Brew #67: Porter/Crowberry Porter

It has been a while since I made a dark beer, and it has been too long since I made a porter. With its 7.0% abv this is a fairly robust porter.

Knut Albert has been kind enough to mention that crowberries might do well in a porter. I agree. Last year I had a sample of Haandbryggeriet's lingonberry porter, an experimental brew that they had made but did not put into production. It was an excellent beer with an interesting bittering quality that balanced the roasted malts in a nice way. It is sad that they decided not to take it further. The reason was supposedly the high production costs. Crowberries should be quite similar in flavour.

I found 330 ml bottles of crowberry juice at a Helios store here in Oslo. 1 liter juice to 11 liters of porter in the secondary. Interestingly I could not see any visible fermentation activity in the secondary, so I guess there's not much fermentable sugars in the juice. It is anything but sweet, but I think it'll lend a nice balance it the beer. The juice is organic and should not contain any preservatives.

Added 1ts CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) to mash and 1ts to boil.

The batch was brewed 2009-01-26 and bottled 2009-02-10.

Style:
Porter
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
76 EBC (Very dark brown)
Bitterness:
35 IBU
Malts:
6000g Pale malt, Castle
850g Aromatic malt, 100 EBC, Castle
800g Münchener malt, Weyermann
300g Crystal malt, Castle
300g Special B, Dingemans
300g Chocolate malt (Special II), Weyermann
100g Coffee malt, Castle
Mash:
66C, 90 min
68% efficiency
Hops:
35g Cascade pellets, 5.8% 90 min (first wort hops)
35g East Kent Goldings pellets, 4.8%, 60 min
25g East Kent Goldings pellets, 4.8%, 10 min
Yeast:
1 pack Wyeast 2450 Denny’s Favorite 50, 1 liter starter
Boil:
180 min
Fermentation:
19 C

OG: 1.073 FG: 1.020 abv: 7.0%

Brew #66: Imperial kölsch

The imperial pilsener beer style is a fairly new phenomenon, so why not make an "imperial kölsch" now that I had a fresh kölsch yeast cake? The recipe is pretty much a scaled up version of the kölsch/Czech pilsener hybrid. The Saaz hops have been replaced with Riwaka (formerly known as D Saaz), a very aromatic Saaz breed from New Zealand. It contains twice the oil content of Czech Saaz. As the hop contains a lot of cohumulone (a harsh bittering oil) I thought it best to use Magnum, a cleaner bittering hop for bittering. As I've never used Riwaka before I look forward to see how it compares to its ancestor. The descriptions I've seen sure sounds like it'll do well in a strong and bold pilsener.

Added 1ts CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) to boil aiming at 50 ppm carbonates.

The batch was brewed 2009-01-21.

Style:
Strong kölsch
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
11 EBC (Golden)
Bitterness:
51 IBU
Malts:
8000g Pilsener malt, Castle
500g Wheat malt, Weyermann
200g Melanoidin malt, Weyermann
Mash:
65C, 90 min
69% efficiency
Hops:
35g Magnum pellets, 13.5% 60 min
60g Riwaka whole hops, 5.9% 10 min
100g Riwaka whole hops, 5.9% 1 min
40g Riwaka whole hops, 5.9%, dry hop for 4 days
Yeast:
Wyeast 2575 Kölsch II (batch #65 yeast cake).
Boil:
75 min
Fermentation:
19 C

OG: 1.072 FG: 1.014 abv: 7.6%

Brew #65: Kölsch/Czech Pilsener hybrid

This is an experiment that I've wanted to do for a long time. The beer is a hybrid between a Kölsch and a Czech Pilsener. It is brewed with Kölsch yeast and a lot of Czech Saaz hops. There is 10% wheat in the recipe, so the fermentables are closer to a Kölsch than a Pilsener. The batch was split in half, and is fermenting with two different Kölsch strains. I look forward to seeing whether there will be any significant differences between the two strains. It will also be interesting to see if one can make a decent pilsener with an ale yeast.

Added 1ts CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) and 0.5ts CaSO4 (gypsum) to enhance the hops.

The batch was brewed 2009-01-04 and bottled 2009-01-21.

Style:
Kölsch/Czech Pilsener
Type:
25 liters. All grain, batch sparge
Colour:
8 EBC (Pale yellow)
Bitterness:
42 IBU
Malts:
5300g Pilsener malt, Castle
500g Wheat malt, Weyermann
200g Cara-pils, Weyermann
Mash:
67C, 90 min
72% efficiency
Hops:
110g Saaz pellets, 3.4% 60 min
40g Saaz pellets, 3.4% 15 min
30g Saaz pellets, 3.4% 1 min
Yeast:
1 pack Wyeast 2565 Kölsch (0.7 liter starter on magnetic stirrer) and 1 pack Wyeast 2575 Kölsch II (1.0 liter starter).
Boil:
90 min
Fermentation:
19 C

OG: 1.052 FG: 1.011 abv: 5.4%