German Brewing

Hello, I'm working on a Munich Dunkel recipe and originally was going to use carafa special II for the color. I've read that the Germans love using sinimar for the color requirement and built the grist with flavor/malty in mind. Does anyone have any experience with this coloring agent? They say 1 oz in 5 gallons will increase color by about 5 SRM. My base recipe with Munich I and carmunich is about 9.5 SRM so thinking of using 2 oz per 5 gallons to get me about 20 SRM.

I'd appreciate any feedback!

Mark

I have started to reply to this a few times, I always stop myself and continue to think about it. It's really a great question, not how much to use... but the use of it... on a higher level.

I really question how much it is used in commercial production, I mean I know Weyeramnn makes it by the boat load. Thats more of a thinking out-loud question as I rub my chin and gaze off into the distance

Anyways, I digress.

I don't think I(personally) would go this route for a Dunkel, the Munich is already going to be very malty from the generous amount of Munich, and you have to be very careful about it not finishing fully. Think full flavored drinkabilty.

That being said, my old recipe was 99% munich II, 1 % carafaII. That was a delicious malt bomb, the mash makes it finish nice and low and dry, but still flavorful and delicious. I recently switched gears a bit on it, and to try something new I modeled a recipe after one of the greats the Kloster Weltenburger Dunkel

I came up with this recipe and its really delicious.

I can certainly see using the sinamar for a schwarzbier, and I would bet money Köstritzer is using it there. But if you are going to use it, I do believe your dosing is correct.

Lets us know!

Bryan, thanks for your input! I like your recipe but am still hesitant to use that much Munich II. Our homebrew club recently had a malt tasting event where we did a mini-mash with 20+ grains. Mine was using Munich 20L. I was surprised at how different it was from Munich I. It had more roast character than malty and seemed to me would be a better fit for a Schwarzbier. I believe that your use of melanoidin would help mask/re-balance the flavor to the malty side. I did some more research on Sinimar and it has virtually no taste so you'll only get the color. Seems maybe I should do a split batch Brulosopher style.

I'll post a recipe on here soon and let everyone know thoughts. I used the recipe from Brewing Classic Styles as my base.

Prost!

Mark