I’d like to brew a dark Czech lager, like the one at U Fleku. I think the generic name for this beer is Cerny Pivo, but I can’t find any sample recipes.
I’m thinking of a grain bill that’s 90% Pils, 8% caramel, and 2% roasted, Saaz hops in a single addition to 20-25 IBUs and WYeast 2124 (Bohemian lager). Target OG 1.045, target FG 1.011
Comments?
I definitely had that beer at U Fleku, but it’s been almost three years, so I don’t know how well I remember it. I do brew a black lager pretty regularly, and the recipe is similar to what you suggest. 71% pale, 18% Vienna, 7% Carafa III and 4% C40. I think the Carafa gives a smooth malty sort of roast compared to what RB would do, but I’ve never tried it with RB, so who knows?
I have been searching high and low to find more info about this beer:
General description:
[quote]This beer has clear, sweet, malty taste with low hop bitterness
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U Fleku:
[quote]This beer has pronounced Caramel taste with low hop bitterness
[/quote]
Golden pheasant Dark Beer:
[quote]has low hop bitterness
[/quote]
ABV is somewhere between 10 Plato(1040) to 13 Plato(1052)
where 11 Plato (1045) is the most common.
U Fleku beer is 13 Plato.
In my research I have found that this beer is sometimes reffed as beer of Bavarian origin.
This would let me believe that this beer is somehow related to Munich Dunkel.
As far as BJCP classification it is classified as Schwartz Bier.
Because this beer has pronounced caramel taste I think it does not fit in here.
I think breweries are still using locally malted malts and we do not know too much about it.
They are using:
Light (color) bohemian malt = Pilsner Malt,
Munich Malt,
Caramel Malt,
Roasted (dark) Malt.
I can guess that Pilsner malt is well known but rest of the malts are unknown.
Is it Munich 8, Munich 15 or Munich 20???
The same goes for Caramel and Dark Malt.
To my knowledge this beer does not have big roasted character.
Sometimes this beer is described as “Easy drinking beer that even a women loves it”. (Not my words).
I’m not able to get Carafa special where I live (I know! I need to move to a new city!). So I’m using a mix of black malt and chocolate to get the color. It’s going to be roastier than a schwartzbier made with debittered black malt, but what else can I do?
Here’s what I’ve got so far:
7.00 lb Pilsner (2.0 SRM) Grain 67.44 %
2.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 19.27 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 9.63 %
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.41 %
0.13 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 1.25 %
1.75 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (60 min) Hops 24.5 IBU
1 Pkgs Bohemian Lager (Wyeast Labs #2124) [Starter 4000 ml] Yeast-Lager
I have brew this beer a few times.
Czech Budvar says that: [quote]This beer is made the same way as our Pilsner beer…
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so I started to brew it as a pilsner with some Carafa Special II.
Well I got me a nice SchwarzBier.
Then I brewed it a few times as Dunkel based beer.
80% Munich and 20% Pilsner.
It was just too roasty and not sweet enough.
So my search is on.
I believe that they are using roasted malt just as a color adjustment.
As far as your recipe.
Caramel 120L will give you some raisiny/roasty notes that I do not think are there.
and WY2124 is a German lager yeast = WPL830 (I know the name is misleading).
I think you would be fine with Wyeast 2001 Pilsner Urquell or Wyeast 2000 Budvar.
I just recently found Belgian Debittered Black Malt that is 500-600° L.
I’m going for 40% pale malt, 45% pilsner, 10% vienna, 5% debittered black, all Saaz hops to 35 IBU and Budvar or Urquell yeast.
I want to have white foam on a black beer so I hope the black and vienna malts are not too high. Have to run it up the recipe program to check out the SRM. Not sure about the mash temp either yet.
Cheers