What Ingredients Would YOU Use?

[Obese Chess]

Hello!

So here's my current gimmick. My band is about to release our second album, "Primordial." I'd like to brew a batch of beer for us to celebrate, which I have decided I will call "Primordiale."

"Primordial" means "existing at the beginning of time." The gimmick I'd like to use in Primordiale is only using older ingredients - not as in "not fresh," but as in, "stuff people have been using forever."

My cursory research suggests that Cluster hops are the oldest US hop, these are also easily but if we wanted to get really zesty I could use some old european varieties. I'd like to use a Kviek yeast but I can be talked out of that. So maybe a SMaSH with cluster hops and some sort of Kviek? I don't know. I've only put two recipes together - one was a modification of someone else's recipe, the other was well-received here before I got the news that it wouldn't bottle condition because it was a hazy.

Here are my other guidelines:

Has to be an ale as I do not have a way to lager, also it's called PrimordiALE not PrimordiaLager.

No hazies, has to be able to bottle conditioned as I do not have a kegger or canner.

American Pale Ale or similar is preferable as not all of us in the band are Hop Heads. No IIIPAs.

Has to have a fairly low conditioning time - I want to be able to brew it in the next few weeks and have it ready to drink by 4/17, when the album comes out.

This would be an all-grain, 5-gal batch.

So... what would you do?

 

[Wayne1]

Consider
Crisp Chevallier Heritage Malt
A heritage barley variety combined with a traditional malting method and modern quality control.

A mainstay of English barley production in the 19th century and an ancestor of many modern varieties, Chevallier has made a comeback thanks to increased interest in heritage malts.

Crisp Chevallier is characterized by warm, cracker and biscuit aroma with a full flavor. Compared to many other modern barleys its aroma and flavor are quite pronounced. Suitable for any malt-forward ale, or where increased malt character is needed to balance a high hop load.

 

[Obese Chess]

Oh, I like that! Chevalier seems to be compared to Maris Otter in a number of posts (based on 15-ish min of research) but a bit... warmer and more complex, perhaps? And I love Maris Otter.

So like, an English Pale Ale with Chevalier Malt and Cluster Hops. Maybe not Kviek since that might get a little too weird, but also I'm not sure I or any other homebrewer understands "too weird" as a concept.

 

[Wayne1]

Maybe something like this:

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2019/05/lets-brew-wednesday-1864-lovibond-xx.html

using Chevalier in place of the Mild Malt.

 

[Obese Chess]

That's PERFECT. I'll probably use a different yeast, too, but that's damn close to what I was thinking anyway. Thank you!

 

[jimmyjusa]

If you wanted to use kveik, I found midtbust to be fairly restrained, oslo is touted as being super clean, I think hothead would be interesting(I have some on the way to try for the first time) and fairly restrained overall. Another older style you could look at would be the Kentucky common, which uses cluster and is basically a darker cream ale as far as the malts go. I've made it a few times using legacy hops and it's pretty nice.

 

[Obese Chess]

If you wanted to use kveik, I found midtbust to be fairly restrained, oslo is touted as being super clean, I think hothead would be interesting(I have some on the way to try for the first time) and fairly restrained overall. Another older style you could look at would be the Kentucky common, which uses cluster and is basically a darker cream ale as far as the malts go. I've made it a few times using legacy hops and it's pretty nice.

I've been thinking about going with Imperial A43 Loki as I really like their yeasts. Kentucky common sounds interesting, too!

 

[jimmyjusa]

I've been thinking about going with Imperial A43 Loki as I really like their yeasts. Kentucky common sounds interesting, too!

Loki is a voss isolate, one of the three strains from the original culture. One local brewer said he only gets about 50 points out of it no matter what the starting gravity is. I haven't used that one but had good success with their kveiking seasonal blend.

 

[Obese Chess]

Cool - I ferment in my garage, which has been holding steady between 50-60 this winter, so hothead may not be a good choice since it seems to like 72-98 according to Omega's site. Imperial is just up the road, I'll ask them what they recommend.

Thanks for the info on the different kveik strains, too - fascinating stuff.

 

[jimmyjusa]

My ferment room is 68 or so, for kveik I've had success pitching at 95 and wrapping it up in a comforter. I'm pretty sure the fermentation sits in the mid 80s without adding extra heat. It has worked out so far, let us know what imperial says.

 

[Obese Chess]

Imperial says to try A43 Loki at lower temperatures for a maltier pale ale, so that's what I'll be doing! Probably going to try this not this coming weekend but the one after. Cheers!

 

[jimmyjusa]

Imperial says to try A43 Loki at lower temperatures for a maltier pale ale, so that's what I'll be doing! Probably going to try this not this coming weekend but the one after. Cheers!

Sounds good, just pitched omega hothead Saturday.