Well, it’s been a while since my last posts. This time I have brewed up two 5 gallon batches of beer with only one mash again. Only this time I combined the first and second running and then put them into two different boil kettles. I used the same grain recipe as I used for the Custer Pale Ale v2 beers. For a review of that grain bill here it is:16 lbs 2-Row Pale Malt
3 lbs Crystal 20
2 lbs White Wheat Malt
18 oz Boxed Kellogg’s Corn Flakes
The two different beers to be made were Huckleberry Pale Ale and a Pale Ale with White Coffee. As for the huckleberries, my wife and I just picked them on the weekend of our anniversary where we went on a camping trip (Aug 6th weekend). We wound up getting 6.5 lbs, which should be enough for one batch of beer with 1.5 lbs left over. I decided on the ratio of 1 lb per gallon of beer because while reading Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher he recommended using 1 to 3 lbs per gallon of beer for blueberries, which are pretty close to Huckleberries, but with a slightly different flavor and aroma. I presumed that the higher value would be for a darker beer where the berries would get lost in the malt. So, after reading about how some other people’s huckleberry ale recipes turned out I decided that the 1 lb per gallon ratio would give my beer the huckleberry flavor and aroma I was looking for in pale ale, but not so much that it overwhelms the base beer.
Now as far as the white coffee goes… I have read many times over about using coffee in beer, but I didn’t want to try the same old thing that everyone else was trying. I wanted to try something different that isn’t talked about much if at all. When I was taking a Differential Equations math class this last spring, my teacher always came into class with two 1 liter bottles of mountain dew. The class was early in the morning so she would be asked why she didn’t drink coffee. She told the class that she doesn’t drink black coffee or espresso drinks, but she would occasionally order up some white coffee if she really felt tired. The class naturally asked what white coffee was and she told us that it was like a green tea with a lot more caffeine than black coffee or espresso. She went on to say that she liked it because it didn’t have the bitterness of black coffee and actually has a bit of a sweet nutty flavor. The class also asked her where she orders it and she said that it was just at a local espresso stand. When the teacher was telling the class this, I was thinking to myself “that sounds like it would be great in beer.” However I didn’t want to jump in right away, I wanted to first find out where I could pick some white coffee beans and secondly find out what other people say about its taste and how it is made as well as find out if any other beer has been made with the radical ingredient.
Through my research, I found out that the Smart Foodservice Cash and Carry and URM in Spokane both carry the white coffee beans. I also found two brewing companies that make beer with white coffee beans. One of the brewing companies makes a Farmhouse Café Blac Saison aged on fresh vanilla bean and the other makes a Porter called Last Snow that has a predominantly coconut flavor according to the blog that I read about it. The Saison is made by Trinity Brewing Company in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And the Porter is made by The Funky Buddha Brewing Company in Boca Raton, Florida. My research on brewing with white coffee beans informed me that it is typically brewed with an espresso machine and that it has a nutty flavor with a slight sweetness as my teacher indicated. Since I don’t have an espresso machine I decided to try out what the coffee tastes like using my home coffee machine. The beans really aren’t white, but rather a tan color and when it is brewed the water has a yellowish green color… much like green tea. When I brewed the coffee I noticed that my coffee maker had a hard time percolating water through the beans, but other than that I found that a regular coffee maker gets the job done just as well as an espresso machine. The flavor was also a lot like green tea, but with the nutty backbone that many people describe on the web. I thought that it would make a nice compliment to the pale ale that I planned on brewing. The quantity of white coffee I used in my brew kettle was 1 lb or 16 oz. The radical brewing book told me that 4 to 8 oz. of black coffee works well for a 5 gallon batch of beer so I figured that since the white coffee has a little bit of a subtle flavor and aroma and since the amount added won’t affect the color of the beer I should double the recommended 8 oz.
When it comes to hops in these pale ales, I decided to stay close to the Cascade variety I had been using, but try to add a little hint of spiciness. So, I went with Centennial hops. I also had never tried Centennial hops knowingly so I decided to make both batches single hop beers. The amount that I chose to add to these Pale Ales was a little bit on the light side so that the other ingredients have a good chance of shining thorough. I also used the same hop schedule for both beers just to make it easy. Here is what my hop schedule wound up being (for a 5 gallon batch and 60 min. boil):
0.5 oz Centennial pellet hops (15 min. into boil)
0.5 oz Centennial pellet hops (30 min. into boil)1.0 oz Centennial pellet hops (45 min. into boil)
Now you might be asking why I went for two different boils if I used the same hop schedule and grain schedule for both beers. Well the answer is easy. In order to make the coffee beer with my chosen hot water brewing process I needed to put the coffee into the boil for the last 15 minutes. And with the Huckleberry ale I am going to add the Huckleberries to the secondary fermenter to extract the freshest flavor and add the least amount of unwanted tannins. Also with Huckleberries in beer I should mention that pectin, the gelling agent commonly found in fruit, isn’t in a very high concentration in Huckleberries and therefore pectinase should not need to be added to reduce pectin haze.
Java Nut Pale Ale and Huckleberry Corn Ale
(10 gallons all-grain) OG = 1.057, FG = 1.010
IBU = 39.18, SRM = 7.13, ABV = 6.22%
Grain (per 10 gallon batch):
16 lbs 2-Row Pale Malt
3 lbs Crystal 20
2 lbs White Wheat Malt
18 oz Boxed Kellogg’s Corn Flakes
Hops (per 5 gallon batch):
0.5 oz Centennial pellet hops (15 min. into boil)
0.5 oz Centennial pellet hops (30 min. into boil)
1.0 oz Centennial pellet hops (45 min. into boil)
Step by Step:
Mash the grains at 154 F using 5 gallons of water, run off the wort into one boil kettle and add another 5 gallons of water to bring the temperature up to 170 F and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Next siphon the wort you ran off the first time back into the mash tun to allow all of the wort to mix. Then run off half of the wort into one boil kettle and then the other half into a second boil kettle. Then heat up both kettles to boiling temperature. After the hot break wait 15 minutes and add 0.5 oz of Centennial hops to each boil kettle. Then wait another 15 minutes and add another 0.5 oz of Centennial hops to each boil kettle. Next, wait another 15 minutes and add 1 oz of Centennial hops and 1 teaspoon of Irish Moss to each boil kettle. Also add 16 oz of white coffee to only one of the boil kettles at the same time as the irish moss. Add 5 lbs of mashed and previously frozen huckleberries to the secondary fermenter of the beer without white coffee in it during the second week of fermentation.
