I was inspired by Brooklyn Brew Shop, who developed recipes for a few spring beers using items normally found in a garden, to make my own beer using materials I’ve harvested from my own garden. Miraculously, my house came with a beautiful garden containing (presumably) lavender and rose bushes, among many other plants (at least I hope so, I don’t want to poison anyone, pinky swear). So this fall I harvested some rosehips and some lavender, with only slightly confused and incredulous comments from my neighbour. So glad I’ve managed to avoid killing this thing for four years. So with much further ado, and many random musings, I will present to you: the garden series!
A Belgian style, particularly a Blonde Ale, is ideal to showcase delicate flavours: very clean, not overly hoppy, and very little aftertaste. So why is this batch “very naked”? I started reading about Simpsons Golden Naked Oats and got a little overzealous. It was definitely a case of knowing just enough to get myself into trouble. I read a lot about how this particular product can improve a beer and totally missed that you should only use between 4-15%. So here comes clumsy old me like a bull in a china shop and I make a recipe with 20% golden naked oats. The whole subtle and delicate thing? Maybe it will work out. I hope. Probably not. Oops.
The other interesting and potentially tragic part of this brew: I used leftover Clear Candi sugar from Nail Polish Remover Tripel. Unfortunately I don’t have a candy thermometer, I’m too cheap to buy one, and I refuse to pay for fancy imported sugar, so I tried making my own Belgian Candi sugar without tracking temperature. This was a first attempt and it is anything but clear. I didn’t keep the sugar at the hard crack stage long enough while boiling, poured it out to harden, and came back to a gooey mass of sweet sweet can…dy. Fail. I scraped everything off of the parchment paper, threw it back in the pot, and boiled it for another 5 minutes at high heat. The result was a very hard, but decidedly not clear, candi sugar. Close enough? I will go over my now perfected, totally non-scientific, fancy-pants method of making candi sugar without a candy thermometer in another post.
| Servings |
gallon
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- 1.8 pounds Weyermann Pilsner Malt (816 g)
- 0.4 pounds Golden naked oats (181 g)
- 0.1 pounds Aromatic malt (45 g)
- 2.37 litres Water
- 3.79 litres Water
- 0.15 oz Hallertau hops (4.25 g)
- 0.10 oz Saaz hops (2.8 g)
- 70 g Frozen rosehips (halved)
- 2 g Cracked black pepper
- 0.15 pound Clear candi sugar (68 g)
- 1/2 packet Safbrew S-33
Ingredients
Mash
Sparge
Boil
Fermentation
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- Heat water to 160 F
- Add milled grains
- Steep for 60 minutes at 150 F
- Hot break at 170 F after 60 minutes
- Heat water to 170 F
- Filter water through mash
- Boil for 60 minutes
- 0 minutes add 1/3 of the Hallertau hops
- 30 minutes add 1/3 Hallertau hops and 1/4 Saaz hops
- 45 minutes add 1/3 Hallertau hops and 1/4 Saaz hops
- 55 minutes add 1/2 Saaz hops
- At flame-out add pepper, rosehips, and candi sugar
- Allow to steep for 30 minutes
Cold Break
Instead of ice, I cool my brew pot by dunking it in a sink full of cold water and ice packs from my mom (who is paranoid about food safety and travelling with food) and the local sports injury clinic.
Fermentation
After the beer has cooled, add filtered beer plus 1/2 packet of yeast to carboy and shake vigorously
The specific gravity, determined by hydrometer, is 5.0. This corresponds to an estimated alcohol content of 6.4%. I will update with final alcohol content and tasting notes in around 2 weeks.
Cheers!