Great Plains Common

[Jonkl]

After being inspired by Revvy's Kentucky Common, I decided to try my hand at creating a beer for the Land of My People, on the Great Plains.

The idea is to create a beer that a farmer could make with a bag of barley from the maltster and some adjuncts from local harvested ingredients. My family has had decent luck growing a small amount of hops in the garden, too, so I made this a little more hop-forward than the Kentucky Common recipe, though it should still be quite sessionable.

This first batch will be 2 gallons, which I'll split into one gallon batches. In one, I'll pitch my house WLP029 Kolsch yeast, and in the other, I'll pitch SafLager S-23, and try it steam beer style. Both will ferment a little cooler in the garage, around 60-65 or so.

Amount - 2.0 gallons
Efficiency - 57%
Est Original Gravity: 1.035 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.006 SG (Kolsch) and 1.007 SG (S-23)
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.7 % (Both)
Bitterness: 29.2 IBUs
Est Color: 11.5 SRM

2.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 3.4 %
2 lbs Pale Malt (6 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 55.1 %
12.0 oz Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 3 20.7 %
8.0 oz Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 4 13.8 %
3.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5 5.2 %
1.0 oz Roasted Barley (700.0 SRM) Grain 6 1.7 %
0.20 oz Centennial [9.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 15.0 IBUs
0.10 oz Cascade [6.90 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 2.9 IBUs
0.10 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 9 -
0.40 oz Cascade [6.90 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 15.0 min Hop 10 5.7 IBUs
0.30 oz Centennial [9.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 15.0 min Hop 11 5.6 IBUs
1.0 pkg German Ale/Kolsch (White Labs #WLP029) [35.49 ml] Yeast 12 -
1.0 pkg SafLager West European Lager (DCL/Fermentis #S-23) [23.66 ml] Yeast 12 -

 

[SnakeRidge]

Looks good. I assume the roast is for color? Should give it a beautiful red hue

 

[Jonkl]

Yep. I wanted to darken it up a bit. If/when I make it out of actual raw ingredients, I may leave it out.

 

[Jonkl]

Well, I brewed tonight, and hit my numbers. (Well, mostly. It's actually a point or two higher, depending on how you squint at the gauge. I boiled off a little more than planned, and ended up just shy of 2 gallons. It wasn't far enough off to top off and tweak it, though.)

It actually looks darker than I expected. Maybe it'll lighten up as it settles and cools. Or, maybe this particular batch of Victory was darker than planned.

I'm looking forward to beginning the experimentation with the yeast.

 

[Jonkl]

Just moved these to secondary. Both were about 1.007. The sample of the one fermented with Kolsch yeast gave more hop aroma, while the aroma of the steam was dominated more by fruity esters.

The hop bitterness came through in the taste more than I had expected. That will probably fade with longer cool storage in secondary.

It seems like it's missing something to round out the flavor. Maybe some caramelization from a longer boil next time. Also, I'm not sure if the nuttiness of the Victory really does much.

 

[edroberts]

Love the name. Would you carbonate it or leave it "flat" (There are few places flatter than eastern New Mexico around Clovis.)

 

[Jonkl]

Ha! That would be a good gimmick. Flat beer for flatlanders. It's definitely flat out there. Then you get to the caprock and the world falls away.

I think I'll probably go a little more conventional with this. The sample wasn't bad warmish and flat, though.

I can't believe I didn't think about a longer boil before. I remember reading in Farmhouse Ales about how they get incredibly complex and colorful beers from 100% Pilsner malt and a really long boil. That would be perfect for this.

 

[Jonkl]

Whelp, just had my first bottle. It ended up almost a dark amber color, which was unexpected. It's really easy-drinking, and quite flavorful for a 4% session. The flaked wheat and corn definitely showed up. I think I'll back off on the roasted additions next time, and I may bump up the bittering hops to see what it's like as more of an English bitter. I'm tempted to do a really long boil (3 hours) to try to get some caramelization, a la a traditional Biere de Garde. (See what I did there?)

The yeasts didn't really make much of a difference in the flavor, at least from what I could tell, just the aroma (steam-fermented lager was more estery than the Kolsch, obviously), but neither really jumps out as better. I ended up combining the slurries to make a cream ale - I may have a new house yeast for this sort of thing, depending on how it gets along when it warms up.

This will be fun to play with. I may be on to something here.

 

[Jonkl]

I'm about to empty one of my 2.5 gallon beer box casks, and I decided re-making this recipe would be a good house beer for late spring/early summer.

Changes:
Cutting the hops back a bit to get it down to 25 IBUs, in the range for a Kentucky Common. We have a local homebrew comp, and I may submit it, and wanted it within range if I did.

Dropping both the Victory and roasted barley for home-toasted:
I toasted 4oz (~5%) wheat malt on a popcorn popper/nut roaster for 13.5 minutes, until about 20-30% of the kernels were about the color of light roast coffee beans.
Soaked 8oz (~9%) of 6-row in water for an hour, then roasted it on my Traeger pellet smoker at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. (30 minutes was probably a touch too long. I may try 20 next time.)

I'm planning for a 3-hour boil, to try to get some caramelization going on to add to the flavor.

 

[Jonkl]

Well, it's brew day, and I made a few changes:
First, I wanted to get a feel for what the home toasting of the barley and wheat added, apart from any extra kettle caramelization, so I did a regular-length boil.

Second, I bumped the hops back up to about 35 IBU, because I felt like it. Same 15 from the Centennial at 60 min, then a combined 8 and 12 IBU from Centennial and Cascade, calculated at 15 min and in the 15 min hop stand, respectively.

Hit the 1.041 OG I was planning for.

 

[Jonkl]

Wow. The home-toasting of some of the grist really rounded this beer out. It's a solid session beer, and it's not as nearly as thin or one-note as the first attempt. I may try a dry-hop next time to really bump things up. Definitely a keeper.