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White Rabbit Dark Ale Recipe?


MitchellS2

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I had a go at this a while ago (and also recently posted this recipe elsewhere). The malts were good, but I was way off with the hops. I used centennial and amarillo for my flavouring hops. I'm pretty sure that White Rabbit has cascade.

 

The resulting beer was great, but not what I was expecting. Below I've got what I did when I tried to make a WRDA, and what I'd suggest now that I've had a go.

 

My first attempt 23L:

3.0kg Light liquid malt

0.5kg Light dry malt

0.25kg medium crystal,

0.167kg chocolate malt

 

5L boil

13g warrior for 60 mins,

10g centennial for 10,mins,

10g amarillo flame out.

15g amarillo dry hop

 

Now I'd recommend 23L:

3.0kg Light liquid malt

0.5kg Light dry malt

0.25kg medium crystal,

0.20kg chocolate malt

 

5L boil

20g warrior for 60 mins,

25g cascade for 5 mins

Dry hop with cascade if you like

 

 

As I've said previously, I use warrior hops because it has a high alpha acid%. Of course you can use any bittering hop in its place.

 

As a guide, the updated recipe should be:

 

%alc 5.4

IBU ~27

 

You could perhaps back off a little on the dry malt (perhaps halve it) to get it back down to 4.9% like WRDA.

 

I Hope this helps

-Dylan

 

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The yeast is important with this, you can culture up a starter from a 6-pack (I have one going now, very little yeast sediment in the bottles, though). However I am positive it is a US Ale probably US-05 is the way to go.

 

I am sure there is a small % wheat in there, definitely no roast barley, go with chocolate, black patent...

 

I like the look of Dylan's 2nd idea, late Cascade, for sure. Fresher bottle of WRDA are very hoppy whilst older one have mellowed, so they must throw a bagful in very late. As per Dylan's suggestion regarding bittering hops (I'd use POR because that's what I have). Some say Fuggles are in the hop schedule.

 

I just checked their website and the brewery claims some of the esters come from their open fermentation (wild yeast? nah!I bet the room is positive pressured with scrubbed air). Its the shape of the vessel (wide and shallow) that causes the yeast to act differently and produce the esters. That's hard to reproduce at home. Got a bath tub?

 

 

 

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Hi everyone, long time viewer, first time poster, I had a crack at this the other week. The recipe i used was...

 

1 x Can Coopers Dark Ale

1 x Can Coopers Dark Malt Extract

 

I steeped..

 

200g Choc Malt

200g Medium Crystal

100g Light Crystal

 

For the boil...

 

25 g Cascade, 12.5 g Cluster (60 mins)

25 g Hallertau (30 mins)

15 g Fuggles, 10 g Goldings (15 mins)

12.5 g Cascade, 12.5 g Cluster (Dry hopped on day 10, for four days)

 

I also added 800g Dextrose and 300g of BE2, made up to 25L.

 

SG:1.050

FG:1.010

 

about 5%

 

Yeast i used was US-04

 

Just having my first one now and the hops seem pretty spot on. It's very dark too, and in hindsight I probably would have used a can of medium malt rather than the dark, but it is very nice.

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Yeah a little light passes through it, the genuine article is quite dark itself, but as stated, would have used a medium malt extract in hindsight. Give it a go though if you can be bothered and let me know what you think.

 

Cheers

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All,

 

This seems like one many people are having a crack at!

 

I just read this and literally yesterday before reading this i decided I would like to have a crack at it.

 

DylanI, my recipe is quite close to yours! so hopefully it turns out well.

 

2 x 1.5 cans light malt

250 gm crystal steeped for 30 min at 70 deg

50 gm chocolate malt steeped for 30 min at 70 deg

25 gm warrior hops @ 45 min boil

25 gm galaxy hops @ 15 min boil

15 gm cascade hops dry hopped 4 days into ferment

munton's gold yeast

 

 

its the perfect color but I am not sure if the passionfruit flavor of the galaxy hops will be to much yet.

 

I will report back once I have tried it!

 

cheeers, and it's nice to see I an fairly close to the mark.

 

 

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Hey Nic

 

Looks good. I like Galaxy, and I think it should taste great. Make sure you report back and let us all know how it goes.

 

I'm definitely going to have another crack at something like this in the future. I think following on from NewtonClown's advice, I may even swap one of the light malt cans for a wheat malt can. I think the wheat malt cans are a 50/50 mix of wheat and light malt. I at least know that's the case for another brand of wheat malt that I've seen.

 

The other alternative is that I've noticed that my homebrew shop sells CaraWheat. So that could be a way of getting some wheat in there without going overboard.

 

It's definitely a great beer, and a recipe that I'll continue to work on.

 

Keep up the good work,

-Dyl

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I brewed this one a little while ago and it has become one of my favourite beers. I wasn't attempting a WRDA clone at all; I just thought it would be a good combination.

 

Although it isn't a clone, it has more similarities than dissimilarities. I think the wheat is a nice touch in this and it doesn't dominate.

 

1.5kg Coopers Dark Liquid Malt

1.5kg Coopers Wheat Liquid Malt

200g Dextrose

200g Victory Malt

200g Medium Crystal Malt

100g Pale Chocolate Malt

 

25g Target Hops (10%AA) @ 40 min

20g Cascade Hops (5%AA) @ 10 min

US-05 yeast

23 litres

 

You could play around with the late additions of cascade to make it a little hoppier, just like a rabbit [biggrin]

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these are some great recipes, I will definatly be trying some veriations on the theme, funny.. i really disliked WRDA first time i tried it but coming back to it a year later its a really nice commercial brew. especially on tap in a pint glass.

 

there is a lot of valuable information in this thread!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey Nic

 

How's your beer going/ how did it go?

 

I'm keen to have a crack at something similar to my previous post, although from some of the posts in this thread I've been inspired to tinker a little further.

 

I'm thinking that I'll swap a LME can for a wheat malt can (nice idea Hairy), and perhaps throw in a very small amount of Galaxy (perhaps 5g for 5 mins). I'm not so bothered about exactly matching WRDA. I'm more interested in making an interesting beer that is somewhere in the ballpark.

 

I'd love to hear how the Galaxy went in your beer.

Cheers,

-Dyl

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Hi Dylan,

 

its still sitting in the fermenter! I am going to bottle it sunday but the smell from my readings is fantastic, very smooth and almost passion fruit with chocolate. i will taste it when bottling i will report back on the taste. it will only have a fairly short shelf life before losing some of the aroma. i would say it would probably be best at just after 6 weeks.

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I bottled it today, and I am very impressed with how it taste so far. it smells very smooth and not like passionfruit but has a hint of it. this recipe will defiantly be a keeper!

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I visited White Rabbit yesterday and they had some ingredients laid out. Maybe this will be of use [cool]

IMG_0618.jpg

There's Carafamalt, Pale Malt and Medium Crystal Malt.

 

Here's some of the White Ale ingredients too..

IMG_0617.jpg

I think the berries are juniper berries... Hop pellets were very pungent. I think they were Amarillo [love]

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have has a few of my Dark Ale's so far and have to say its a fantastic brew. Highly recommended recipe!

 

galaxy hops are becoming a favourite of mine. and they seem to go quite nicely with cascade dry hopping.

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