Recipe: Zoiglhaus Zoigl-Black Schwarzbier

Zoiglhaus in Portland, Oregon, knows its way around German beer styles—brewmaster Alan Taylor graduated from the VLB in Berlin in 1998 and has brewed in Berlin and Bavaria as well as California, New Mexico, and Oregon.

Taylor and team brew this schwarzbier—whose honors include a silver medal at the 2018 Oregon Beer Awards—with German ingredients and in accordance with German brewing traditions. The combination of lightly sweet malts with a kiss of dark malt provides the flavor and color that make this beer easy to keep drinking in any season or for any occasion.

ALL-GRAIN

Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.011
IBUs: 24
ABV: 4.8%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
7 lb (3.2 kg) Bestmalz Pilsen
14.5 oz (411 g) Bestmalz Munich Dark
9.5 oz (269 g) Bestmalz Caramel Hell
8 oz (227 g) Weyermann Carafa Special II (dehusked)

HOPS SCHEDULE
0.25 oz (7 g) Herkules at first wort [19 IBUs]
0.4 oz (11 g) Hallertauer Mittelfrüh at 30 minutes [5 IBUs]

YEAST
Imperial Yeast L13 Global

DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 144°F (62°C) for 55 minutes; raise the temperature to 154°F (68°C) and rest 35 minutes; raise the temperature to 162°F (72°C) and rest 25 minutes; then raise the temperature to 172°F (78°C) and rest 5 minutes. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle and immediately add first wort hops. Sparge and top up as necessary to get about 6 gallons (23 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops according to the schedule. After the boil, chill the wort to about 47°F (8°C), aerate the wort, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 49°F (9°C) until the gravity has dropped to about 1.028 (7°P), then allow it to rise to 66°F (19°C). Optionally, bung the beer at 1.015 (3.8°P) and allow it to carbonate naturally in a keg. Once fermentation is complete and the gravity has stabilized, crash to 39°F (4°C) and carbonate to about 2.70–2.75 volumes of CO₂.

BREWER’S NOTES
Water profile: Target 83 ppm calcium, 88 ppm sodium, 67 ppm sulfate, 99 ppm chloride, and 225 ppm bicarbonate. Once you calculate the salts needed to make the targeted mash water, you can add the same amount to the kettle as well. The minerality of the water helps to build the beer’s underlying structure as well as achieve the correct mash and wort pH.

Color: Most larger-scale batches have longer mash and lauter times that tend to extract more of the dark malt’s color. If this is a homebrew batch with shorter runoff times, you could optionally increase the Carafa II a bit—maybe up to 9.5 oz (269 g). On a related note: In Germany, the contemporary style is not actually black—it’s a deep brown with light ruby notes. I didn’t see what was brewed 200 years ago, but what I’ve been drinking for the past 30 years in Germany has always been the color of the beer we make.

Mashing: If you can’t step mash, targeting 151°F (66°C) for a rest of 45 minutes before starting the vorlauf (recirculation) step should work well.

Hops: Feel free to substitute Hersbrucker or similar German hops for the Hallertauer Mittelfrüh. You can also adjust the quantities as needed based on the alpha acid content of the hops you have available.