A while back I thought it would be cool to brew a very Norwegian beer. I thought I'd investigate what the typical Norwegian spices are (that grow naturally) and maybe some berries and make a farmhouse style beer inspired by Norway. And all these thoughts came about because White Labs came out with a yeast called Norwegian Farmhouse Ale (WLP6788).
Then I stumbled upon the show Brewdogs, and they pretty much do this in each city they brew. So I thought, great minds think alike, I gotta go for this one day.
As time progressed, I came to learn that over on the east side of the country (maybe here in the west too, but my step-father-in-law, who taught me how to brew, lives over there) wild hops grow. They are there from the time when either a) farmers were forced to grow ingredients for beer along with whatever else they grew, or b) a time when small local breweries provided beer for the workers in the local industry. So then I thought, ok, I definitely have to use those.
And since this is a farmhouse ale, then again, it could certainly use some fruit, and then I found out about these wild strawberries that are about 1/2-1/3 the size of a normal strawberry, but carry more flavor and aroma than normal ones, and are a bit sweeter as well. But that's not all!
As I was searching out the very typical Norwegian spice, I came across this guy's site:
http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/
This is where I found out about the wide use of juniper in farmhouse brewing in Norway. And I learned that farmhouse brewing is still going on today. And that they each have their own special yeast that has just been passed down from generation to generation. AND that the guy actually helped White Labs in finding the Norwegian Farmhouse yeast, which does actually come from one of these farmhouse brewers!
The guy got to brew with a couple of the farmers, and so this helped me develop this recipe and the techniques used.
Recipe: Very Norwegian Ale
Brewer:
Asst Brewer:
Style: Saison
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 25.49 l
Post Boil Volume: 9.36 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 9.00 l
Bottling Volume: 8.5 l
Estimated OG: 1.062 SG
Estimated Color: 10.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 34.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 180 Minutes
Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2.25 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) Grain 1 88.6 %
0.20 kg Wheat Malt, Bel (3.9 EBC) Grain 2 7.9 %
0.09 kg Acidulated (BestMalz) (3.0 EBC) Grain 3 3.5 %
5.00 g Pacific Gem [15.00 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 4 24.9 IBUs
15.00 g Wild Norwegian Hops [3.70 %] - Boil 5.0 Hop 5 3.6 IBUs
15.00 g Wild Norwegian Hops [3.70 %] - Steep/Whi Hop 6 5.5 IBUs
1.0 pkg Norwegian Farmhouse Ale (White Labs #WLP Yeast 7 -
100.00 g Wild Strawberries (Secondary 14.0 days) Other 8 -
15.00 g Wild Norwegian Hops [3.70 %] - Dry Hop 7 Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
Mash Schedule: BIAB Norwegian Farmhouse Ale Mash
Total Grain Weight: 2.54 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash Step Add 7.50 l of water at 72.5 C 64.4 C 240 min
Sparge: Fly sparge with 20.53 l water at 75.6 C
So I supposed that the super long mash time should make a very fermentable wort. But then they go and boil it for 3-4 hours, which should obviously give it some color, and I'm guessing some caramelizing of the sugars, which should theoretically turn some of them back into unfermentables. So I'm not really expecting the FG to go as low as beersmith would predict. Although I will attempt to maintain the same heat throughout the long mash, they just wrap it and leave it overnight and hope it doesn't drop below 50C. The other thing is that they make juniper infused water and use it for the mash and for the sparge.
My only question really for this experiment pertains to the sparge and the boil. Because it's such a long boil, I need more water than I normally would with this size batch. BUT the reason I do this size batch is 1) to experiment on small batches, and 2) I don't have the equipment to do all-grain any larger, in other words, I only have a 19L pot. So my question is if I can just sparge to the max amount I can boil, then as it's boiling off some (like checking back each hour), to sparge more into the boil, doing that until I've sparged the total amount I was supposed to?
Also what do you guys think about the recipe?
Then I stumbled upon the show Brewdogs, and they pretty much do this in each city they brew. So I thought, great minds think alike, I gotta go for this one day.
As time progressed, I came to learn that over on the east side of the country (maybe here in the west too, but my step-father-in-law, who taught me how to brew, lives over there) wild hops grow. They are there from the time when either a) farmers were forced to grow ingredients for beer along with whatever else they grew, or b) a time when small local breweries provided beer for the workers in the local industry. So then I thought, ok, I definitely have to use those.
And since this is a farmhouse ale, then again, it could certainly use some fruit, and then I found out about these wild strawberries that are about 1/2-1/3 the size of a normal strawberry, but carry more flavor and aroma than normal ones, and are a bit sweeter as well. But that's not all!
As I was searching out the very typical Norwegian spice, I came across this guy's site:
http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/
This is where I found out about the wide use of juniper in farmhouse brewing in Norway. And I learned that farmhouse brewing is still going on today. And that they each have their own special yeast that has just been passed down from generation to generation. AND that the guy actually helped White Labs in finding the Norwegian Farmhouse yeast, which does actually come from one of these farmhouse brewers!
The guy got to brew with a couple of the farmers, and so this helped me develop this recipe and the techniques used.
Recipe: Very Norwegian Ale
Brewer:
Asst Brewer:
Style: Saison
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 25.49 l
Post Boil Volume: 9.36 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 9.00 l
Bottling Volume: 8.5 l
Estimated OG: 1.062 SG
Estimated Color: 10.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 34.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 180 Minutes
Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2.25 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) Grain 1 88.6 %
0.20 kg Wheat Malt, Bel (3.9 EBC) Grain 2 7.9 %
0.09 kg Acidulated (BestMalz) (3.0 EBC) Grain 3 3.5 %
5.00 g Pacific Gem [15.00 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 4 24.9 IBUs
15.00 g Wild Norwegian Hops [3.70 %] - Boil 5.0 Hop 5 3.6 IBUs
15.00 g Wild Norwegian Hops [3.70 %] - Steep/Whi Hop 6 5.5 IBUs
1.0 pkg Norwegian Farmhouse Ale (White Labs #WLP Yeast 7 -
100.00 g Wild Strawberries (Secondary 14.0 days) Other 8 -
15.00 g Wild Norwegian Hops [3.70 %] - Dry Hop 7 Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
Mash Schedule: BIAB Norwegian Farmhouse Ale Mash
Total Grain Weight: 2.54 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash Step Add 7.50 l of water at 72.5 C 64.4 C 240 min
Sparge: Fly sparge with 20.53 l water at 75.6 C
So I supposed that the super long mash time should make a very fermentable wort. But then they go and boil it for 3-4 hours, which should obviously give it some color, and I'm guessing some caramelizing of the sugars, which should theoretically turn some of them back into unfermentables. So I'm not really expecting the FG to go as low as beersmith would predict. Although I will attempt to maintain the same heat throughout the long mash, they just wrap it and leave it overnight and hope it doesn't drop below 50C. The other thing is that they make juniper infused water and use it for the mash and for the sparge.
My only question really for this experiment pertains to the sparge and the boil. Because it's such a long boil, I need more water than I normally would with this size batch. BUT the reason I do this size batch is 1) to experiment on small batches, and 2) I don't have the equipment to do all-grain any larger, in other words, I only have a 19L pot. So my question is if I can just sparge to the max amount I can boil, then as it's boiling off some (like checking back each hour), to sparge more into the boil, doing that until I've sparged the total amount I was supposed to?
Also what do you guys think about the recipe?
