Help with dark ale recipe?

[mattdee1]

A friend of mine gave me a beer and said “let me know if you could make a beer just like that.”

I’m trying to develop my knowledge in designing recipes, so I got to thinking about it.

On the label it said “dark ale,” unfortunately I forget the brand. I poured it into a glass, and it was just on the lighter side of what I would call a “brown ale” in color. Light-ish body, pretty strong carbonation. No real hop aroma to speak of, but it had a bitterness backbone to it.

There wasn’t much sweetness and the malty/bready flavors that I love in dark beers were quite thin. Really, the first thing I thought of while drinking it was that this beer might be something that a BMC drinker would buy when they’re feeling edgy and daring. In other words, it’s more of a quaffer than something to be savored.

Here is what I was thinking: starting with a 2-row or maris otter SMaSH, then augmenting it with just enough chocolate malt to get the desired color (say 10ish percent, or is that too much)? I was thinking chocolate malt so that I can get the color but without the sweetness of crystal malts and without the roasty and bitter flavors of roasted barley and black malt. Primarily bittering hop additions, say 1-1.5oz per 5gal of Tett or Magnum at 60 min? Mash at 150ish, and pitch S-05?

Frankly, the beer was drinkable but I didn’t enjoy it very much, and I certainly don’t wish to tie up my fermenters to make it. So, I plan on trying to encourage my friend to invest in some gear and brew this himself (he’s been toying with the idea anyway). But, I’d like to provide some guidance on the recipe if I can.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[iijakii]

Make something similar but better like a Dark English Mild or Nut Brown and learn him real good.

 

[JKaranka]

Sounds like the stuff labelled here in the uk as 'dark ale' (often a darkish bitter or a strong dark mild). I'd consider 2oz Patent Malt (plenty of colour from little malt) and then 4-6oz Chocolate Malt. Most of the hops at 60, with maybe an addition around the 20m mark. If it's not dark enough use brewers' caramel to bring it to the colour you want. To be fair, you could make it 100% pale malt and bring all the colour from caramel with no flavour impact whatsoever.

 

[m00ps]

sounds like youll need an authentic english yeast for some subtle fruit esters. Mashing at 150 would definitely be too low I think for this style. Plus, US-05 would probably attenuate too much

look at @iijakii 's dark mild