional roast so I'd want to slightly bump the sweet, too.

 

[VikeMan]

My assumption is that doubling the Carafa II would bring additional roast so I'd want to slightly bump the sweet, too.

Carafa Special. It's less roasty than regular Carafa. I wouldn't be adding any more crystal malts. But it's your beer.

 

[monkeymath]

Special B is actually quite harsh imho. Burnt breadcrust more than caramel. I'd throw it out.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

The recipe that @seilenos posted is pretty similar to Jamil Zainasheff's in Brewing Classic Styles, with the exception of C40 in place of the melanoidin. I have it on tap right now. It's good, almost like drinking banana bread, but it's roastier than I expected. Jamil's recipe uses 6 oz of Special B, so I would guess 0.5 lb would impart even more roastiness. I'm likely to back off on the Special B (to 4 oz) next time I brew it.

 

[MaxStout]

For Special B, a little goes a long way. Maybe dial that back to 4 oz, and bump up the Carafa to hit your 20 SRM. Between the Munich II and Melanoidin, you'll already have plenty of malt backbone, without the need for so much Special B.

 

[seilenos]

I brewed that recipe two years ago and had all sorts of efficiency trouble.

I think that was before I started milling my wheat separate, though (a singular change which caused a 10%+ jump in BH efficiency in wheat-heavy brews). It didn't occur to me to review it before hunting down a different option.

I'm going to look it up, both in my notes and in BCS, which happens to be sitting right next to the keyboard I am typing this on.

 

[seilenos]

For Special B, a little goes a long way. Maybe dial that back to 4 oz, and bump up the Carafa to hit your 20 SRM. Between the Munich II and Melanoidin, you'll already have plenty of malt backbone, without the need for so much Special B.

I was thinking something very similar ... dialing back subbing in Carafa Special.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

I brewed that recipe two years ago and had all sorts of efficiency trouble.

I think that was before I started milling my wheat separate, though (a singular change which caused a 10%+ jump in BH efficiency in wheat-heavy brews). It didn't occur to me to review it before hunting down a different option.

I'm going to look it up, both in my notes and in BCS, which happens to be sitting right next to the keyboard I am typing this on.

Oo, yeah. I bet a lot of that wheat was going into your mash relatively whole!

 

[deuc224]

carafa 2 gave me close to Guinness flavor, backing off that a whole lot next time.

 

[VikeMan]

carafa 2 gave me close to Guinness flavor, backing off that a whole lot next time.

Hmm. I can state unequivically that Guiness does not have any Carafa in the grain bill. But do what works.

 

[seilenos]

I decided to go in a different direction and pick a dunkel recipe that was dark enough instead of trying to modify one to be dark.

 

[VikeMan]

I decided to go in a different direction and pick a dunkel recipe that was dark enough instead of trying to modify one to be dark.

 

[JordanfromOK]

I decided to go in a different direction and pick a dunkel recipe that was dark enough instead of trying to modify one to be dark.

How did the darker version go?