The Dark One

To compliment the Golden Strong Ale from last week, a Dark Strong Ale...this is actually about as much malt as I can fit in my mash tun, so next week's brew will be tough. I had intended all the bitterness to be from the Tettnanger hops, but didn't have as much left as I needed, so had to add some other stuff in, and still came up a little low on the IBU estimate. Missed my mash gravity reading, and was a little surprised to see that my OG was as high as it is...probably because this recipe was originally for 6 gallons. Alas.

Batch #44
The Dark One
Belgian Dark Strong Ale
--15lbs Ger. Pilsner
--3lbs Amer. Munich
--1lb Belg. Aromatic
--1lb Belg. Special B
--1lb CaraMunich
--0.5lb Amer. Wheat
--0.5lb Melanoidin
--9AAU Tettnanger (60m)
--3AAU Glacier (60m)
--0.7AAU Saaz (60m)
--1/4tsp Supermoss (15m)
--1/4tsp Fermaid K (15m)
--WLP500 Trappist Ale Yeast, 4L starter
OG: 1.110
FG: 1.027
ABV: 10.9%
IBU: ~25

Mash in at 155F, allow to fall to as low as 150F. Mash 90 minutes. Extract 7.5 gallons, boil two hours or long enough to yield about 5 gallons into fermenter. Pitch at 68F, allow to rise into 80s after a few days. My efficiency was ~76%.