Well, that’s it. Things are winding down, and it’s time to stop making new beer. I’m selling my gear to my friends Rowan and Ian, who will be remaining in Korea for a while a brewing up a storm, but I figured I might as well use up my remaining malt and adjuncts as best I can.
So, yes, my last brew in Korea is a double-batch kitchen-sink type brew, made at the last minute. I did everything I could to use up all my remaining malt, hops, and adjuncts, and just went ahead and made brews that could work with the two live yeast cakes I have on hand: a Belgian yeast, and a weizen.
As usual, my hopville recipes for this are a mess because it’s a split batch. However, this should give you some idea of the grist, and this outlines the hop schedule for the hoppy half.
And just for posterity’s sake, this was:
Grist:
- 2.8 kg Wheat Malt
- 2.8 kg Vienna Malt
- 0.95 kg Munich Malt
- 0.5 Carapils
- 0.25 Biscuit Malt
- 0.25 Carahell
- 0.1 Belgian Special B
(To my annoyance, I forgot to add the flaked barley to the mash, however. I don’t know how I managed to do that, but I did! Ah well…)
The hopping for the Dubbel half, was simple: 25 grams of US Saaz at 60 minutes, for probably about 20-ish IBUs. I went ahead and added 0.35 kg of dark, rich date syrup, and 0.45kg of D-180 dark candi syrup. I also added a fistful of freshly crushed coriander at fifteen minutes before the end of the boil.
The hopping for the hoppy-weizen half of the beer is a little more complicated.
Bittering (60 minutes):
- 25 grams of Cascade
- 28 grams Citra
- 28 grams Simcoe
- 20 grams Sorachi Ace
- 28 grams Bramling Cross
- 28 grams Hallertau Mittelfruh
- 28 grams Kent Golding
As you can see, that truly is a kitchen-sink approach to hops. I decided to try out the hop stand technique after my friend Rowan demonstrated it for us on Sunday, and I’m rather amazed at how well the hops melded, flavor-wise. The wort is really quite nice, and I have to stop myself from constantly taking gravity samples as an excuse to taste it.
The wort came out a goldish-copper color, and probably would be gorgeous if it ever clarified… but since this is a very wheaty beer, fermented with weizen yeast, that’s unlikely to happen. I’ll be bottling all of it in a couple of weeks, and sharing it for the last few weeks of our stay in Korea. Should be a nice way to say goodbye to friends, our apartment, and to homebrewing in Korea!
And as for the Dubbel, I figure some of it I’ll enjoy in late February; the rest, I suppose, might become goodbye presents, though I may sneak a bottle or two into my luggage when we do go, if it’s as good as I hope…