ocwo92
Well-Known Member
In about two weeks, two of my brewing friends and I are going to brew Steinbier:
We'll heat rocks in our garden fire and use them to boil the brew. Also, we're going to heat some smaller rocks that we place in a mesh, which we'll raise and lower into the wort a few times so the sugars caramelize on the heated rocks. These rocks are put aside and dumped into the fermenter during secondary fermentation.
We're going to cheat a little, though, by performing the mash in the regular, controlled fashion rather than playing with hot rocks.
But, for future Steinbeer brews, I'm wondering if I can cheat a little more: I'm guessing that perhaps boiling with hot rocks will cause only limited caramelization, so maybe the caramelization effect can be achieved with just the smaller rocks that I lower into the wort and add to secondary.
Or perhaps I could simply take some amount of the wort and caramelize it in a skillet, thus doing away with the rocks entirely.
Any ideas whether this would produce the same flavor as the one that characterizes genuine Steinbier?
We'll heat rocks in our garden fire and use them to boil the brew. Also, we're going to heat some smaller rocks that we place in a mesh, which we'll raise and lower into the wort a few times so the sugars caramelize on the heated rocks. These rocks are put aside and dumped into the fermenter during secondary fermentation.
We're going to cheat a little, though, by performing the mash in the regular, controlled fashion rather than playing with hot rocks.
But, for future Steinbeer brews, I'm wondering if I can cheat a little more: I'm guessing that perhaps boiling with hot rocks will cause only limited caramelization, so maybe the caramelization effect can be achieved with just the smaller rocks that I lower into the wort and add to secondary.
Or perhaps I could simply take some amount of the wort and caramelize it in a skillet, thus doing away with the rocks entirely.
Any ideas whether this would produce the same flavor as the one that characterizes genuine Steinbier?