Hi Frantisek,
If you have not already investigated online brewing recipe calculators then check out this example one:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/
Unfortunately, this one is stuck in English units (gallons and pounds) but I use it as an example because it is so complete - it tries to predict the outcome of your recipe (a combination of ingredients plus some procedural steps) including:
* color - in units of SRM; the tiny beer mug even shows what it should look like
* bitterness - in units of IBU; so that you can compare to values listed for standard styles, etc.
* alcohol - ABV; and the final gravity says something about body or mouthfeel as well
Once you are familiar with one of these, and your available ingredients - it is not always easy to find the exact right name of your grains unfortunately, and ideally the supplier would tell you what "color" they are (note that the units for grain color will often be Lovibond) - you can use calculators to adjust recipes just like you are planning to do. Luckily hops generally come with their bittering parameters (% alph and beta acids) well specified on the package, or use the general values tabulated for the varieties that you have available. When you reduce the alcohol content you generally want to knock down the amount of hops as well, so that you maintain balance and maybe stay within the beer style that you are aiming for (except for the alcohol - in any case, do you know the name of the style that original recipe was for?). Since your alcohol goal is so low, you might want to look at this article for some discussion of the adjusting process
- so that your beer does not coming out too much of a surprise:
http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/1453-tastes-great-less-alcohol
Unfortunately it doesn't cover all grain brews - since a bad first batch is soooo discouraging to some maybe you want to do partial grain only for your first beer, then a bag method works well? - but the concepts are the same.
Another way to approach this - if you are not too attached to your present recipe or those exact ingredients - is to seek out some one else's low alcohol darker beer recipe, and brew that instead. Just reduces your risk, since they have done the experimentation to get the balance right... not too watery, not too bitter, properly complex, etc. Not knowing what you mean by "dark", I'll throw this out there for starters:
http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2011/05/homebrewing-english-mild-ale-beer-recipe-how-to-brew-low-alcohol-beer.html
You may have to review the guidelines for generally accepted beer styles - not that you can't invent your own - to see which ones might sound right for you in terms of alcohol, color, and bitterness. This pretty user friendly resource is useful as a detailed reference when both drinking and designing:
http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/
We use things like this when training beer judges. If you can indeed determine the name of a style you like, then it is much easier to search for tips on recipes that will tend to get you close - they will at least advise you on traditional hop and yeast types.
Many many people will try to imitate a bottled beer they like, and you can often search on recipes for these - since the major "dark" beers are things like stouts and porters (from the English brewing tradition at least), maybe you have something as dark as a stout in mind?:
http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/03/14/brewing-an-irish-stout-beer-recipe/
Note that in Ireland, Guinness is not brewed especially strong - just 4% ABV - and there is a style called Sweet Stout that regularly is brewed extra light.
All the best,
Charlie
in Geneva
Today's Topics:
1. Re: dark beer recipe - ideas? (salomonderossi)
2. dark beer recipe - ideas? (Frantisek Algoldor Apfelbeck)
3. Please DO NOT send multiple address emails / cc to
tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net (Glen Jarvis)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2014 18:47:05 +0200
From: salomonderossi <salomon at salomonderossi.de>
To: Frantisek Algoldor Apfelbeck <algoldor at foodhackingbase.org>
Cc: "091-food at googlegroups.com" <091-food at googlegroups.com>,
"tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net"
<tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net>, Food Hacking Base mailing list
<foodhackingbase at lists.hackerspaces.org>, Arnd
<contact at sociallife.org>
Subject: Re: [Tastebridge] dark beer recipe - ideas?
Message-ID: <244F5C93-229C-4FA8-8FAE-5AB603E27E79 at salomonderossi.de>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Hi Frantisek,
I will try to answer some of your questions. Regarding the malts you have made a good choice. If you want a bit darker color you can also be a bit sloopy when you stir. When mashing you normally have to stir all the time. If you make a 2 minute pause the malt will scorch a bit and the beer becomes darker.
Regarding the alcohol, just use less malt. Do you have something to measure the original gravity of liquids? Something about 10 degree plato or 9.6 Brix or 1.03840 SG should fit your needs. With these values you should have about 3.5% alcohol.
I usually mash the malts and after the lautering I fill up with water until the desired value :-D
Regarding the hops I would choose something mild with low alpha acid. The "classic" hops should fit best here. I found Hallertau and Tettnang in the shops you send. I would choose one of those two. Or you could combine the two. And boil the hops only for 45 minutes. The longer you boil the more bitter the beer gets.
Regarding the yeast you can (in my opinion) choose any top fermenting yeast. With top fermenting yeast you cannot make any big mistakes. And it does not matter if the temperature is not exactly the same during the fermentation. The result is usually very tasty. I usually use the Safbrew T-58. This yeast is also listed in the online shop you send :-)
Regarding the gypsum I can give you no real tipps. This depends on your water hardness and the ratio of gypsum to lime ("Kalk" in germany). The ratio of gypsum and lime should be 1:1. But I think you should first find a nice malt and hop mix and get your process reproducible before you should think about that.
I hope that helped a bit.
King regards,
Philipp
> Am 04.07.2014 um 14:07 schrieb Frantisek Algoldor Apfelbeck <algoldor at foodhackingbase.org>:
>
> Hi to all,
> I've a practical questions about my first beer adventure which I want to do next week. I'm after dark beer, preferably short beer so 3% alcohol content or so, I want to order whatever I have to by Monday. Here is recipe which I got from a beer brewer here in Korea Jason some time ago and I would like to hear comments because I would like to do some changes:
>
> Batch size = 20 l (6% alcohol)
>
> Malts
> 5 kg of Pilsner malt
> 1 kg of Munich malt
> 300 g of caramunich 3
> 100 g cara aroma
> 300 g carafa2 (steep separate)
>
> Hops
> any hops that provide 4-5% of aa (60 min boiling) - Kent Golding suitable? other?
> any spicy hop (10 min boiling) - crystal suitable? other?
> optional - 1 tablespoon of gypsum (to lower pH)
>
> Yeast
> S05
> Safale S05 (London ale yeast)
>
> Below are online shops which I can use here in Korea for the ingredients, I've to buy everything except the Pilsner malt which I got in bulk for a good price, it is really expensive here (insane).
>
> beerschool.co.kr
> seoulhomebrew.com
> craftbrewer.co.kr
>
> I would like to decrease the amount of alcohol to 3-4% and I may have to change the dark malts composition a bit because I will not be able to get all of them - but I should be able to get a representative malt from each group (caramel, roasted etc.). I'm really not sure which hops are suitable, I do not like bitter flavour really ... I'll have to make my own false bottom for mashing, no way where to order here I'm afraid, maybe as Richard suggested that "bag beer brewing" can be an option ...
>
> So please suggestions, thank you!
>
> Sincerely from Jeju,
>
> FAA
>
> --
> Frantisek Algoldor Apfelbeck
>
> biotechnologist&kvasir and hacker
>
> http://www.frantisekapfelbeck.org
>
> "There is no way to peace, peace is the way." Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
>
>
> Disclaimer - there are other people who have access to this email account, please be aware of that it is part of the design. For "highly private communication" use algoldor at yahoo.com
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 21:07:18 +0900
From: Frantisek Algoldor Apfelbeck <algoldor at foodhackingbase.org>
To: Food Hacking Base mailing list
<foodhackingbase at lists.hackerspaces.org>
Cc: 091-food at googlegroups.com, tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net, Arnd
<contact at sociallife.org>, Philipp <salomon at salomonderossi.de>
Subject: [Tastebridge] dark beer recipe - ideas?
Message-ID: <351e71d111c0838ff62b7f859d946937 at foodhackingbase.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Hi to all,
I've a practical questions about my first beer adventure which I want to
do next week. I'm after dark beer, preferably short beer so 3% alcohol
content or so, I want to order whatever I have to by Monday. Here is
recipe which I got from a beer brewer here in Korea Jason some time ago
and I would like to hear comments because I would like to do some
changes:
Batch size = 20 l (6% alcohol)
Malts
5 kg of Pilsner malt
1 kg of Munich malt
300 g of caramunich 3
100 g cara aroma
300 g carafa2 (steep separate)
Hops
any hops that provide 4-5% of aa (60 min boiling) - Kent Golding
suitable? other?
any spicy hop (10 min boiling) - crystal suitable? other?
optional - 1 tablespoon of gypsum (to lower pH)
Yeast
S05
Safale S05 (London ale yeast)
Below are online shops which I can use here in Korea for the
ingredients, I've to buy everything except the Pilsner malt which I got
in bulk for a good price, it is really expensive here (insane).
beerschool.co.kr
seoulhomebrew.com
craftbrewer.co.kr
I would like to decrease the amount of alcohol to 3-4% and I may have to
change the dark malts composition a bit because I will not be able to
get all of them - but I should be able to get a representative malt from
each group (caramel, roasted etc.). I'm really not sure which hops are
suitable, I do not like bitter flavour really ... I'll have to make my
own false bottom for mashing, no way where to order here I'm afraid,
maybe as Richard suggested that "bag beer brewing" can be an option ...
So please suggestions, thank you!
Sincerely from Jeju,
FAA
--
Frantisek Algoldor Apfelbeck
biotechnologist&kvasir and hacker
http://www.frantisekapfelbeck.org
"There is no way to peace, peace is the way." Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Disclaimer - there are other people who have access to this email
account, please be aware of that it is part of the design. For "highly
private communication" use algoldor at yahoo.com
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 22:20:02 -0700
From: Glen Jarvis <glen at glenjarvis.com>
To: Tastebridge <tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net>
Subject: [Tastebridge] Please DO NOT send multiple address emails / cc
to tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net
Message-ID:
<CA+UBrj51+E1a2g8tyKi1veF19UZuVzoX=BcXgo8xX2ERQ9WXiQ at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Re: This email
> To: Food Hacking Base mailing list <foodhackingbase at lists.hackerspaces.org
>
> Cc: 091-food at googlegroups.com, tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net, Ingo
Weidauer <i.weidauer at gmx.net>, Philipp <salomon at salomonderossi.de>, Arnd
<contact at sociallife.org>
I'm sorry to be so strong in my subject line. But, as a volunteer to keep
this list running, a simple mistake like this can cost me hours and hours
of maintenance work.
When you do a "cc" email to the tastebridge list like we see above, this
happens:
* The mail gets held by the system for review (which causes a large delay
for everyone to get their mail)
* People "Reply-All" which compounds the problem [as only people on the
list can send an email without it getting caught].
* Spam lists find this and start spamming the address (making this problem
even harder). I have no idea why Dark Beer would increase our emails about
penis enlargements, but sadly, it has is just did.
Thank you so much for understanding. Some small thing like this seems so
innocent. But, I've seen another list grow to be completely unmanageable.
There are currently 1,359 mail messages waiting for review.
Kindest Regards,
Glen Jarvis
--
"You grab mindshare by being there."
-- Alex Martelli
Bay Area Python Interest Group Talk
24-Oct, 2013
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