MattTimBell
Well-Known Member
Hi all,
A couple months ago, I posted a thread detailing a first experiment in malting most of my own grain for a batch (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/extreme-experiment-log-brewing-entirely-scratch-288261/). As it turned out better than I expected, and a buddy of mine asked me to design a beer for his upcoming nuptials, I decided to try it again, this time trying to "clone" Ebulum. I say "clone" in quotes because, as I understand it, the original is a gruit ale that makes minimal use of hops, replacing them, instead, with sweet gale. That wasn't something I was quite ready to do yet given the cost ($1 a gram!) and the unknown flavor. Instead, I'm just doing Cascade hops and about 6oz of dried elderberries. I'll be posting the progress of the recipe here.
The malting process was precisely as before: soak about 6lbs soft wheat in water for a few hours, then let sit, then soak again, alternating until it starts to sprout, finally letting the acrospire grow to a good enough length to indicate it was ready. Then, air dry with some help from the proofing setting on my mother-in-law's oven (about 100degF). One pound of hard red wheat was instead cooked at about 158degF in a closed environment to let it stew, then spread onto a pan and baked at about 400degF until it turned into something that looked and tasted like Special B. Finally, I got some pearl barley and roasted it to what looked about 300L. Post-finally, I was worried that some of the wheat was too undermodified and I wasn't entirely ready for no training wheels, so I bought 1lb of 2-row to bump the enzymes slightly.
Adjucts: 2lbs 10oz quick oats from the grocery store, toasted in a wok until brown and granola-like. Also, 1/3 lb dextrose + 2/3 lbs sucrose I caramelized on the stove using the notes from this thread, where a guy was trying to make something like D2: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/candi-syrup-experiment-trying-clone-d2-220882/
Mashed at 156degF for one hour, bumped up the temp slightly with a small decoction, then lautered to get about 7 or 8 gal of wort, which I boiled down to about 4.5 gal. About 2 qts. of that I tried to caramelize on the stove, with something that tasted like success, but I'm not sure. I added about 0.85 oz of Cascade for 60 min and the 5.75 oz elderberries at 15 minutes and counting. As of this writing, I'm about to pitch US-05. The plan is to ferment in the garage at about 60degF. The OG is about 1.070.
Will update here on how it turns out.
A couple months ago, I posted a thread detailing a first experiment in malting most of my own grain for a batch (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/extreme-experiment-log-brewing-entirely-scratch-288261/). As it turned out better than I expected, and a buddy of mine asked me to design a beer for his upcoming nuptials, I decided to try it again, this time trying to "clone" Ebulum. I say "clone" in quotes because, as I understand it, the original is a gruit ale that makes minimal use of hops, replacing them, instead, with sweet gale. That wasn't something I was quite ready to do yet given the cost ($1 a gram!) and the unknown flavor. Instead, I'm just doing Cascade hops and about 6oz of dried elderberries. I'll be posting the progress of the recipe here.
The malting process was precisely as before: soak about 6lbs soft wheat in water for a few hours, then let sit, then soak again, alternating until it starts to sprout, finally letting the acrospire grow to a good enough length to indicate it was ready. Then, air dry with some help from the proofing setting on my mother-in-law's oven (about 100degF). One pound of hard red wheat was instead cooked at about 158degF in a closed environment to let it stew, then spread onto a pan and baked at about 400degF until it turned into something that looked and tasted like Special B. Finally, I got some pearl barley and roasted it to what looked about 300L. Post-finally, I was worried that some of the wheat was too undermodified and I wasn't entirely ready for no training wheels, so I bought 1lb of 2-row to bump the enzymes slightly.
Adjucts: 2lbs 10oz quick oats from the grocery store, toasted in a wok until brown and granola-like. Also, 1/3 lb dextrose + 2/3 lbs sucrose I caramelized on the stove using the notes from this thread, where a guy was trying to make something like D2: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/candi-syrup-experiment-trying-clone-d2-220882/
Mashed at 156degF for one hour, bumped up the temp slightly with a small decoction, then lautered to get about 7 or 8 gal of wort, which I boiled down to about 4.5 gal. About 2 qts. of that I tried to caramelize on the stove, with something that tasted like success, but I'm not sure. I added about 0.85 oz of Cascade for 60 min and the 5.75 oz elderberries at 15 minutes and counting. As of this writing, I'm about to pitch US-05. The plan is to ferment in the garage at about 60degF. The OG is about 1.070.
Will update here on how it turns out.
