Dale's PKB Clone

[Dale Cooper]

I tinkered around with Stu's Pot Kettle Black recipe:

6kg Mars Otter
2 kg ADM pils
450g Crystal 90
300g Pale Choc
200g Choc
150g Black

63g B saaz 60 mins
28g Cascade 60 mins
42g Cascade 20 mins
14g Cascade 0 mins
14g Cascade Dry

OG 1054
FG? - Forgot to check!
Thames Valley ale yeast

I think its a nice enough beer but doesn't have the hop flavour and aroma to be much like I remember PKB. I'm still learning and with this beer I learned not to be so stingey with the hops :-)

[Reviled]

Was it NZ or US cascade Dale?

[Dale Cooper]

Pretty sure it was US Cascade

[MrC]

I haven't tasted PKB (sorry Stu) so I can't comment on the cloning aspect of this beer but here's my take on it.

Poured very dark/black with ruby highlights. Small short lasting tan head. Hard to determine clarity due to the darkness.
Light aroma of chocolate, burnt & US hops with a hint of bananas and slightly grassy.
Carbonation low with a nice soft mouthfeel. Prominent bitterness, not harsh but not smooth either. Nice malt balance combined with US hops and alcohol warmth. Burnt hops & alcohol in the finish followed by American burps.

This beer seemed to mellow as it warmed and also seemed to become more balanced. The more I drank the more I liked it. I started out wondering whether I'd be able to drink the whole bottle and wound up wanting more. Probably just started out too cold.

Personally I would prefer a lower gravity, less bitter version that I could drink all night. I'll be interested to see how others compare this to the original PKB.

A job well done Dale.

Cheers

[Stu McKinlay]

I haven't tasted PKB

*Engaging in take down request immediately, and trademarking PKB to stop homebrewers biting into our 0.00000000000000000000001% market share*

I knew here was something not quite right about you Mr Cherry ;-)

[MrC]

I'll be making an effort to get a taste on the next batch. It's a pity the Malthouse moved to Courtney Place, it used to be my regular.

If you can get Yeastie Boys into D4 I'll drink it weekly. I ask them every week at D4 if they have any Yeastie Boys, I don't think they take me seriously anymore and just automatically pour me Bookbinder.

[Stu McKinlay]

Drinking for lunch - tasting before lunch and then drinkingthe rest with some leftover curries and naan.

Decanted and then poured into my beervana half pint. I must say that I've really been looking forward to this for obvious reasons...

Pours a pretty clear dark brown with a chestnut hue. Light tan head creams nicely and lingers a little before drooping to a light lace. Initial aroma is of milk chocolate, fruitcake and the lightest hint of banana... English brown porter. Then the orange kicks in and blends really nicely with the rest to leave me thinking rich orangey fruit cake... perfect easter drinking. Chocolate and toasty malt dominates the mouth at first, the light carbonation allowing me to taste everything but leaving the beer a shade lifeless. And then again the orange hop comes late, on the palate during the swallow and lingering afterwards. Quite a lot of residual sweetness left in the beer. There's a slightly winy character (almost winegum-ish) through the mouth and lingering on the palate that I suspect comes from the yeast... it may just come from the unique combination of malt and hop but it is quite pleasant. Bitterness and roast in the finish are about spot on to make this quite sessionable.

There are only two negatives, for mine, and don't let this take away from a really nice beer:
- the beer could do with a little more carbonation to lift it when drunk cold
- there is possibly a shade too much malt sweetness left in the beer, this could be addressed through mash temp (lowering), yeast (different strain or possibly pitching a little more) or the aforementioned carbonation level may make it seem a little drier.

Nice beer anyway... I look forward to enjoying my curry with it in 5min... Keep up the good work Dale. Would love to see you develop this idea further.

[studio1]

Very nice Dale. I only had 1 pint of the PKB, but seems a pretty good representation of that. Pretty quaffable (looks into empty glass). Carbonation seemed good to me - was dirnking it fairly warm though.

[Alasdair]

Following on from Ged's APA...

No head and restrained aroma - a hint of coffee and chocolate, with a savoury tang. Quite full-bodied (due to low carbonation).

An initial sweetness, then roasty and chocolate flavours - I got a bittersweet, salted liqourice flavour too, I think this was from the hops, but there was less hop flavour than I was expecting.

I enjoyed this more once it warmed up and the malt sweetness offset the other flavours. (This probably reflects my preference for less robust or brown porters).

Not a perfect clone of PKB, but it reminded of it all the same, and certainly very flavourful. Nice one.

[Barry]

case beer #3 for me

I want to have carnal monkey sex with this beer. Is that wrong?

[Dale Cooper]

Haha! You made me laugh so hard beer came out my nose ;-)

[Ally Mcg]

Had this one last night and i think it might have been infected. No aroma to speak of and then tasted sour, with no other flavour. Was sad as I was looking forward to this one since its the same principle as my entry. Hopefully it was just my rogue bottle as reading the rest of the feedback its getting thumbs up.

[denimglen]

Hints of citrus, grapefruit mostly and tropical fruits. A little resiny. Some roasted malt coming through as well. Girlfriend says purple or red wine gums.

Very dark brown, slight redness. Two finger head, thins quickly but laces well.

Touch of sweetness, toffee, crisp bitter finish. Resiny citrus hops too.

Medium body, and medium carb - both spot on for beer.

Real good beer mate.