Widmer W '10 Pitch Black Ale Grain Assistance

[BadgerBrewer]

Hey guys. I just had a Widmer W '10 Pitch Black Ale and loved it. I am going to attempt a recipe along the lines of it / Cascadian Black Ale and wanted to see what the general thoughts were of the following recipe based off their website:

6 gallon batch
60 minute boil
11# Pale 2-row
1# Carafa III (Weyerman)
1# Caramel Malt 10l (Breiss)
.50# Chocolate Malt
.50# Special Roast

1oz. Centennial (60 min)
1oz. Cascade (60 min)
1oz. Amarillo (30 min)
1oz. Cascade (15 min)
1oz. Cascade (5 min)
1oz. Centennial (dry hop)
1oz. Cascade (dry hop)
Mash at 149-150 for 60 minutes
I think I am going to use Nottingham as the yeast to get a nice clean fermentation.

Putting this into Beersmith give me the following:

1.063 OG
1.013 FG
6.53% ABV
41.2 SRM
69.2 IBU

I don't want much in the way of coffee / roasted flavors (or as little as I can get by with) but obviously want the dark colors with a nice malty body with a nice hoppiness aroma/flavor. Thoughts?

 

[RCCOLA]

Hey guys. I just had a Widmer W '10 Pitch Black Ale and loved it. I am going to attempt a recipe along the lines of it / Cascadian Black Ale and wanted to see what the general thoughts were of the following recipe based off their website:

6 gallon batch
60 minute boil
11# Pale 2-row
1# Carafa III (Weyerman)
1# Caramel Malt 10l (Breiss)
.50# Chocolate Malt
.50# Special Roast

1oz. Centennial (60 min)
1oz. Cascade (60 min)
1oz. Amarillo (30 min)
1oz. Cascade (15 min)
1oz. Cascade (5 min)
1oz. Centennial (dry hop)
1oz. Cascade (dry hop)
Mash at 149-150 for 60 minutes
I think I am going to use Nottingham as the yeast to get a nice clean fermentation.

Putting this into Beersmith give me the following:

1.063 OG
1.013 FG
6.53% ABV
41.2 SRM
69.2 IBU

I don't want much in the way of coffee / roasted flavors (or as little as I can get by with) but obviously want the dark colors with a nice malty body with a nice hoppiness aroma/flavor. Thoughts?

I haven't had that beer but I will give you my version of a malty black beer with little roastyness (schwarzbier)
Your pound of carafa and the 8oz. of choc. would make your beer pretty roasty.

5.5lbs. 2-row
5.5lbs. munich
8oz. C-60
1lb. C-20
5oz. Carafa II "special" (that means dehusked/debittered)
5oz. choc. malt

 

[GC89]

here is my version based off what I got from their site

Alchemy is which they state for bittering and aroma is just Widmer's special blend of Millennium, Warrior, and Horizon hops they also only mention bittering and aroma which is why the jump from 60 to 10 min

11 lb 2-row
.65 Carafa II
.65 C10
.40 Special Roast

.25 Millennium (60 min)
.25 Warrior (60 min)
.35 Horizon (60 min)
.40 Cascade (60 min)

.35 Millennium (10 min)
.35 Warrior (10 min)
.40 Horizon (10 min)
.75 Cascade (10 min)

1.50 Cascade Dry Hop

Mash at 149

Eff 75%
OG 1.068
Est. ABV 6.64%

Let me know what you guys think

 

[Dom590]

I've been looking for this recipe also, but I have one question, what exactly is this "special roast" I looked on a couple supply websites and couldn't find anything called just "Special Roast"

 

[RCCOLA]

I've been looking for this recipe also, but I have one question, what exactly is this "special roast" I looked on a couple supply websites and couldn't find anything called just "Special Roast"

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/special-roast-briess.html

 

[1brAPTbrewer]

I'm pretty sure they use columbus hops in this recipe for bittering and dry hopping.

 

[Dom590]

Thanks RCCOLA I actually found it on Northern Brewer's site too , I was just blind the first time I looked.

 

[RCCOLA]

BYO just published a clone for this beer:

5gal. batch, OG:1.064 FG: 1.014, IBU: 65, SRM 30

10.5lb 2-row
1.5lb C-10
12oz. Carafa II Special
10oz. special roast
.8oz Warrior @75min. 16%AA
.25oz. cascade @2min. 5.8AA
.75 oz. warrior @2min. 16%AA
.25oz warrior dry hop
.5oz. cascade dry hop

WLP 001, Wy1056, or S-05 dry yeast

Mash @ 150F

 

[Pleepleus]

Is this on the website, or in the new issue?

 

[RCCOLA]

New issue. Also clones of Barley Brown's Turmoil Cascadian dark ale, & Hopworks Secession black IPA,

 

[BadgerBrewer]

The BYO recipe doesn't seem to have enough hops/IBU's to classify it as an IPA does it?

I just racked mine from the fermentor to a carboy for secondary dry hopping. I will update the thread with all of the results as soon as I can get back to my Beersmith file. I can say it was pitch dark like a bucket of oil! Smelled and tasted awesome

 

[GC89]

BYO recipe looks like mine after I played with it. I upped the C10 to almost exactly that, they got lazy and simplified the hops though. Should still be delicious I would think.

 

[BadgerBrewer]

BYO just published a clone for this beer:

5gal. batch, OG:1.064 FG: 1.014, IBU: 65, SRM 30

10.5lb 2-row
1.5lb C-10
12oz. Carafa II Special
10oz. special roast
.8oz Warrior @75min. 16%AA
.25oz. cascade @2min. 5.8AA
.75 oz. warrior @2min. 16%AA
.25oz warrior dry hop
.5oz. cascade dry hop

WLP 001, Wy1056, or S-05 dry yeast

Mash @ 150F

Using the recipe I posted, I had the following results:

6 gallon batch
OG = 1.062 @ 74.42% efficiency
FG = 1.010
ABV = 6.79%
SRM = 42.3
IBUs = 71.2
IBU/SG = 1.139
Cal = 276 / pint

*I used Nottingham dry yeast, pitched dry and then aerated

I mashed at 150 for 60 minutes.

I fermented at 63 degrees for 10 days and then transferred to a glass carboy to secondary / dry hop with an additional 2 oz. cascade and 1 oz. centennial.

If all goes well I will be transferring to a keg next Sunday 6/20 and cold crashing and conditioning for a few weeks. Tasting the hydro sample gave me a slight roast flavor, but overall not bad. Hopefully the dry hopping will give it a powerful aroma and a nice well rounded dark IPA.

Depending on the final tasting, I might be inclined to eliminate the crisp chocolate malt and maybe switch from the carafa III to carafa II.

 

[BadgerBrewer]

Oh yeah...it was an extremely explosive fermentation, even using a 1/2" blowoff tube. The entire lid blew off in my fermentation freezer.

 

[BadgerBrewer]

I cracked my keg last night and have my first Pitch Black IPA. It is just about perfect if I do say so myself. Not a true clone in the purest sense of the word, but certainly a very tastey Black IPA that I would make again. It is so black that the beer lines look purple. Pours like Texas Tea (oil to the north folk). Awesome.

It has an excellent nose, and a rich malty flavor. Not at all roasty as I suspected, but full bodied and lots of mouthfeel. The head is a nice creamy brown that stands nicely. Great lacing down the glass too. The finish has just the slightest raisan flavor, which compliments the slight citrus front end. I doubt I would change a thing on this recipe.

As it stands, I will probably post under a new heading in the recipe thread since it isn't an exact clone. Inspired by, but not a copy. I highly suggest anyone interested in a dark IPA to make this!