Chocolate Roggenbier – A Spicy Take on Hefeweizen

Recipe by Jon Griffin

This is an award winning homebrew recipe. This beer has a big, creamy mouthfeel, lots of spicy notes from the rye and fruity esters from the hefeweizen yeast. If you like roggenbier, you will love chocolate roggen.

BJCP Category: Roggenbier (German Rye Beer)
Skill Level: Expert
Type: All Grain
Yield: 5.00Gallons

Malts:

• 5 lbs Weyermann’s Rye Malt (3.0 SRM)
• 2 lbs 8 oz Munich II (8.5 SRM)
• 1 lb 12 oz Pilsner (2 row) German (2.0 SRM)
• 1 lb Carafoam &tm; (2.0 SRM)
• 8 oz Chocolate Rye (Weyermann) (245 SRM)

Hops:

• 1 oz Crystal [2.5% AA] (60 min)
• 1 oz Saaz [2.5% AA] (15 min)

Yeast:

• White Labs WLP300 or equivalent German Hefeweizen yeast

Additives:

• 1 Servomyces (Boil 15 min)
• 5 oz Corn Sugar at bottling (Roggenbier has more carbonation than average beers)

Instructions:

Single infusion mash, you could decoct this and make it very traditional, but I don’t have the time! You may want to add some rice hulls since this mash will be very sticky!

Mash Temp: 154° F
Mash Out: 168° F
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

Extract Version

Unfortunately this is very difficult to make as an extract beer. To get the rye character you really need to mash the grains. You could try with flaked rye and steep that along with some chocolate malt.

Enjoy this out of the ordinary beer!

Specifications

Fermentation Temp: 68 – 72°
OG: 1.050
FG: 1.013
Carbonation Volumes: 2.7 – Yes lots of carbonation!

Kell’s Nut Brown

My sister loves Nut Brown Ale so I made this recipe for her (yes she brews too). This has been brewed for several years and has won many awards at home brew competitions.

For you BJCP people this is category 11c

BJCP Category: Northern English Brown Ale
Skill Level: Beginner
Type: Extract with steeping grains
Yield: 5 Gallons

Malts:

• 3.3 lbs Light Malt Syrup
• 2 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
• 4 oz Biscuit Malt
• 8 oz CaraRed Malt (20ºL)
• 4 oz Chocolate Malt

Hops:

• 1 oz Bramling Cross (UK) added for 60 minutes (bittering)
• 1 oz Fuggle (UK) added for 10 minutes (flavor)

Yeast:

• White Labs British Ale Yeast or equivalent

Additives:

• .25 tsp Irish moss added for entire boil
• 4 oz Corn Sugar at bottling

Instructions:

Make sure you follow the extract instruction sheet or you will not get the hop bitterness you need.

Specifications:

Fermentation Temp: 65 – 75°F
OG: 1.044
FG: 1.012
ABV: 4.2

Old Rasputin Imperial Stout Clone

Recipe by Jon Griffin

A home brew clone of North Coast Brewing Company. This big Russian Imperial Stout will warm your winter nights. This beer also ages extremely well, I would save it for several years at least, but I know you can’t wait

BJCP Category: Imperial Stout
Skill Level: Intermediate
Type: Extract with steeping grains
Yield: 5 Gallons

Malts:

• 9.9 lbs Light Malt Syrup
• 2 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
• 1 lb Caramel Munich 120
• 8 oz Brown Malt
• 8 oz Chocolate Malt
• 4 oz Roasted Barley

Hops:

• 2 oz Galena (USA) added for 60 minutes (bittering)
• 1 oz Northern Brewer (USA) added for 10 minutes (flavor)
• 1 oz Liberty (USA) added for 10 minutes (aroma)

Yeast:

• White Labs California Ale Yeast or equivalent

Additives:

• .25 tsp Irish moss added for entire boil
• 4 oz Corn Sugar at bottling

Instructions:

*See Full Instructions for more details. I use Servomyces in all my beers along with yeast nutrient.

Notes:

Make sure you follow the extract instruction sheet or you will not get the hop bitterness you need.

Food Pairing:

Desert, this beer has great chocolate and coffee notes.

Specifications:

Fermentation Temp: 65 – 75° F

OG: 1.088

FG: 1.019

Bitterness: 85 IBU’s

Chocolate Porter – Home Brew Recipe

Recipe by Jon Griffin

This is an extract version of my best of show Chocolate Porter. It is almost the same as the all-grain version, and much easier.
A chocolatey version of a Robust Porter, this also does extremely well in the specialty beer category.

Malts:

• 3 lbs Light DME
• 3 lbs Dark DME
• 4 oz Chocolate Malt
• 1 lb Molasses (boil 60 minutes)
• 8 oz Cocoa Powder (boil 10 minutes)

Hops:

• 1 oz Kent Golding Hops (boil 60 mins)
• 1 oz Kent Golding Hops (boil 30 mins)
• 1 oz Kent Golding Hops (boil 0 mins, knockout)

Yeast:

WLP002 White Labs English Ale Yeast or Safale S03 Dry Yeast

Additives:

• 1 Servomyces (Boil 15 min)
• 1 Tbls Irish Moss (boil 60 minutes)
• 3/4 cup corn sugar for bottling

Instructions:

1. Put the crushed grain into your grain sack.
2. Steep grain in 2 gallons of 160° water (tap water is about 130°) for 30 minutes.
3. Remove the grain sack from the hot water, and then bring water to a boil.
4. When boiling starts, remove pot from burner and add 1-cup Malt syrup.
5. Return to a boil, and then add hops for required time(s).
6. Add Irish moss for last 15 minutes of boil. You can also add yeast nutrient and servomyces for better yeast health.
7. Then add remainder of malt syrup and stir to mix, wait 10 minutes to sanitize.
8. Fill your sanitized carboy with 2 gallons of cold water.
9. Strain the hot wort into the carboy and top off to the 5-gallon mark.
10. Add yeast when beer is less than 78°, and ferment and bottle as usual.

Food Pairing:

Great for dessert and a lovely Fall beer. This also pairs well with beef dishes.

Specifications

Fermentation Temp: 68 – 72° F

OG: 1.060

FG: 1.015

ABV: 5.8

Bitterness: 32 IBU’s

Malta – Non Alcoholic Malt Beverage from the Caribbean and Latin America

By Jon Griffin

Malta is a non-alcoholic beverage common in the the Caribbean and Latin America. It is basically unfermented wort. Traditionally, since this was treated as a foodstuff, no adjuncts were added. However, all commercial examples I could find, both in the US and in Cuba now contain Sugar of some kind, generally Molasses but also Cane Sugar. Historically, malta was used as food for children and the sick and has since become a mainstream beverage. Of course, the other soft drink companies have taken market share from Malta, but it is still a very popular drink. I got a prototype malta recipe from a friend in Cuba, and along with John Curtis (another Malta enthusiast), we decided to give it a shot. Here is the result of our Malta experiment.

BJCP Category: Specialty Beer
Skill Level:Advanced
Type:All Grain
Yield: 5 Gallons

Target recipe – traditional malta with no adjuncts:

• 80% 2 row pale malt
• 15% Crystal malt
• 5% Chocolate malt
• Original Gravity (OG) 14 Plato

Luisa’s Malta Mania (1st version)

Brewed on 3/16/2004
5.0 Gallon Batch (all grain)

• 8 lbs Pale Malt (US 2 row)
• 1.5 lbs Crystal 20 malt
• .5 lb Chocolate Malt (350)
• 13 oz Cane Sugar (Piloncillo)
• 1.25 oz Liberty Hops 4.4%

1. Mash In: Add 12.5 qts of water at 170.5 F Hold Mash at 158 F for 45 min, we wanted a lot of nonfermentable dextrins.
2. Mash Out: Add 5.0 qt of water at 196 F Hold mash at 168 for 10 min
3. Sparge with 3.39 gal of 168 F water
4. Add water to achieve boil volume of 6.3 gallons
5. Add hops for full 90 minute boil, there are no flavor or aroma additions.
6. We also added the Cane sugar for a full 90 minutes.

The malta we ended up with is as follows:

• 18 IBU
• 1.040 Pre Boil gravity
• 13 Brix Original Gravity (OG)

Since malta is a non-fermented beverage, there is no final gravity (FG).

Outcome

The color was fine for a malta, but it had to much hop bitterness. This has now become beer by boiling the wort again to sterilize and added White Labs WLP002 (English Ale) yeast. Our final gravity (FG) was 7.5 brix. This made an awesome beer, Southern English Brown (BJCP category 10C) would come to mind immediately. I would not change a thing on this recipe for making this beer. Also, this beer was on tap at the 26th Annual National Homebrewers Conference in Las Vegas NV, for club night with the CUBA brew club. Anyone interested could try both the Malta and the Southern English Brown Ale.

Malta second batch recipe

We decided to boost the Cane Sugar to 2 lbs and cut back the hops to 6 IBU. We brewed on 3/16/2004

Malts:

• 8 lbs Pale Malt (US 2 row)
• 1.25 lbs Carahelle malt
• .25 lb Chocolate Malt (350)
• 1.50 lbs Cane Sugar (Piloncillo) broken up
• 2.50 lbs Molasses

Hops:

.5 oz Liberty 4.4%

Yeast:

None

Instructions:

1. Mash In: Add 12.5 qts of water at 170.5 F
2. Hold Mash at 158 F for 45 min
3. Mash Out: Add 5.0 qt of water at 196 F
4. Hold mash at 168 for 10 min
5. Sparge with 3.39 gal of 168 F water
6. Add water to achieve boil volume of 6.3 gallons.
7. Add hops and cane sugar for full 90 minute boil, there are no flavor or aroma additions.
8. Add Molasses during last 10 minutes of the boil.

The malta ended up as follows:

Specifications

OG: 1.053
FG: 1.053
Bitterness: 6 IBU’s

Christmas Beer – A Homebrew Recipe

Recipe By Jon Griffin

A spicy, fruity moderate strength English Style Christmas Ale. This is based on an English bitter base and is a fairly easy homebrew recipe, although it does take a little bit of experience.

I would advise not increasing the spice amounts. People that have tried that have found the flavor to be to overbearing. You can also change the fruit additions. I have used mango and peach in the secondary with no apple, and it is also wonderful.

BJCP Category: Christmas/Winter Specialty Spiced Beer

Skill Level: Intermediate

Type: Extract with steeping grains

Yield: 5.00 Gallons

Malts:

6.6 lbs Coopers Light Malt Syrup
1 lb Crystal/Caramel 80
4 oz Roasted Barley
2 lbs Honey (boil 60 minutes)

Hops:

2 oz Cascade (boil 60 minutes)
1 oz Cascade (boil 20 minutes)
1 oz Willamette (boil 0 minutes, when you turn off the flame )

Yeast:

White Labs London Ale Yeast or Equivelant

Additives:

.25 oz Coriander seed (boil 20 minutes)
1 Cinnamon stick (boil 10 minutes)
1oz Sweet Orange Peel (boil 10 minutes)
.25 oz Coriander seed (boil 5 minutes)
2 lbs Crushed tart apples (in the primary fermenter)
3 lbs Crushed Peaches (in the secondary, this keeps the aroma)

Instructions:

Freeze the fruit first or use the winemakers trick of spraying with sulfite to kill wild yeast and bacteria.
*See Full Instructions for more details. I use Servomyces in all my beers along with yeast nutrient.

Specifications:

Fermentation Temp: 68 – 72° F
OG: 1.062
FG: 1.017