Mild Black Ale - Recipe Help

[Soma]

A good friend of mine is finishing production on a movie, a Western entitled 'Black Hills', and I've decided to brew a batch commemorative beer for the wrap party. To fit the theme of the film, I want this beer to be as jet-black as possible without being overly roasty / charcoaly. I'm not sure how adventurous the cast and crew will be beer-wise, so I'd like this beer to be as accessible as possible (which makes a black IPA or irish stout not the best candidate).

I'm not familiar with using black malt. My supplier doesn't carry the debittered variety and I need to brew this in the next few days. This is the recipe I've come up with, any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Black Hills Ale

Brewhouse efficiency 70%
Infusion mash @ 154F for 90 mins

8lbs 2-Row
1lb Crystal 60L
1lb Carapils
0.5lbs Black Patent
0.5lbs Dark Chocolate

0.5oz Chinook 10% AA @ 60 mins
0.25oz Chinook 10% AA @ 10 mins

Pitch Wyeast 1272 @ 68F
OG 1.054 FG 1.014
22IBU, 35 srm

 

[Pappers_]

You could use the method I use in making a red ale - don't add the black patent and dark chocolate when you mash, but rather when you are ready to mash out and sparge. You get significant color, but not as much flavor, that way.

Congratulations to your friend!

 

[ghpeel]

.5lb of Black Patent + .5lb Chocolate do NOT equal the beer being "as accessible as possible" for a party, imho, unless you KNOW the people there like Guiness. A lot of people just don't like "dark beer" flavor.

I'd suggest dropping the Chocolate to 4-6oz, dropping the Black Patent entirely, and adding 4-6oz of Carafa III Special Dehusked. Carafa is a German malt used to give Dunkels their nice, deep color without adding much flavor. The normal version is like Pale Chocolate, but adds less flavor. And the "special" version I'm recommending here adds virtually no flavor. Black without the Roast.

 

[Soma]

Yeah... I'd like to use Carafa III but as mentioned above debittered black malts aren't available to me. Thanks for the help, I think it's back to the drawing board.

 

[snowveil]

You could consider adding sinimar....I haven't used it personally but it's my understanding that it adds little flavor contribution and darkens a beer up quite a bit.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

The easiest way to do that in your situation is to follow Papper's advice.

Alternatively depending on your timeframe to finish the beer and how quickly you could get debittered black malts, you could redesign the recipe to be light but higher ABV and hoppier when you brew it and then as fermentation is winding down steep some debittered black malt, give the water a quick boil and then add it to the fermenter. It should water down the beer to the right bitterness and ABV but obtain the right color.

 

[kyleobie]

I would highly recommend Chocolate Wheat or Midnight Wheat. Haven't used Breiss MW in a long time but I bought mine online. Either one is dehusked and gives smooth roasted/chocolate flavor without any of the bitterness.

I brewed a biscuity brown that used 1/2 lb of chocolate wheat. Very drinkable. I brewed a Black IPA that used a full pound of Midnight Wheat. Very, very drinkable and jet black.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

But he said he doesn't have immediate access to any of those...