This is the recipe for the beer that Bryon Adams and Benjamin Valentine tasted and discussed in Chop & Brew – Episode 48. Benjamin and his co-brewery Make Mirse took some inspiration for this split batch experiment from two articles and a recipe at Bear Flavored Ales Homebrew & Beer Blog (see article links at very bottom of recipe info). Benjamin originally brewed this beer under the name “Southern Winter,” but renamed it “Sit-On Beer” during the course of the episode with Bryon Adams. Because… well… it’s a beer for sitting on! Thanks to Benjamin for sharing his version of the recipe as listed below.
Benjamin Valentine’s Sit-On Beer
For 12 gallons all-grain, split into two five-gallon batches for different types of fermentations (see notes below)
OG: 1.063
FG: 1.014 (after primary) / 1.002 (after secondary) [see below]
ABV: 7.0% / 8.1%
IBU: 18.7
Grist
75% 2-Row Pale Malt
11.3% Rye Malt
1.9% CaraRye Crystal Rye Malt
60 oz Pumpkin (canned, in mash)
3.8% Rice Hulls
Mash in with 7.66 gal of 162.6F water for a 75 min mash at 150F
Fly sparge with 9.55 gal water at 168F
Hops & Other
1oz Citra @ flame-out for extended whirpool – 5.4 IBUs
1 oz Galaxy @ flame-out for extended whirpool – 6.5 IBUs
1 oz Summit @ flame-out for extended whirpool – 6.8 IBUs
7.5% Table Sugar / Sucrose @ 10 min
4.0 grams Seeds of Paradise @ 5 min
At flame-out, whirlpool hops for 15 min
Yeast
2 pkgs Lalvin RC 212 / Bourgovin (Primary)
1 pkg Brettanomyces Trois (added to secondary)
- Mashing with pumpkin was a pain. I would have left the pumpkin out of the mash in the future.
- Racked to secondary after one month in primary. It’s been in secondary for two years now.
- Gravity after primary was 1.014. The pellicle seen in episode was from wild yeast that was not pitched.
- 3 oz Hungarian oak Cubs medium toast in one 5 gal secondary. Final Gravity is 1.002, so 8.01% ABV. I’ll be dry hopping the Oaked Version with 1 oz Simcoe for 7 days before bottling.
- 30 oz can Libby’s easy pumpkin pie mix in the other 5 gal secondary. That batch ended at 1.004. I’m going to “dry-spice” the Pumpkin Version by adding 1/4 tsp of each: cinnamon, clove, nutmeg. I’ll add them dry then taste it daily until the spice character is right.
- I may possibly do some blending of the two beers for a small run of bottles. We’ll just have to see!
Inspiration for this experimental project came from two articles on the Bear Flavored Ales Homebrew and Beer Blog:
http://www.bear-flavored.com/2013/10/wine-yeast-brett-fermented-oak-aged.html
http://www.bear-flavored.com/2014/04/wine-yeast-brett-fermented-strong-ale.html