Intro
Most beer recipes only contain the specific information for the described beer. It is assumed that all brewers master their personal brewery and can adjust the recipe where needed. I described my brewery and process in How I brew Beer and here I will only give you the specifics for the Münchner Dunkel.
In the past to make beer more flavor and colorful the whole barley was malted at higher temperatures. Only recently it was discovered that lighter malt produces higher yields and that it is possible to use these malts and small amount of darker “color malt” to get similar appearance, but not identical taste. This recipe strives to produce beer with less yield, but the original taste. Up until the 1940th this was the most popular beer in the region, but lost popularity and is only a niche now.
As the Wikipedia page above states Münchner Dunkel traditionelly only contains Münchner Malz and Karamellmalz. In contrast to some low quality variants that just color lighter beer.
I use 95% Münchner Malz Typ 1 which is fairly light in color, compared to Typ2 and 5% CARAHELL.
My brewery currently stocks only 3 types of malt, the two above and Pilsener Malz. This allows me to buy in bulk (25 kg bags of the two base malts) and to brew a large variety of different beers.
Base data
- Original wort: 12.4 °P
- Alcohol: 5.3% Vol.
- Main pour: 20 l
- Post pout: 16 l
- End product: 23 l
- Bitter: ~ 22 IBU
- Color: ~ 30 EBC (brown)
Ingredience
- 4.50 kg Münchner Malz Typ 1 (95%)
- 0.25 kg CARAHELL (5%)
- 0.60 kg Tettnanger 3.5% A
- 11 g SafLager W-34/70 yeast
Mashing
- 55 °C - Mashing in
- 55 °C - 05 minutes protein rest
- 63 °C - 25 minutes 1. sugar rest
- 72 °C - 30 minutes 2. sugar rest (until no starch is left)
- 78 °C - Mashing out
Hop boiling
- 70 minutes total
- 24 g Tettnanger before boiling
- 36 g Tettnanger 10 minutes before end
Yield
- I got ~ 19 l out, with ~ 14 °P, and deluded to ~ 22 L with 12.4 °P.
- Currently, main fermentation is ongoing
Fermentation
- Main fermentation 14 days at 12 °C (Fridge set to 10 °C)
- Bottle fermentation 14 days at 12 °C (Fridge set to 10 °C)
Curing
- 6 to 8 weeks at 4 °C
Results
Zwickel - Test after Bottle Fermentation
After two weeks of main fermentation and an additional 2 weeks of bottle fermentation I reduced the temperature to 4 °C and one day later I needed to try it, skipping the 6 - 8 week curing phase. :D
There is too little foam and the bubbles are too large. Also, it is still quite cloudy. I already love the smell of caramel and bread crust. Taste is a bit too yeasty, but I love the overall malty flavor.
Afterword
WIP - I wrote this down mainly for myself to be able to reproduce and iterate. This recipe is inspired by Mashcamp’s Nachtigall – Bayerisch Dunkel Einkocher, which uses slightly different malt and hops.
- Münchner Malz 4.5kg
- Karamell Dunkel 0.2kg
- Carafa Spezial II 0.05kg
- Mittelfrüh 4.5% 26g
- Spalter Select 5.5% 26g