Spruce plans
A friend of mine has spruce tips, which I should be harvesting quite quite soon before they get too big. I should have a nice US-56 yeast cake that can handle a decent-sized beer in a couple of days. I looked into Alaskan's spruce beer, which is more or less an olde ale of 1066 with 27 IBU.
My impulse is to embiggen that slightly. I'd like this to be a big, deep amber ale with plenty of warming malt for winter. It should be a holiday beer basically. I'm thinking 1075, maybe 32 IBU, and plenty of spruce.
Here's a rough grain bill:
9 lbs Golden Promise Scottish Pale Malt
5 lbs German Munich
1.25 lbs Carastan (35L)
1.25 lbs Caramunich (60L)
1.25 lbs Wheat malt
Bitter with a single addition of Northern Brewer (1.5 oz for 60 minutes)
Consider a tiny flavor addition?
Boil with 12 oz spruce tips
Add 6 oz spruce tips with 10 minutes remaining in the boil. Steep while cooling the wort.
My impulse is to embiggen that slightly. I'd like this to be a big, deep amber ale with plenty of warming malt for winter. It should be a holiday beer basically. I'm thinking 1075, maybe 32 IBU, and plenty of spruce.
Here's a rough grain bill:
9 lbs Golden Promise Scottish Pale Malt
5 lbs German Munich
1.25 lbs Carastan (35L)
1.25 lbs Caramunich (60L)
1.25 lbs Wheat malt
Bitter with a single addition of Northern Brewer (1.5 oz for 60 minutes)
Consider a tiny flavor addition?
Boil with 12 oz spruce tips
Add 6 oz spruce tips with 10 minutes remaining in the boil. Steep while cooling the wort.
posted by Jason | 2:02 PM
5 Comments:
It should be interesting.
Hmm, Golden Promise as the primary malt, though?
Yeah, I figured, why not? I have a fair amount of the stuff to use up and I thought it'd make it a touch maltier than Maris Otter.
P.S. Your hops look awesome. I put some in for the first time a few weeks ago (Cascade).
Thanks. They get bigger and better, every year. I'd like to plant them on the sunny (south) side of the house, but I have to come up with a way to satisfy my spouse about the appearance of any trellis that I would come up with.
Regarding the Golden Promise:
When I've used it for other than Scottish-style ales, I've had some pretty strange results, taste-wise. I use it sparingly in the Non-Scotts, now.
Hmmm... We'll see what happens with the G.P. It's such a wildly experimental beer that I'm not too worried about it. Either it'll be good or it won't. I think I plan to let it really sit till December. A boiling kettle full of spruce smells pretty intense but it seemed not-too-obtrusive when I sipped the hydrometer sample.
Post a Comment
<< Home