Homebrew Club Recipes - September 2022

An important part of WIB since its inception has been our homebrewing community. We never cease to be amazed by the creativity, talent and sometimes utterly bizarre creations they come up with, using the ingredients from our shelves. We've often said we wish we could share the brews that make it to our monthly homebrew club with the rest of the world, so now we are!
The challenge for our homebrew club in September was black. As always, we had some really great beers on the day, both as part of the challenge and others. The favourites, as voted for by the homebrew club are below.
 
The best non challenge beer was Yann's incredible golden ale For Finland - you're in for a treat with Yann's submission, so I'll let him take it away...
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For Finland Golden Ale

For Finland has gone through many iterations over the last two years. Originally brewed with birch water, it was to be the ultimate sauna beverage. Not only would it be just the refreshment you craved after sweating in an 80°C+ box, it would also be truly reflective of the environment you’re taking in while sipping it, featuring Finnish birch, pine, blueberries and juniper. 
But you can only get so close to that ideal when brewing in London, so this year on our Finland holiday we set out to make the most authentic batch to date (Shameless excuse to post some holiday snaps). Using kveik yeast, we went from grain to glass in just three days.
The kit we brought was barebones compared to what we’d usually use. This was back to basics with brew in a bag in a big 15L pot, out in nature, over a campfire, with some casual fishing on the side. It doesn’t get more Finnish than that.

 

ABV: 5.4%

Batch Size : 11L

IBU : 18

BU/GU : 0.37

Colour : 10 EBC

Original Gravity : 1.047

Final Gravity : 1.006


Boil Time : 30 min


Using the lake water of Längelmävesi, one of Finland’s cleanest lakes (water chemistry unknown).



Fermentables 

1.5 kg  - Extra Pale Maris Otter 3.5 EBC (66.5%)

0.5 kg - Munich Malt 20 EBC (21.4%)

160 g - Pale Wheat 4 EBC (7%)

120 g - Caramalt 30 EBC (5%)


Hops

30 min - 4g Mosaic (7.2 IBU)

15 min - 8g Citra (11 IBU)

0 min - 7g Citra (13% AA)

0 min - 7g Mosaic (10.8% AA)


Yeast

Voss Kveik Lallemand


We started by infusing the mash water with some birch and juniper branches before adding the grain. Can you taste it in the end product? Hard to say, but the look and smell of it takes you right into a real Finnish sauna, where you whack yourself with a bundle of birch leaves called a “vihta.

Here are some photos and clips of the brewing process, including my friend standing ankle-deep in the lake watching over our chilling pot.

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Day turned to night as we brewed. Can you taste a sunset in a beer? Who knows, but certainly something to ponder in between sips…

The beer was then fermented for 2 days in our sauna, nice and toasty for kveik yeast. We lit a small fire in the stove whenever necessary to keep the sauna around 40°C.

 

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The “Finnish”ed product

 

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And now for something a bit more our usual speed... Dale created a brilliant black IPA for the challenge - check the recipe out here! 

English Tropics BIPA (5.5%)

 

Type: All Grain

IBU : 59 (Tinseth)

BU/GU : 1.12

Colour : 68 EBC

Carbonation : 2.4 CO2-vol

Pre-Boil Gravity : 1.046

Original Gravity : 1.052

Final Gravity : 1.010

Grainfather G30

Batch Size : 20 L

Boil Size : 24.88 L

Post-Boil Vol : 21.88 L

Mash Water : 16.22 L

Sparge Water : 12.43 L

Boil Time : 60 min

Total Water : 28.65 L

Brewhouse Efficiency: 72%

Mash Efficiency: 75.6%

 

Fermentables (4.71 kg)

4.15 kg - Pale Ale Malt 4.9 EBC (88.1%)

280 g - Wheat Roasted 1000 EBC (5.9%)

140 g - Chocolate Malt 1050 EBC (3%)

140 g - Crystal Dark 240 EBC (3%)

 

Hops (270 g)

60 min - 20 g - Magnum - 12% (30 IBU)

5 min - 25 g - Harlequin - 10.4% (11 IBU)

Hop Stand

30 min hopstand @ 80 °C

30 min 80 °C - 75 g - Harlequin - 10.4% (17 IBU)

Dry Hops

Day 7 - 100 g - Harlequin - 10.4%

Day 7 - 50 g - Sabro - 14%

 

Miscellaneous

15 min - Boil - 1 items - Whirlfloc

Yeast

1 pkg - Fermentis Safale American US-05

 

Cells

7 million cells / ml

Mash Profile

High fermentability

67 °C - 60 min - Temperature

19 °C - 7 days - Primary

 

Notes

Do not mash the chocolate malt. Spread on top of the mash bed before sparge, sparging in this way will draw colour and flavour without the astringency (malt bill courtesy of Andy @Elusive Brewing).

Water wise - I adjusted to a Hoppy IPA profile with the addition of a little table salt.

Undershot the OG (1.048) - FG (1.008) = 5.25% ABV

Sabro - on nose but not pallete, so bump it up if you want more coconut flavours... I added it as I'd received some freebies from Yakima Chief (available at wib)...

Nonetheless, a really lovely number!

waterintobeer homebrew club takes place on the first Sunday of every month, from 2pm.


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