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Viking beer? Reckon it'd be any good?


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  • 4 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Well, I just shared the last of the second batch with a fellow brewer so it's time to put my viking beer thinking hat (which I actually have now) on again. Let's see ... what do I want to change?

 

1 - Ditch the wheat malt

2 - More rye

3 - More smoked malt

4 - More bitter...er

5 - More colour - I'm going to add some roast barley

 

Righto, what have we got then? Well, number one is easy - I'll just replace the 1.5kg wheat LME with light LME instead. I'm also going to be using a lot more grains so I can ditch the 100g of light DME that I had in the last one. Add 150g more smoked malt (200g total) and 200g more rye (600g total) a that takes care of the first three. Easy!

 

Ok, more bitter...er. I think I said this last time too but looking back over the hop schedules I actually seem to have gone the other way by mistake!! From 28 down to 24 IBUs. How did I manage that? Anyway, going to add a touch of magnum early to help it out (and so that I don't have to use ridiculous amounts of hallertauer).

 

More colour? I'm going to throw some roast barley in this time. 100g I reckon to try and get a bit of a reddish tint. I'm going to get rid of the dark crystal as well because it won't be doing anything any more. Oh, and I might put in a little more brown sugar.

 

What've we got?

 

3kg light LME

250g brown sugar

 

600g rye

250g smoked malt

100g roast barley

 

5g magnum @60

40g hallertauer @60

10g hallertauer @20

28g juniper berries @20

10g hallertauer @10

10g hallertauer dry

 

Nottingham yeast

 

OG: 1.051

FG: 1.012

IBU: 30.8

EBC: 29.1

ABV: 5.5%

 

The IBU is back where I wanted it to be, so that's a good start. Not much change in gravity or ABV so that's all good too. The EBC, of course, has gone from 20.2 to 32.4 - a significant change which means it's now a much darker beer than you see in the picture above.

 

So, any concerns about what the roast barley might do to it? Could I use carafa instead, or is there no red in that? Also, what is it with me trying to brew something red lately?

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In an attempt to smooth out the bumps...lol

 

100g of Roasted Barley should yield some redness and is a moderate addition to flavour, considering the amount of rye and smoked .

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G'day Your Kingship, I was doing some research about something totally different and ran across this by accident and thought of your red beer and thought it may need some more research by you, maybe? Melanodin....

I just looked it up because I ran across it and had no idea what it was. wink

 

Cheers.

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Hmmm, interesting, might have to check that out.

 

In the meantime though I've already been to Beerbelly and got everything I need for the next one. Grain bill is:

 

600g rye

250g smoked

75g roased barley + another 25g in a separate bag for luck

 

They were out of hallertau too so I've got Czech saaz instead. More gypsy-y than viking-y but the closest thing I could get.

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Where the Pilsner or Pale malt?unsure. How much grain/volume can you comfortably mash. If one is going to the trouble of doing a mini-mash they should make sure a little base malt get into the grist. It's for the freshness!rightful Try to get at least 500g into you recipe.smile

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Where's the Pilsner or Pale malt?unsure. How much grain/volume can you comfortably mash. If one is going to the trouble of doing a mini-mash they should make sure a little base malt get into the grist. It's for the freshness!rightful Try to get at least 500g into you recipe and back the extract a little more.smile

 

I know you've already gone shopping for this one but keep it in mind for the next Viking brew.

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I need a base malt now too? Aaargh! I should just bite the bullet' date=' get and urn and start BIAB-ing[/quote']

Nah, get one of these:

 

Brew Easy

 

Edit: I can't get the link to work. Look up Blichmann Engineering and the BrewEasy system.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, it finally time for another Viking beer for me. It's been along time since my last one I've make a couple chance on my first one. I've got some Munich , Wheat and black patent in this one and no victory malt.

 

I'm smoking the rye over juniper and cherry wood as I speak(type) with the brew to go down tomorrow.

 

My three boys, my mother and I went out for a hike today to collect Juniper berries and wood for this brew. It really feel good to be able to go out and collect ingredients off the land for a brew.

 

This is tomorrow's brew:

 

Viking II

3.4Kg Pilsner

1.2Kg Rye malt (400g smoked over Juniper wood)

.4Kg Wheat malt

.2 Kg Crystal 60L

.2 Kg Brown Sugar

.05Kg Black Patent

10g Hallertau 6.7% FWH (75mins)

15g Hallertau (0mins)

10g Perle (0mins)

2- 15cm branches of Juniper wood (in the mash)

15g Juniper berried (crushed) [25mins]

5g juniper berries [0mins]

21L

WLP002 (fresh cake)

 

mashed @ 68C

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm drinking my latest Viking beer. Man, it turned out great! It's very woodsy, junipery, but very drinkable. It's quite a bit different that my last VB. not nearly as rich and sweet. this is probably due the yeast choice this time (notto in stead of S-04).

 

I'm very impressed with this beer. For those that like a specialty beer this one is a winner!wink

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  • 3 weeks later...

My latest one (version III) is ok, but not really an improvement over v.II. It's got too much of everything! Too much rye, too much smoked malt, a little bit too much roast barley and perhaps even too much juniper! It's only just over a month old though and this is when I'm usually at my most pessimistic about all my beers, so watch this space.

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