Davin's Dark Ale Recipe

Davin's Dark Ale:

A dark beer that looks like a porter, but close your eyes and this is a very nice refreshing beer. Lots of character, with a smooth pallet, hints of citrus, grapefruit, caramel & chocolate, not too sweet and a gentle hit of bitter. This is a very easy drinker perfect for the cold nights or even great chilled on a hot summers day. It should come out at approximately 5% ABV.

In this recipe we use Liquid Malt Extract, Spray Malt and Grain to give 40 pints of a great tasting beer.

Ingredients:

• 1 tin (3.3lb) coopers Light Malt Extract
• 500g medium spraymalt
• 400g crystal malt
• 150g crushed black malt
• 100g flaked barley
• 350g brewing sugar
• 50g priming sugar
• 10g Hallertau hops
• 10g Goldings hops
• 75g Mosaic hops
• 1tsp Irish Moss
• 1 sachet Safale S-04 Ale Yeast

Method:

1. Warm tin of malt extract in bowl of hot water.
2. Boil 6 pints of water in a kettle. Here we use a temperature controlled mashtun / boiler with a heating element.
3. Empty tin of malt extract into boiler / mashtun (currently turned off)
4. Add the 6 pints boiling water and stir until all combined.
5. While stirring, sprinkle in the spraymalt until dissolved.
6. Top up to 3 gallons with cold water.
7. Turn on and bring up the temp to 70°C.
8. Put your grain into a mashing bag and tie closed but leave lots of room for the grain to move about (think about how a tea bag works).
9. When it reaches temperature, gradually lower the mashing bag with the grain into the liquid in the boiler and gently swirl it / agitate it to prevent the grain clumping.
10. Lower the temp of the boiler / mashtun to 68°C Leave to mash for 30 minutes
11. Boil 3 gallons of water to use for sparging.
12. At this stage I prefer to open the bag of grain and suspend this over the top of the boiler / mashtun in a sieve.
13. Gently pour the boiling water over the grain so as not to disturb any of the grain. Keep going until your sparging has added 2 gallons of liquid in the boiler / mashtun.
14. Turn up the temperature to 100°C to a rolling boil.
15. Once it reaches a rolling boil start the clock
16. @ 0 mins add the Hallertau hops
17. @ 15 mins add the Goldings hops
18. @ 45 mins add 25g Mosiac hops
19. @ 45 mins add 1 tsp Irish Moss
20. @ 60 mins turn off the heat and add 25g Mosaic hops.
21. Add the 12oz brewing sugar and stir until dissolved.
22. Insert a wort chiller coil and cool your liquid to 20°C Strain off your liquid into a brewing bucket.
23. Take an sg reading
24. Pitch the yeast
25. Place in a warm place at 20°C for 5 days.
26. On day 5 add 25g Mosaic hops
27. 24 hours later Syphon into clean bucket
28. Add the 2oz priming sugar and barrel / bottle
    
    

    I hope you enjoy this beer recipe using a mixture of grain and malt extract and spraymalt (aka a partial mash). You can of course play with the ingredients to adjust it to your taste, possibly use more hops with a higher alpha acid content at the 0min of the boil if you want your ale to have more bitters. Or you could add more spraymalt / sugar if you want a higher alcohol content. Or even halve the amount of black malt to have more of a red ale. 

    If you would like any guidance please contact us and we will be happy to help.