MattHollingsworth
Well-Known Member
Big success!
I wrote some months back about going to buy a big 110 pound bag (50 kg) of our local Croatian barley for super cheap. And I remember at first some folks were dubious. But it's a Belgian multinational company making this malt and it's great. And it's used by ALL of the breweries in Croatia from what I understand.
I used it first in a Dark Strong Belgian Ale, which came out great but is still aging. I then decided to do a SMaSH with it, and use Simcoe to isolate the hop and see what I think. And man did it work out well.
It's a basic recipe, of course, like so:
Type: All Grain
Date: 7/25/2010
Batch Size: 21.00 L
Boil Size: 28.43 L
Boil Time: 90 min
Equipment: RIMS and 10 gallon boiler
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.90 kg Pilsner (2 Row) (3.7 EBC) Grain 100.00 %
10.00 gm Simcoe [12.90 %] (60 min) Hops 16.5 IBU
14.00 gm Simcoe [12.90 %] (30 min) Hops 11.8 IBU
21.00 gm Simcoe [12.90 %] (10 min) Hops 6.9 IBU
21.00 gm Simcoe [12.90 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs London Ale III (Wyeast Labs #1318) [Starter 2000 ml] Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Measured Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Alcohol by Vol: 4.95 %
Bitterness: 35.3 IBU
Est Color: 7.2 EBC
Mash Profile
Medium Thin Body Step Time Name Description Step Temp
30 min Mash In Add 15.00 L of water at 108.0 F 104.0 F
30 min Step 140.0 F
30 min Step 158.0 F
10 min Step 168.0 F
Used a step mash because I can with my RIMS and just thought I'd give it a go with this malt and see what's up. Love the results. The malt's really quite nice. It's got a pretty strong flavor, I'd say, with some nice biscuit notes and cereal. Works well with this hop and yeast. Came out pretty clean. Bitterness isn't too crazy but lingers nicely with the biscuity malt and lots of citrus notes and some pine. Love those hops. Pungent "American" character. Used 'em a couple of times before but with beers I was less than happy with and not on their own, so this is good to get a firm handle on the character. I also just used them with Amarillo but haven't tasted that one yet. I'm going to do a beer with them again soon and mix in a tiny amount of Nelson Sauvin, which I think will work well with them.
Anyway, happy to see that this malt is a great malt and not some second rate drek. From my experience using American 2 row, this malt is much better to my taste buds. But I've always preferred Belgian and British malts.
Cheers!
I wrote some months back about going to buy a big 110 pound bag (50 kg) of our local Croatian barley for super cheap. And I remember at first some folks were dubious. But it's a Belgian multinational company making this malt and it's great. And it's used by ALL of the breweries in Croatia from what I understand.
I used it first in a Dark Strong Belgian Ale, which came out great but is still aging. I then decided to do a SMaSH with it, and use Simcoe to isolate the hop and see what I think. And man did it work out well.
It's a basic recipe, of course, like so:
Type: All Grain
Date: 7/25/2010
Batch Size: 21.00 L
Boil Size: 28.43 L
Boil Time: 90 min
Equipment: RIMS and 10 gallon boiler
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.90 kg Pilsner (2 Row) (3.7 EBC) Grain 100.00 %
10.00 gm Simcoe [12.90 %] (60 min) Hops 16.5 IBU
14.00 gm Simcoe [12.90 %] (30 min) Hops 11.8 IBU
21.00 gm Simcoe [12.90 %] (10 min) Hops 6.9 IBU
21.00 gm Simcoe [12.90 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs London Ale III (Wyeast Labs #1318) [Starter 2000 ml] Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Measured Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Alcohol by Vol: 4.95 %
Bitterness: 35.3 IBU
Est Color: 7.2 EBC
Mash Profile
Medium Thin Body Step Time Name Description Step Temp
30 min Mash In Add 15.00 L of water at 108.0 F 104.0 F
30 min Step 140.0 F
30 min Step 158.0 F
10 min Step 168.0 F
Used a step mash because I can with my RIMS and just thought I'd give it a go with this malt and see what's up. Love the results. The malt's really quite nice. It's got a pretty strong flavor, I'd say, with some nice biscuit notes and cereal. Works well with this hop and yeast. Came out pretty clean. Bitterness isn't too crazy but lingers nicely with the biscuity malt and lots of citrus notes and some pine. Love those hops. Pungent "American" character. Used 'em a couple of times before but with beers I was less than happy with and not on their own, so this is good to get a firm handle on the character. I also just used them with Amarillo but haven't tasted that one yet. I'm going to do a beer with them again soon and mix in a tiny amount of Nelson Sauvin, which I think will work well with them.
Anyway, happy to see that this malt is a great malt and not some second rate drek. From my experience using American 2 row, this malt is much better to my taste buds. But I've always preferred Belgian and British malts.
Cheers!
