What are the main differences in ingredients used when formulating a dunkel vs a schwarzbier?
Think dunkel as dark malty, heavy munich malt emphasis and scgwarz less malty, touch of roast acceptable, majority pils as base malt. Dark malts should be “de-husked” to remove “harsh” bitterness.
I get way more rich malt character from Dunkel, whereas Schwarzbier is more Pils like, just dark. Also, in my experience, Schwarzbier tends to be darker, though SRM ranges are fairly similar.
yeah bread crust and toast/nuts in a Dunkel. Rich but not as much as a bock. I like a bit of coffee and especially chocolate, and do well going that route. Decidedly balanced towards malt; hops stay out of the way.
Lighter in body, and the character malts are darker, for schwarz. Some hops are welcome, and they are much closer to balanced with malt. Super drinkable. However it’s not a porter. The people that keep telling me to make mine bigger, richer, more body, and -my favorite- “add 10% roast malt” are not really getting it. What they’ve been asking me for seems like, if I keep or even increase my current hops, more of a Czech Dark.
To me Schwarz is to Pils as Black IPA is to IPA. It drinks like a Pils with just the faintest touch of roast.
A Dunkel, is a rich, bready/malty lager (but not heavy at all like a Bock). To me, the primary flavor of a Dunkel comes from dark Munich malt.
Both beers should go down easily by the liter-full, and leave you wanting another.
+1. Except people don’t hate Schwarzbier with a blind passion. Two sides of the same coin to me. ;D
So… 20% more roast malt?? ;D Hahaha.
No mention of poor Dark American Lager… like he’s not even in the room. Sorry little buddy.
Thanks. For the malt bills, I was thinking 50:50 munich (L) and munich (D) for the Dunkel, and 50:50 Pilsner and munich (L) for Schwarzbier (with some carafa for color for each). Am I on the right track? Too much munich in the Schwarzbier maybe?
I think you are on the right track. I make a schwarz that uses about that ratio munich and pils. But you could go all base pils for the scwraz and still be on the right track. I prefer mine a little more malty.
Sounds reasonable to me. I go with about 85% Munich II, 15% Pils for my Dunkel, and 70:30 Pils:Munich for my Schwarz, but we’re both in the same ballpark.