Vintage Danish Beers Brewed With Fermentis Safbrew LA-01

[Protos]

In a certain thread (I think it was called Danish Farmhouse Ale) we've had a detailed discussion on the vintage recipes of Danish indigenous beers like Skibsøl, Hvidtøl, Gammeltøl, Dobbeltøl and old-fashoned Lagers and Ales published in the book Dansk Øl 1850-1950 by S. Wrisberg. @Knox, a fellow forum user, adapted and published some of the recipes in the thread, and some of us (me too) brewed several beers from the book with great results. The subject interested me so much that I purchased the book, translated it from Danish and tried to make the beers uncovered by Knox's adaptations.

The main problem to recreate the recipes turned out to be the extremely low attenuation of the Danish yeasts of the time, just between 20% and 40% apparent attenuation. Without that, it's impossible to recreate the unique profile of those low-alcoholic sweet and chewy beers. None of the modern yeasts are capable of fermenting this low. To reach such a low attenuation I tried several methods, including mashing at 84C (183F), and still wasn't able to ferment lower than 55%.

So I decided to try Fermentis LA-01 in brewing these beers. Since LA-01 ferments out only the simple sugars present in the wort and not maltose and maltotriose, its apparent attenuation is not higher than 15%. Here, I don't need such a low attenuation so I calculated I need to add some 7% to 8% of simple sugar (dextrose or sucrose) to the grist to reach about 30% AA, which I did. The experiment came out very successful.

Now I'm enjoying two very unusual and very tasty superlight beers: a Tvedes Prima Hvidtol of 1894 and a Kongens Bryghus Vestindisk Skibsøl of 1899. At such a low attenuation they need pasteurisation (which Fermentis warns about in LA-01 product sheet), which I did too. I bottle-primed the batch, waited for a week, then stovetop-pasteurised it (the authentic level of carbonation must be low anyway). No bottles popped.

Here's my two recipes, which differ from the original only by the addition of the simple sugars (and also a tiny bit of Melanoidin malt in Skibsøl).
I'd say, without the thinning addition the beers would have come out a bit too chewy for the modern taste, so I think adding some sugar was a wise idea.

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TVEDES PRIMA HVIDTØL 1894
OG 1.050
FG 1.036
ABV 1.8%
IBU 15
App. Attenuation 28%

Fuglsang Danish Pilsner - 92%
Dextrose - 8%

Mash 90' @62C / 144F
Boil 60'

Hallertauer Mittelfrüh α4.3 - 15 IBU @60'

Safbrew LA-01 - 1g / 0.5L - sprinkled dry

Primary @17С / 63F - 3 Days
Carbonated to 1.5v with Dextrose
Pasteurised for 15' @65C / 150F (measured inside the open control bottle put into the pasteurisation kettle along with the sealed bottles)


====================================
KONGENS BRYGHUS VESTINDISK SKIBSØL 1899
OG 1.060
FG 1.042
ABV 2.4%
IBU 40
App. Attenuation 30%

Weyermann Rauchmalz - 90%
Weyermann Melanoidin - 2%
Weyermann Carafa Spezial III - 1%
Demerara Sugar Inverted 8%

Mash 120' @62C / 144F
Boil 60'

Hallertauer Mittelfrüh α4.3 - 40 IBU @60'

Safbrew LA-01 - 1g / 0.5L - sprinkled dry

Primary @18С / 64F - 6 Days
Carbonated to 2v with Dextrose
No pasteurisation (hopefully, the abundant hop would protect the beer from spoilage)

 

[Protos]

Well, taste notes.
LA-01 brings in very little of its own flavour if at all. I read it might impart some Weizen-like phenols and esters but I didn't notice any at this fermentation temp. Both beers, despite being almost non-alcoholic, have mighty body and are pronoucedly sweet. I like sweet beers and I evaluate their sweetness as pleasant, just a step before a borderline cloying. Skibsøl is the trickier of the two to brew it right: here you need to balance smokiness, sweetness and quite a high hoppiness. I tried to reach that balance in my previous versions with Kölsch yeasts and failed sorely because ot the higher attenuation of no less than 55%. Now I have a concoction like I've never had before and I love it, the balance is perfect.
Pasteurisation did really have an impact on the flavour. I tried to make it as short as possible to reach the required 80PU and still it dulled the already faint hop flavour of the Hvidtøl. And it's that's why I didn't pasteurise the Skibsøl: to retain its faint smokiness.
Very nice and unusual beers. Not what I'd call my deset island brews (it's an acquired taste after all) but a great choise for a change of pace or when I'm feeling weird and want to drink a lot without getting drunk.

 

[bellhp]

I like this . Have been researching a low alcohol beer recipe but the pasteurization thing was a bit of a buzzkill for me ... this thread has renewed my interest . Keep going

 

[Protos]

No pasteurisation (hopefully, the abundant hop would protect the beer from spoilage)

It didn't. At least, in some bottles, which got overcarbonated (some are still OK though).

 

[Knox]

Hey @Protos,
Long time no see. I have been looking into the low attenuation both experimentally and asking around older Danish brewmasters, primarily from Carlsberg. Here is what I have found regarding the low attenuation.
From my talks with two Carlsberg brewmasters, one who worked in Carlsberg back in 1940-60 and another from 1970-90, they talked about how they would backsweeten the beer with either Saccharin or 'caramelized' wort, before pasteurizing it. When I asked if they knew a manner to do it without artificial sweeteners, they both shrugged. Not understanding why I would want to do it in that manner. Industrial minds, I guess

From experiments with open fire and copper vessels:
I have had the great opportunity to make a few more brews on my medieval set up. Out of 7 brews, 5 did not attenuate over 40% with Nottingham or Kveik strains. The two that did, were with a guest brewer who used a different technique then me. My hypothesis is that a mixture of process and raw ingredient quality is at play here. So my process of making medieval beer with low attenuation is as follows:

1. Heat my mashtun with boiling water, when the barrel rings are warm to the touch the mashtun is sufficiently heated.
2. Reheat my water to a soft boil, prepare the grains and pour them in.
3. Add the soft boiling water to the grains. Let them steep at a start temperature of 90C for 90 mins or till the mash temperature reaches 59C. While mashing, heat water to a soft vapor begins to form, around 50C.
4. Put mashtun over collection vessel and begin to lauter, sparge as soon as you have drawn off enough to expose the malt.
5. When you have collected the desired amount, bring it to a vigorous boil, it has to begin to foam.
6. Boil for 90 mins and follow your hop schedule.
7. Take it off your fire and leave it overnight or pitch ready.

So two things that happen here that is really out of ordinary modern brewing technique. We start with a boiling mash, something that is not recommended as we will be deactivating enzymes and going in reverse of of our traditional saccharification steps. Meaning most of our sugars will be complex and not easily digestible for the yeast to much at. Another point, which I think this process highlights is the high temperature of a direct fire boil, I measured my temperatures and depending on my preboil gravity, I reach boiling temperatures of 100-102C on the surface, but 115-122C in the bottom of my vessel. Often leaving malt caramel on the side of my copper vessel (tinned on the inside, don't worry).

So what about those raw ingredients? I was lucky that from work I could get some Biodynamic malt, which had a pretty poor possible extract amount. This type of malt is typically heavy in proteins and other lovely gunk that brewers typically aren't interested in from barley, therefore we skip this category heavily. Due to a number of factors this malt has to be worked harder to develop more fermentable sugar, such as having an acid, protein rest and etc..


I am currently in the stressful process of moving to Ireland to study Brewing and Distilling Science, so I might have the chance to investigate this more. In any case, I hope my medieval process helps you.