Pilsner vs. 2-row

[Thomas]

So I was planning on brewing a black IPA sometime this week, but I used up the last of my MO yesterday and have been out of 2-row for a while now. Any thoughts on swapping Bohemian pilsner for 2-row? Otherwise I might put out a call to borrow grain from someone. Heres the recipe i'v been working on

15.5 lb 2.row
1 lb Crystal 60
1 lb Carafa III -> last 30 min of mash
3 oz. Magnum 14% 60 min
2 oz Centennial 10% 20 min
1 oz. Amarillo 8% 1 min
2 oz Centennial 10% Dry hop
2 oz. Amarillo 8 % Dry hop
WYeast 1056

I might cut down the C60 and include a few other malts, Meladonin, Munich II. I'll also likely throw some more hops in, theres some leftover Simco and Cascade in the back of the freezer that could be mixed in with the late additions. Any thoughts?

[Gil Breau]

Pilsner is lighter SRM but a little maltier. Not a huge difference when you start adding crystals though, only makes a difference in really stringent cases where theres no secondary flavors , like pislners where the grain bill is 95%+ base malt.

[Richard]

Need a bit more water to boil for 90 mins too... would be handy for you in this case as you'll want a lot of mash/sparge water to support that bill.

What's the deal with the Carafa-3 at 30 mins?

[Thomas]

Good cal on the 90-min boil, I almost forgot about the DMS production from pilsner grain. Iv read that if you use a lot of carafaIII for the full duration of the mash you will get some roasted/bitter flavors out of it, and if you throw it in later in the mash you reduce them and only get the coloring. I want this IPA to be a big hop-bomb with a nice malty backbone, but not something that crosses over into Porter territory. Mabey I'll add some more hops for good measure.

[Jake]

re: more hops

[Thomas]

Scratch the request for grain, i found a full bag of MO kicking around. I also think there is a little bit of leftover simco in the back of the freezer that will be added as well.

[Richard]

I would have just used less Carafa-III rather than add it late to the mash, but I'd be interested to try the result of your technique

[Tony L]

I would have just used less Carafa-III rather than add it late to the mash, but I'd be interested to try the result of your technique

Sorry to drag out an old post but, I recently did a Schwarzbier where I didn't have Carafa ll special so I cold steeped some chocolate and BP and added it to my last sparge.
Eliminated the harshness from the dark grains IMO.
Anyway, I'll find out when I get my results back from the Cowtown Yeast Wranglers Annual Roundup comp that is being judged this weekend.

[Brian_S]

Again, sorry for resurrecting the zombie threads but I've been fairly sucessful adding 5-10% Munich to the base grain when trying to emulate MO.

For Tony L, Did you crush the grainsfirst the steep in cold/room temp water?  For how long?


B