Grist for a dunkel

[oceanic_brew]

Hey,

Just wanna run this by someone before I dive in. My shop only has light Munich so I'm trying to get some color in there elsewhere.

5.5 gallon batch

5#'s wheat malt
4#'s light munich
.85 #'s caramunich
4 oz carafa
4 oz chocolate malt

Wyeast 3068
.75 oz hallertau 60 mins

How does that sound?

My experience with crystal malts makes me wanna lower that caramunich but I have no experience with it. I don't mind a slightly sweet dunkel.

Thanks!

 

[TheMadKing]

Hey,

Just wanna run this by someone before I dive in. My shop only has light Munich so I'm trying to get some color in there elsewhere.

5.5 gallon batch

5#'s wheat malt
4#'s light munich
.85 #'s caramunich
4 oz carafa
4 oz chocolate malt

Wyeast 3068
.75 oz hallertau 60 mins

How does that sound?

My experience with crystal malts makes me wanna lower that caramunich but I have no experience with it. I don't mind a slightly sweet dunkel.

Thanks!

I think your grist actually looks pretty good if a little dark. You might want to add a pound or 2 of pilsner malt for the extra enzyme it offers for the wheat and munich (though they both have diastatic power of their own). Also think about dropping the carafa II. You'll get plenty of color from 6 oz of chocolate. A lot of dunkel recipes also use Special B malt, which I really like.

I would consider upping the IBU's a little bit, but not much.. maybe 1 oz or 1.25 oz. I've been using hallertau a lot lately and it always seems less bitter than it should to me.

EDIT: I ran it through Beer Smith. It looks like you are a little heavy for the style too, but I don't know your system efficiency.

My recommended revision:

4lbs white wheat
3.5 lb munich light
1 lb pilsner
.85 lb caramunich
0.375 lb Chocolate

1 oz of hallertau at 45 minutes

OG 1.054 (est)
IBU 17
Color 17.5 SRM

 

[meatcleaver]

IMHO, a dunkelweizen is just a darker & especially maltier version of a hefe. I don't think crystal malts or roasted malts are appropriate.
personally I'd cut the caramunich to .5 pound, omit the chocolate, & cut the carafa to 2 oz.
if you want it darker than that do a decoction or two.

 

[sikkingj]

It looks tasty. Let us know what it tastes like, I need a good dunkelwiess on tap.

 

[TheMadKing]

IMHO, a dunkelweizen is just a darker & especially maltier version of a hefe. I don't think crystal malts or roasted malts are appropriate.
personally I'd cut the caramunich to .5 pound, omit the chocolate, & cut the carafa to 2 oz.
if you want it darker than that do a decoction or two.

Dunkelweissen is the original bavarian wheat beer which is traditionally dark dating back hundreds of years. Hefeweizen and other pale weisse beers didn't become popular until about 1960.

A heavier maltier character imparted by the caramunich (or some other caramel malt) are absolutely true to style. Also, having just tried a traditional decoction for color (30 minute hard boils on each decoction), I can tell you that the color contribution is very minimal.

EDIT: Though you are correct that no roast flavor should be perceptible, so maybe replace the chocolate with carafa II entirely.

 

[oceanic_brew]

Thanks for the input everyone.

Learned a lot. Also read through the BYO.com article on the style and looked into bjcp guidelines. Unfortunately I ended up having some of the grain already purchased before reading the responses but I was able to make some changes and if something is off(or on) then now I'll know why.

I ended up doing this


5#'s wheat
4#'s light munich
.65 caramunich
.25 special b
25 chocolate malt
1 oz hallertau pellet (60)
.6 oz Nugget (Leaf) (60)


I know, Nugget what the hell right?!!! So I learned after I had purchased the hallertau that it was only 1.8% alpha acids and I had a small bit of homegrown nugget lying around.

I still think this is gonna be friggin delicious


I'm swaying against the suggested underpitch with 3068 and pitching how I usually do. I do not want a huge banana or clove on this one, I want it to be subtle and my yeast slurry was 5 months old so I wanted a beafed up starter to make sure I didn't have much lag.

I'll update in 12 days when this is on tap.

 

[TheMadKing]

I think that sounds like a winner! 1.8% AA though!!?? That's upsetting, must have been a bad year somewhere. One word of caution on the homegrown hops, if they are fresh and not dried, they won't add much bitterness. I observed a brew day where a friend of mine added a full pound of fresh green hops and ended up with an APA level of bitterness.

 

[oceanic_brew]

That's actually the reason why I wasn't afraid of adding them. I definitely didn't want to have this come out too bitter and I didn't mind wasting such a small amount anyway.

Probably would have been best as a flavor addition in an IPA probably. We'll see!