Ethiopian Beer Recipe - Looking For Help!

[bigbrewhaha]

2 batches into partial-extract homebrewing and I find myself in Ethiopia for the year missing the taste of a nice homebrew. I'm looking to make a beer using Ethiopian ingredients and could use any advice on how to build a recipe -- I'm trying to make a pale ale or something similarly light to help bring out the woody flavors of the gesho, an ethiopian aroma "hop" and other Ethiopian grains

Here's what I can get from the US:
Base malts and potentially hops

Grains in Ethiopia:
Besso - Ethiopian Roasted Barley Flour
Ajja - Ethiopian Oats
Tef - Ethiopian Whole Grains (high in carbohydrates)
Quaker Oats - Just happen to sell em here

Aroma Hops:
Gesho Kitel - Ethiopian Aroma Hop Leaves
Gesho Entchet - Ethiopian Aroma Hops Stems
(These are not technically hops, but are looked at similarly and are used to bitter t'ej, Ethiopian honey wine)

Thanks for the help!

DL

 

[The_Professor]

Do they have red finger millet available?

 

[nicklepickles]

Look for recipes for Tala (ethiopian honey beer) or even Tej (ethiopian mead with gesho) if your feeling awesome. I tried a tej a few months back, so tasty!

 

[HerbieHowells]

In Extreme Brewing, Sam Calagione gives a recipe for a malt-hybrid tej, which might get you pointed in the right direction, especially in his use of gesho. He uses 3.3 lbs LME in 6 gallons of water, but you could mash 4.4 lbs of base malt, collect 6 gallons of runnings, then add 8 lbs of honey, boil to 5.5 gallons, cool, and pitch yeast. After fermenting for 3 days, pull off 2.4 gallons, add 9.6 oz of gesho stem in a hop bag, and boil for 15 minutes. Cool, return to the fermentation vessel, and let it ferment to final gravity.

I have always been interested in tef as a brewing grain- I bought some for a gluten free pie crust, and discovered that it makes wonderful cereal. I believe the gluten free ingredient list over in the gluten free section lists it as a good substitute for wheat. It's such a small grain that it would be difficult to malt without a microscope, so I might do a cereal mash (although there is a good informational section on malting gluten free grain, if you are interested).

In fact, thinking out loud here, it might be interesting to take inspiration from wit and attempt an Ethiopian wit, substituting tef for raw wheat. You already have oats, and get your hands on some base malt. Hop, and use the gesho or other local spices and fruits as the Belgians would use coriander, orange zest, and chamomile. You pull that off, and you would be my hero.

 

[BigBangBrewing]

did you ever get any further? i'm looking for a way to fuse my love for ethopia and my love for beer in a unique way

 

[sassefa]

I was wondering if you have progressed any further? I am returning to Ethiopia in the near future and want to take my newly discovered love for homebrewing back home. I am Ethiopian trained as a Chemical Engineer in the US. Please let me know how you fared with malting gluten free seeds such as teff? I am also wondering if "Gesho" the traditional bittering agent in Ethiopian brewing is any good. A couple of websites have it for sale here in the US for upto $20/lb. From my childhood memory I know there are two parts to that plant. The leaves which are more aromatic and the stems which are on the bitter side. Please update us on your progress. I will on the other hand start experimenting and once I get home and update this blog with my experiences.

My ultimate plan is to commercialize the process and start a micro-brewery back home with local ingredients and western processing techniques.

 

[bigbrewhaha]

did you ever get any further? i'm looking for a way to fuse my love for ethopia and my love for beer in a unique way

Sorry for the late reply -- I don't go on here much. But yeah -- in the end I decided to shy away from making beer mostly cause I didn't have the right equipment with me and it was really hard for me to find the proper ingredients. I could go out to the large market but none of my Ethiopian friends could properly translate or describe the ingredients I was seeing being sold loosely on the streets and I had no idea what they were.

So I ended up settling for T'ej. I did a bit of a westernized version -- Ethiopian T'ej that is bought in a "T'ej Bet" or "T'ej House" is usually very oversweetened. There isn't much control on the brewing process so I'm not sure if the yeast simply don't fully attenuate or the T'ej is backsweetened after. Either way, Ethiopians love sweet T'ej and sweet coffee and sweet sweet but I'm not a huge fan.

I decided instead to make a dry Mango T'ej since mangos were both abundant, delicious and cheap and it came out pretty well in the end. I had to take a big 2 gallon water container and perfectly cut a circle in the top as well as burn the plastic with a lighter to make it smooth enough that there would be no air gaps with the stopper. It took a couple tries but eventually became airtight.

 

[bigbrewhaha]

In fact, thinking out loud here, it might be interesting to take inspiration from wit and attempt an Ethiopian wit, substituting tef for raw wheat. You already have oats, and get your hands on some base malt. Hop, and use the gesho or other local spices and fruits as the Belgians would use coriander, orange zest, and chamomile. You pull that off, and you would be my hero.

Ha! I'm really bummed I missed out on my chance to be your hero -- see my later post to why I didn't end up brewing beer. Largest challenge was really having the right equipment. BUT! High chances I'll be heading back to visit and if so I'm going to pick up a ton of ingredients while I'm there. May still have a chance.

As a side note -- I think your idea is a great one. There is a German beer garden in Ethiopia and they do really well. I asked the brewer there once why they don't make more interesting beers (they limit themselves to a blonde and a brune and tbh they don't have much going for them). Apparently at a time they did have a wider variety but the visitors simply weren't so interested in the other variety. A wheat beer is a pretty acceptable beer on all palates. No leaps of faith in enjoying one for a newbie.

 

[bigbrewhaha]

My ultimate plan is to commercialize the process and start a micro-brewery back home with local ingredients and western processing techniques.

Salam new wendemey? Indeyt neh?

Send me a PM and I'll be happy to chat. While I was there I spent a lot of time looking at the beer scene/industry. Would be interested in hearing more about your background/goals/thoughts.

 

[BigBangBrewing]

Found this -> renegadebrewing.com/berbere-stout/