Brew Day - FINALLY! - Dark Dawn Clone Recipe - Clean

Benefits of brewing in the winter -
free wort chiller is on the ground

It's been too long.  I hate winter for more than the normal reasons.  I hate it because my brewing production takes a nose dive.  The weather finally cooperated and I was able to get outside and brew up this batch of Dark Dawn.

This is the recipe that Ron Jefferies provided to The Jamil Show: Can You Brew It.  I followed it pretty much exactly as it was laid out except I added a pinch of molasses to the boil kettle.

The sole purpose of this beer is to be a clean beer to blend with my sour stout.  The soured portion is just a tad too sour.  I think a 60-40 blend will do well and create a very well balanced sour.  I will finalize those proportions once I have the clean beer to mix with some sour.

I will do a small mixing in shot glasses to get it just right.

I will then break the beer off into multiple batches for fruited and non fruited versions of the beer.
I am even going to test killing off the wild yeast with some tabs that are used in wine making to stop fermentation.  I will then pitch a new vial of yeast and let that sit for a day or two before bottling with sugar.

Some of these batches should be bottled in the next month and then they will sit for at least another two months before trying.  Here is my break down on how I am going to split this 6 gallon batch:

1 Gallon = Sour and Sweet Cherry
1 Gallon = Blackberry Pinot Noir Juice
1 Gallon = Plum
2 Gallons = Straight
1 Gallon = Straight = Kill the yeast prior to adding fresh yeast

Hope it goes well.

Check back in April or May for the tastings.


Brew Notes:

• Initial mash temperature was a bit low - Came in at 144F.  Sat at 144F for 15 minutes
• After boiling water - I adjusted the temp up to the desired 148F and let it sit for 45 minutes
• Batch sparged - Rinsed the grains for ten minutes while recirculating the wort through the grain bed.  Collected 1.25 gallons on the first run.
• Added 3 gallons of 168F water and let it sit for 10 minutes
• Rinsed grains for another 10 minutes after.
• Final amount of wort collected = 4 gallons
• Pre Boil gravity = 1.024
• Brought it to a boil
• Added 4.5oz Raw Organic Sugar
• Added 3.5 oz White Table Sugar
• Added 1.5 oz Blackstrap Molasses (added a bit more sugar due to lower pre boil gravity)
• Brought back to a boil
• Added 0.5 oz Nugget pellet hops at 60min left.
• Added 0.7 US Fuggle at 30min left.
• At flameout - added 2.2 organic wildflower honey
• Whirlpooled
• Chilled to 70F with wort chiller and snow bank
• Pitched WLP 550 vial after shaking 3 gallon better bottle. Filled to roughly 2.6 gallon mark
• Placed the carboy in the family room were the temp is set to 68F.
• 15 hours later very strong fermentation
• 17 hours after pitching yeast the better bottle started to swell.  Airlock was blocked.  Inserted blow off tube