Capital Brewery Winter Skål

[cactusgarrett]

Starting the preliminary research phase of trying to make something along the lines of Capital Brewery's (Middleton, WI) Winter Skål. This article is the closest thing I've found, so I was wondering if anyone has any experience giving this one a shot.

Specifically, the grainbill and yeast selections are what i'm trying to zero in on.

 

[madscientist451]

I've never head of the beer, so I read the article and looked around to see what else I could find and this is what I came up with:

5.5 Gallons OG 1.059 FG 1.1015 ABV 5.8%

7Lbs Pale Ale malt
3.5 lbs Pale 6 row
.5 lbs Honey malt
.5 lbs Crystal 60
.5lbs Dark munich 20L

The Capital Brewery says they make German style beers, so that should give a hint as to what yeast they are using. I'd say go with a Bavarian or Czech lager yeast and ferment around 50F.
Using all German malts could make a difference in trying to make a clone of the original, there's no way of knowing what they use, I'd try using all domestic malts and see what you get before trying all German malts.
You may be able to contact the brewer there for tips, some breweries give out all kind of information, some don't.
I may brew this myself.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Yeah, I love this one, as does my wife. Typically Capital has been pretty close-to-the-chest with regards to their information, so I was actually surprised to see this much info in one place, let alone straight from Kirby's mouth. I have noticed their beers have drastically changed after he left a few years back, but not enough to keep me from loving this brew. I'm pretty sure Capital sticks (or has stuck) with only a select few lager yeasts, as back in the day that's pretty much all they did (and did well!).

I did notice between the time of that article and now (via Capital's website) the cited IBUs increased from "low 20s" to 30. Really, the grainbill percentages is where i'm flying blind, but with so little info out there, this might warrant a few test batches and side-by-side testing.

"Sorry honey, this is all for the sake of research. Now... to the brewshop/liquor store!"

 

[madscientist451]

I came up with the grain bill by looking at some recipes from similar beers.
I looked up Kirby Nelson on google and he's at a brewery called Wisconsin Brewing Company. I wouldn't expect him to give up the whole recipe, but if you ask for some hints for a homebrew version, maybe you'll get something.
The questions I would ask: Was the "brewers malt" mentioned in the article pilsner or pale malt? Use domestic or imported malt? How much 6 row? Were all the specialty malts about the same amount? Mash temp?

 

[cactusgarrett]

Email sent into the void; hoping for a response. I'm questioning the need for 6-row, as it seems rather unnecessary due to the lack of adjuncts. I'm considering a swap out for 2-row or pils (to stay tight to the 'clone' concept) or even Vienna (for a maltier backbone).

 

[cactusgarrett]

Brewed this up on 07Oct, just thought I'd drop an update if anyone was interested. With this being the first iteration, here's what I settled on:

59% Pale 2-Row (Brewer's Malt)
22% Vienna
7% Crystal 60
7% Honey Malt
4% Dark Munich (20L)
1% Blackprinz

1.6oz Liberty (60min, 22 IBU)
1.0oz Liberty (5min, 2.7IBU)

Sacc rest at 154F for 60min
WLP830 German Lager
Primary at 50-52F, then di rest, the lager as typical.

As of a couple days ago it was at 1.023, so at 11 days in there's a bit to go, still. I'm not tooconcerned yet, as despite not having a stir plate, I stepped the starter up a couple times. I plan to do a side-by-side once Capital actually does release this year's crop.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Finally got a chance to compare mine to the actual one. Mine is on the left. The actual Winter Skal is no more than 3 SRM lighter, and has a more pronounced malt backbone. Mine's got a bit of a "german lager twang" that could probably diminish with some time. Overall, this is definitely a keeper and could probably pass for the original with anther attempt or two.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Planning on firing this one up again soon. Any recommendations on how to make the malt backbone more pronounced? Seems like the options are:

1. Reduce hopping (bittering, flavor, both?)
2. Increase Vienna/Crystal/Honey/Munich malt percentages, decreasing 2-row base
3. Combination of #1 and #2

 

[bkboiler]

Could try raising your mash temp or else possibly doing a step mash or decoction mash

 

[cactusgarrett]

Could try raising your mash temp or else possibly doing a step mash or decoction mash

Thanks; these are great ideas! I'll probably shy away from:

• Raising mash temp - it was previously done at 154°F, so i would imagine even bumping up to 158°F would probably serve to provide a little more residual sweetness and not a stronger malt presence - if anything at all. I don't think I'd want to go much higher than that.
• Decoction - i'm on the fence on this one. It could give it more malt presence, but i'm also trying to decrease the color slightly, and i think decocting would increase it.

 

[bkboiler]

Could do slightly as for increasing the color, but as an example, some mighty fine and fairly light colored Munich helles beers are decocted.
Fair shout about the mash temp... I was initially thinking of like a Scottish beer as my malt forward example, but Munich helles is also malt forward and somewhat dry...
Only way to tell is to change one variable and brew again!

 

[bkboiler]

My thought is that 1.01 may be a bit dry, but I have not had this exact beer nor do I know much about the skal style. Sounds Swedish or Danish...
Would you say it's close to an Oktoberfest in style?
I would agree with the other poster that crystal is somewhat out of place in true German beer.
My opinion is that it could be there since that's an American brewery

 

[cactusgarrett]

I think it's a vienna lager, but more generally an amber lager. Matches up with the grainbill, though. I'm equating "caramel" with crystal.

https://www.capitalbrewery.com/beer-type/winter-skal/