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Again, I'll blame @HoppySmile! for bragging up the Innis & Gunn oak-aged beers, and all the homebrewers that have gone before while 'tinkering with the Winter Dark Ale.' In any case, this recipe used up my last WDA so I thought that I may as well go big.? Rum, Smoke & Oak UK Dark Ale Winter Dark Ale Craft HME, best before Jan. 2017 Malting Co. of Ireland 2-row, 1.0 lb. Simpsons Chocolate malt, 0.13 lb. Chateau Special B, 0.13 lb. Weyermann CaraRed, 0.25 lb. Briess Smoked Cherrywood malt, 0.25 lb. Styrian Goldings, 0.25 oz. 20 min. Styrian Goldings, 0.5 oz. @ flame-out Rum-soaked light oak chips, added following primary fermentation Mangrove Jack's UK Dark Ale yeast Mash grains @ 154 F for 60 min. 'Batch sparge' @ 170 for 5 or 6 min. 35 min. boil. Add WDA @ f/o. OG TBD SRM 39 IBU 52 ?

We can't buy WDA anymore but can we craft the recipes using just Mr. Beer extracts? I am willing to find out so here is what I came up with in what I am calling End of Winter Dark Ale -- Defibrillator Option: American Porter HME Oktoberfest HME Robust LME Safale S-04 yeast OG 1.068 SRM 40+ IBU 62 1.95 kg of hopped malt For the Black Moon Rising Option, I would simply substitute 2 Smooth LMEs for the Robust LME which would (in theory) lower SRM from 47 to 36, and increase hopped malt to 2.2 kg. I would try this Porterfest BMR Option myself, but all 3 LBKs are now once again in use! You will note that I am not venturing into any extra hopping here, but would really be interested to hear what the Forum Brewers might recommend. Finally, as with any brewing experimentation, in the end I will have made beer. But I am hoping that these attempts will be successful and maybe help those suffering through their WDA withdrawals. At least until that other Craft Series is announced...

So, enough of us bought some of these when they were half-price, seems fair to start a thread showing off what we're gonna do with them, or to ask questions about what we could do with them. Such as... if one were to tinker with the hops a little bit, what variety(-ties) would you use to accent this beer, say for a dry-hop or even a flameout addition?

Tried WDA for the first time last night and it came out awesome! Reminded me of Guinness. Poured a very dark black with a foamy, billowy tan head; left a good amount of lacing along the glass. Smell was subtle, but it tasted of roasted barley with hints of chocolate and espresso; bitter but very easy to drink. I think they are still on sale for $10.98 so I may have to pick another one or two up during this free shipping sale. Also last night brewed something I'm going to call Centennial Zest Ale -- a variation of the Horse's Ass Ale recipe adding zest of one lemon and 1 oz of Centennial hops. Kevin

My second batch, the Winter Dark Ale, is about ready to bottle. I had some questions on this though - A. How long to "lager" this beer? Some of the Winter Dark Ale recipes say to give it a few months of lagering/conditioning - but I didn't see anything on the recipe directions that came with it. B. Regardless, if a beer will be kept longer in the bottles, either for conditioning or just over time, which is better to use - the PET bottles or glass bottles? I can do either, I have both. I was reading in a brewing book that PET is not good for keeping beer for long durations. Thanks for the feedback in advance. Michael