Dark Ale recipe

[MichaelB42]

I'd like to follow the dark ale recipe in the brewers guild section but instead of using half a can of coopers dark malt extract would using 1kg of Munton's Dark spray malt be ok instead to use instead?

 

Also could I do a dark ale using the Real Ale kit a a base? Would that work?

[PhilboBaggins]

Hello Michael.

 

In my opinion, using a kg of dark spray malt instead of 1/2 can of DLME will make a beer more suited to my tastes as it will be a stronger beer with more body, but it will be different to the recipe.

 

Using the real ale kit as a base will be far more bitter, so it depends on your tastes mate.

[PhilboBaggins]

Also, have you used that much spray malt in one go before?

 

You'll have to be careful dissolving it so it doesn't clump. Make sure it goes into the FV before the can of goo, and gets dissolved first.

 

Pour the spray malt into the FV, then pour your 2L hot water in there. Pick the FV up straight away and swirl the liquid round and round until the dry malt is dissolved, then add the rest. If you take to it with a spoon before it's dissolved it'll be clump city.

 

Apologies if you know that bit, but I could have saved myself a fair bit of grief if I'd worked that out earlier in my brewing career. [lol]

[PB2]

Just looked for the colour spec of Dark Spraymalt on the Munton's website, they say, "70-120 EBC in a 10% solution" so go for the middle of the spec range: 95 EBC for 1kg diluted to 10litres (10%). Now dilute that up to 23 litres: 95 * 10 / 23 = 41 EBC

 

Now add the colour contribution from a Real Ale kit: 230 * 1.7 / 23 = 17 EBC

 

Total colour should be about 58 EBC, which is around about right for our Commercial Coopers Dark Ale.

 

As for bitterness - Real Ale kit: 560 * 1.7 / 23 = 41 IBU, allow for 30% loss due to fermentation and it might be around 29 IBU - too high for the Commercial version but should still be quite nice and bitterness mellows with time in the bottle [biggrin]

[MichaelB42]

 

Philbo - Thanks loads for the tip on swirling the FV. I think not dissolving the brew enhancer properly is one of my newbie mistakes. I put a OS stout on this morning and swirled the FV rather than just mixing with the spoon. Which seemed to dissolve the enhancer better

 

PB2 - Thanks for doing all that research on muntons website for me. I will probably be sticking to using APA s a base for my next dark ale . You suggest using the medium spray malt for when using the real ale kit as a base. Do you suggest going for the dark spray malt or the medium if I use the APA as the base kit? Also do I still add 200g of sugar like the receipe states if I'm using 1kg of spray malt?

[Muddy Waters]

The swirling works best on coopers malt all other ingredients mix pretty easily with the spoon. Having said that I find the swirling a bit hit and miss in how successful it is (using water of any temp) so I tend to just dissolve it on the stove before adding it to the FV. I don't know why I bother because I never take an OG so it doesn't really matter if there are clump the yeast will still annihilate it.

[PB2]

I wasn't suggesting "medium spray malt", not even sure if that is a Munton's product?? The colour specs for their Dark Spraymalt are quite wide and usually the target colour is in the middle of the spec - so I went for the middle of the range when calculating colour additions.

 

If you use 1kg of dry malt, you'll get closer to 4.5% ABV by not adding the sugar. FG is likely to be a bit higher, which is not a bad thing...

[PhilboBaggins]

Use all malt... Doooo iiiiit maaaaaaaaaate!

[Muddy Waters]

Maaaaallttt maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttte maaaaalt!!!!

 

[lol]

[DavidS58]

My last dark ale was using a Coopers Pale Ale Kit. Can of Coopers dark malt. Half a kilo of dark dry malt. 23l at 16-18 degrees. Came out awesome. Very similar to Tooheys Old. Creamy with heaps of flavour.

[PB2]

Dave, sounds like it would be a nice beer, with all that dark richness added [love]

 

Gotta take you to task on the TO comparison - I reckon you should do a side-by-side tasting with your brew and a TO. If you report back that they do taste similar, I'll eat an airlock and a sediment reducer [tongue] [lol] [sideways] [w00t]

[Muddy Waters]

Please tell PB2 they taste similar Dave and finally we will have a valid use for airlocks and sediment reducers [lol]

[MichaelB42]

PB2 - Thanks for clearing that (on my part) misunderstanding up. Muntons do quite a large range of spray malt: scroll down the page

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Spraymalt-Spray-Malt-Brewing-Sugar-Home-Brew-Extract/230992414834?_trksid=p2045573.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D27%26meid%3D8260225032824797918%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D1011%26rk%3D4%26sd%3D160969324279%26

 

The recipe I'm going to follow for my next dark ale will be a coopers australian pale ale plus 1kg of muntons dark spray malt, no extra sugar

 

Thanks for all the help, helping me do a dark ale chaps. I'd just buy the dark ale kit but Tesco click and collect are out of stock at the mo [crying]