The Darkening is a Schwarzbier that first came to life as an English Brown Ale attempt. While it doesn’t use lager yeast and focuses on english malt and hops , it comes out as a Schwarzbier almost to a T. An English Schwarzbier maybe? I think I just made that up.
You’ll get hit with a huge chocolate scent, but taking your first sip you’ll notice how smooth the beer is with just a hint of chocolate and floral notes with big malt character. Coffee pops up on the backend and becomes more and more prominent as the beer warms up.
Here’s the recipe for a 1 gallon batch, scale up as needed
Grain Bill:
- 47.5% English Golden Promise (1 lb)
- 47.5% Maris Otter (1 lb)
- 5% English Chocolate (.14lb)
Hops:
- UK Kent Goldings (12g)
Yeast:
- Safale S-04 dry (3g)
Here’s the high level instructions for the one gallon batch. Mash with 3 quarts of water and heat to 160*F. Add the grain, cover, and let rest for 60 minutes. After 60 minutes, mash out by raising the temperature back to 170*. Note: With around 10 minutes remaining in the mash, heat 4 quarts of water to 165*F for sparging.
Collect wart and boil for 6o minutes, add hops with following schedule:
- 3g UK Kent Goldings at 60min
- 4g UK Kent Goldings at 30 min
- 5g UK Kent Goldings at 15 min
To cool the wort, pour into your carboy and cap with airlock. Let sit overnight. The next day, the temperature of your wort should be around 68*F. Pitch 3g of Safale S-04 yeast.
Fermentation took place in my dark basement with room temperature being around 55*F for three weeks. I bottled with 1 tablet per 12 ounce bottle of Coopers Carbonation Drops and let condition for 2 weeks. Place bottles in your fridge and enjoy The Darkening.
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