Here are the recipes for the three beers that Chip and Don Osborn were lucky enough to drink in Chop & Brew – Episode 40: Gold Medal Basement Flight Throwdown. We’d like to thank Keith, Nigel and Richard for being so kind as to share them with us (and you!). Props to Brian Condron of the Irish Craft Beer Show for coordinating the shipping and delivery of Nigel and Richard’s beers safely to Minnesota.
GOLD
This is the recipe for Keith Ciani’s Gold, a German Pilsner that won a gold medal for the category at the American Homebrewers Association’s 2015 National Homebrew Competition. If you have any questions, feel free to Tweet Keith @HeadlessBrewing
Batch Size: 10 gallons
OG: 1.054 / FG: 1.010
Boil Time: 90 minutes
Malt
20.0 lbs Pilsner malt
Hops (Whole Leaf)
6.0 oz Hallertau (3.4%AA) @ 90 min
1.5 oz Hallertau @ 15 min
1.5 oz Hallertau @ 1 min
Yeast
White Labs SLP830 German Lager (with starter)
Process
Use decoction mash schedule with an initial rest at 147F for 90 minutes.
Pull 15 quarts thick mash, with 5 minute rests at 148F and 158F.
Boil thick mash for 10 minutes and remix to achieve mashout at 170F.
Ferment 27 days at 52F
STUPID SEXY FRAMBOISE
Here is the recipe for Nigel Comerford’s Stupid Sexy Framboise, a fruit lambic that won a gold medal for Category 17 (Sour Ales) in the 2015 Irish National Homebrew Championships. Nigel is a member of the North County Brewers, based in Dublin, Ireland. If you have any questions, feel free to Tweet to him at @NigelComerford
Batch Size: 21 L
OG: 1.060 / FG: see process notes below
IBU: 14
ABV: 7.2%
Malt
4.0 kg Pale Ale Malt
1.0 kg Vienna Malt
1.0 kg Corn (Whole Kernel, milled separately for cereal mash – see below)
0.5 kg CaraMunich
0.3 kg Special B
Hops
8 g Magnum @ 60 min
Yeast
White Labs WLP 500 Monastery Ale, WLP 650 Brett, and WLP 655 Belgian Sour
Below are Nigel’s notes on his process (posted original 9/19/15).
I ground the corn and did a cereal mash with some Vienna before adding it back to the full mash. Mashed at 70C to allow plenty of unfermentables for the bugs.
I did primary fermentation with WLP500 till gravity had dropped to 1.020 them racked to carboy and pitched the WLP650 Brett B. This was given 5 weeks to do its thing before the sour mix was pitched.
Thinking was to allow the Brett to do its thing before the lacto dropped the pH too much.
A few months later I boiled up about 2L water with about 100g of sugar, cooled and threw in about 250g of malt. I did this to get some extra Lactobacillus which I added to the carboy.
It was aged for approximately 10 months before it was racked again. I split it and aged half on sour cherries for a Kriek and half on raspberries for the Framboise.
Bottles are about 9 months old now and are still developing.
I pitched another batch onto the yeast/bug cake and that beer has just been racked onto split batches of rhubarb and raspberries.
The yeast and bugs from that batch was used by our local homebrew club, the North County Brewers to inoculate a two 200L whiskey barrel project. 10 members filled Bushmills whiskey barrel with sour beer.
WEIZ OLD OWL
This is the recipe for Weiz Old Owl by Richard Lubell from the Capital Brewers in Dublin, Ireland. This Weizenbock, brewed with mainly dry malt extract, was the Overall Winner at the 2015 Irish National Homebrew Championships.
The recipe is below. Here are some other notes from Richard. If you have any other questions, feel free to Tweet Richard @SlugTrap.
Not only was it extract, but it was a half batch partial boil, too. No immersion chiller, either; submerging a 6L stock pot in an ice bath in the kitchen sink, I can get from 100C to 25C in 40 minutes. Stir regularly so it doesn’t stay hot in the middle! Goes to show, I hope, that living in a 1-bed apartment shouldn’t stop you from making good beer.
OG: 1.075 / FG: 1.024 / ABV: 7.4%
Batch Size: 8L / Volume Boiled: 5L
Malts/Fermentables
1.5 kg Muntons Wheat Dry Malt Extract (which is itself a blend of wheat and pale malt)
0.08 kg German Light Munich
0.02 kg English 2-Row Vienna
0.02 kg Briess Dark Chocolate Malt
0.05 kg Weyermann CaraMunich I
Hops
8 g Perle pellets (8.5%AA) @ 60 min
5 g Sonnet whole leaf (5.0%AA) @ 1 min
Yeast
White Labs WLP380 Hefeweizen IV Ale
Steep grains in 65C water for 45 minutes. Strain/remove grains, bring to a boil. Add hops as stated above. Kill flame.
Top up a 6L wort chilled to 25C with a refrigerated 5L jug of bottled water (for sterility and water chemistry, both).
This should bring you down to pitching temperature right away.