Has anyone here used Briess Traditional Dark DME?
How much roast flavor do you get? Chocolate? Etc?
Briess’ website doesn’t list the composition, but Northern Brewer says it’s a blend of “base, Munich, 60L crystal, and black malt.”
Assuming the Traditional Dark DME and LME have the same grain bill, composition for Traditional Dark LME is currently in the product information PDF: “a blend of 54% Bonlander® Munich Malt 10L, 30% Base malt, 13% Caramel Malt 60L, 3% Black Malt, and water”.
yes, this is it. i had to check it once. never used it but always wondered what it tasted like with a composition like that
Thanks — I didn’t think to check the LME pdf 
.
3% black malt might be a little light on roastiness, but I’ll try a 10L batch with just the Traditional Dark and see how it comes out.
I just brewed with only Briess Traditional Dark LME, going for a Munich Dunkel. It isn’t ready yet, but I drank the gravity sample when I bottled it. Obviously too soon for a final judgement, but it seemed to be about like Modelo Negra, which is a Munich Dunkel as I understand it.
Yeah, Modelo bills Negra as a Munich Dunkel.
So I’d probably need to bump up the roastiness for a Porter/Stout — steeping grains or coffee or somesuch.
About as much a dunkel as I am! Try Ayinger if you want to taste a real dunkel.
Or Warsteiner. I like Negra Modelo, but it’s more like a Vienna with caramel color than a Dunkel.
Yep. I prefer Ayinger because it’s a perfect example of malty but not sweet.
I went ahead and did a batch with 100% Briess Traditional Dark DME. Currently fermenting like crazy with some Lallemand Voss. I’ll report back. Getting some interesting banana aroma from the Voss 
UPDATE:
The banana was gone by the time I kegged it this evening (I think it was done about 3 weeks ago, but work and life and family…).
Pretty neutral yeast character from the Voss. Nice roasty/coffee/chocolate in the gravity/tasting sample. Finished at 1.015 from a 1.050 OG.
If this indicative of future performance, Briess Traditional Dark DME and I may become very good friends.
At day 10 in the keg, it’s a nice dark ale … somewhere between a brown ale and a porter to my palate. Mouthfeel is a little thin but the head is dense & creamy.
The final beer didn’t taste like Modelo Negra - it has some roasty flavor. For some reason I didn’t pick it up in the gravity sample. Maybe because attenuation was low - 1.016 FG. I usually get much better attenuation with S-189.
Yeah, there’s some roast in there. Not enough to be a Stout/Porter by itself but more than a Dunkel or Brown Ale. Maybe schwarzbier?
AFAIK, it’s uncommon to taste roast in schwarzbier.
It’s allowable by BJCP (“Light to moderate roasted malt flavors can give a bitter chocolate palate that is never burnt.”) and present in the US versions I’ve had, but, yes, the one actual German example I’ve had was pretty devoid of roast character.