I haven't been able to find a lot of swarzbier recipes to compare with but this is what i have come up with: 8# german pilsner 2# Munich .25# carafa special II .25# pale chocolate .25# crystal 60 x oz hersbrucker @60 for 10ibus 1 oz hersbrucker @15 I haven't decided on a yeast strain yet, the only german lager strain i have experience with is wlp830. I will probably try something else just to be different. In case anyone is wondering about the use of both carafa and chocolate it is because I plan to have some chocolate left over from another recipe. I get around 65% efficiency so that puts me around 1.050 OG and 1.012 FG, 23 SRM (according to brewcipher). I don't have a lot of specific targets for this beer, but something vaguely similar to kostritzer would be nice. Any thoughts/comments/suggestions?
I would really ditch the pale chocolate. it might make a great beer, but likely will add that chocolate "porter" flavor that would stand out to me at least. I would likely just ditch the crystal too, but that's me.
For my Schwarzbier I brewed two weeks ago, I went with Pilsner as the base (68%) with Munich II (13%) as the dominant malts, with accents of caramunich II, carapils, chocolate, black barley and Carafa III. I used WLP800 Pilsner yeast, and Magnum and Hallertauer for hopping. OG of 1.051 and currently at FG of 1.012 (target of 1.011). The flavor profile is really awesome, smooth roast notes and very drinkable. Can't wait until it's cold conditioned and ready to drink.
I would change up the recipe a bit and go with a dark munich malt as the base with only a tad bit of carafa special as a coloring grain my typical yearly 10gal batch of schwarzbier is 9# dark munich (Best malz) 5oz carafa III special w34/70 for yeast
Thanks for the input, I think i'll ditch the chocolate, increase the carafa, and increase the portion of munich. I haven't decided whether or not to drop the caramel, since that was going to be leftovers that decision can wait until brew day.
ditch the crystal and chocolate malts. up the carafa spec to 3/4 lb. add some carapils, 1/4 to 3/4 lb depending on how much mouth feel you want. I would cut the flavor hops to 1/2 oz at 20 minutes. I would make it close to 30 ibu's.
don't know if you've ever had Monchshof Schwarzbier but I love it. Its kind of like a Schwarz meets munich Dunkel and I feel like your recipe would actually yield something similar to that beer. Its probably not a great to style Schwarzbier but if you see it try it.. its a great lager.
