MESSAGE FROM THE WOODS
A small project, but that has taught me so much.
I started from the idea of bringing back an ancient flavor into a modern production: wood.
In the past, the beer was mashed inside wooden tuns in which hot water or rocks were poured to raise the temperature.
With the "Message From the Woods" I wanted to take back the flavor of that wood by infusing the water with toasted oak chips even before mashing, to get those flavors of tannin, vanilla and caramel given by the wood contact.
After some attempts I managed to get a good product, and I went so far as to design and make the packaging, where I recalled that dreamy idea, almost dejavu that you have when walking among the trees at sunset.
Wood flavoured beer recipe
Ingredients:
2,5 kg Pilsner malt
20 g Kent Golding hops 6,2% AA
100 g Oak chips medium roast
1 package of S-04 yeast or any clean fermenting continental yeast
Disclamer:
In order to give the wood flavour, before you start to brew you need to heat up the water to at least 65 degrees, insert the wood chips and recirculate it for one hour. This will extract the nice woody flavours from the chips, such as vanilla and caramel, reducing the tannins extraction. For this reason, i’ll suggest to infuse the water with used oak chips to reduce the tannins in the water, or you can lower the temperature so the extraction of tannins will be less evident.
This recipe is intended for an All Grain system with approximately 71% efficiency, so your extraction and therefore your OG may change.
Steps:
Water prep. - 9 L water, 100 g Oak chips - 65°C - 60 min recirculation
Mash in - (oaky) water, 2,5 Kg pilsner malt - 52°C
Beta rest - 64°C - 15 min
Alpha rest - 72°C - 15 min (or till complete conversion)
Mash out - 78°C - 15 min
Sparge and filter - 8 L
Add 10 g of Kent Golding hops - Boil 60 min
Add the remaining 10 g of Kent Golding hops in the last 5 min
Chill below 30°C
Transfer to fermenter and sprinkle the dry yeast on the surface
After 5 min agitate and place in a cool place (20°C)
Let it ferment (OG 1.051 - FG 1.013 - ABV 5,2%)
bottle with 5 g/L of sugar.
This beer and its label have been designed with opensource programs such as Brewtarget and Gimp on a Linux-running machine.