Pumpernickel Porter Double Tasting

If you haven't been interested by the last three weeks worth of posts on kvass, you'll probably be pleased to hear that this is the last you'll hear of them on this blog (at least for a few weeks). 

Last night I decided to cracked open two bottles of the Pumpernickel Porter to try side-by-side, one that was primed with table sugar, and one that was primed with caraway infused molasses.  Drinking two similar beers next to each other is the best way to tease out the flavor contributions of a single ingredient, it allows your pallet to focus on the differences rather than the similarities.

What was most interesting about this batch is that despite dumping a pureed loaf of pumpernickel bread into the boil (with all its salt and starch) the base beer is remarkably unremarkable.  It is a solid session beer that I wouldn't think twice about if I had it on tap at a local brewpub.  It is hard to say just how much of the "bready" character comes from the bread (rather than the Maris Otter and specialty grains), but it is a testament to the fact the the standard brewing practice isn't the only way to make a standard beer. 

Pumpernickel Porters

Appearance – Hazy dark brown body with a thin off-white head sitting atop. Decent retention for a small beer, but it starts to sink after a few minutes. The two versions look very similar (no surprise) but the caraway/molasses portion has a head that is slightly darker.

Smell – Nice light cocoa powder nose with bready/malty backup on the standard version. The caraway takes the lead in the spiced half, with the bready character staying in a supporting roll.

Taste – The balance is towards the malt, with minimal hop bitterness. The same sorts of complexities from the nose come through in the flavor. With the standard version staying bready and clean, and the spiced version leaning towards the caraway (probably a bit too much in the finish).

Mouthfeel – Nice creamy body on both with light “cask” carbonation.

Drinkability & Notes – The standard version is a great session ale, the sort of beer you can drink and not think about too much. I like the caraway flavor in this beer, but I was probably a bit too heavy handed with the addition. If I tried the same technique again I would probably cut the amount of spice in half (a 50/50 blend of the two is close to what I was aiming for).

Pumpernickel Porter Kvass Recipe

The third and final entry into Nathan and my series of  Kvasses was a Pumpernickel Porter (just in time because the December issue of BYO Magazine showed up in my mailbox on Friday).  This recipe turned out a beverage much closer to what most people would recognize as beer than either the Scandinavian Gruit or the East End (a substantial addition of hops in the kettle and the switch from bread yeast to ale yeast prevented it from souring... so far).

The grain bill was based on East End's Wood Street Kvass with the addition of Carafa Special II and Chocolate Rye to give the beer a more suiting darker color and flavor.  Chocolate rye like Carafa Special is dehusked, and has a similar coffee flavor without being harshly ashy/acrid/burnt like other dark grains.  We also made the switch to Maris Otter for the base malt to provide more depth to the toasty malt/bread flavors.  Of course we also swapped out the loaf of seeded rye for pumpernickel bread. 

I primed half the batch with table sugar, but for the remainder I added caraway infused molasses at bottling.  To infuse molasses I mixed it with an equal volume of water and some coarse ground caraway in a small saucepan.  After bringing the mixture barely to a boil I allowed 10 minutes of steeping before straining through a piece of cheesecloth in a small sieve to remove the seeds.  I'm not usually an advocate of priming with unrefined sugars, but I think molasses is flavorful enough to be a worthwhile addition even in such a minuscule amount (although the carbonation will be less predictable).

Our beer isn't as big and rich as Beer Here's Mørke Pumpernickel Porter (an excellent beer), but the bread character certainly comes through making the beer feel substantial.  The plain version doesn't taste much different from a fresh bready brown porter, but the molasses/caraway version is certainly more reminiscent of its namesake.

Pumpernickel Porter Kvass

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 8.25
Anticipated OG: 1.042
Anticipated SRM: 22.9
Anticipated IBU: 14.7
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80 %
Wort Boil Time: 30 Minutes

Grain
-----
72.7% - 6.00 lbs. Maris Otter
16.7% - 1.38 lbs. Rye Malt
4.5% - 0.38 lbs. Brown Malt
3.0% - 0.25 lbs. Chocolate Rye
3.0% - 0.25 lbs. Carafa Special II

Hops
----
1.12 oz. Fuggle (Whole 4.75% AA) @ 30 min.

Extras
-------
1.00 Whirlfloc 15 min.

Yeast
-----
Safale US-05

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Washington DC

Mash Schedule
-------------
Sacch Rest 60 min @ 152

Notes
-----
Brewed 9/24/10 with Nathan and Devin

1 gallon of bread goo (1 loaf of pumpernickel pureed in water after 24 hours of soaking) added at the start of the boil.

Chilled to ~80, left in the fridge overnight at 64. In the morning pitched most of a pack of US-05 and gave 30 seconds of pure O2.

Good fermentation after 12 hours, but the krausen never got very big.

10/1/10 Moved out of the fridge to ambient basement temps to help fermentation finish.

10/9/10 Bottled 2.5 gallons with 1.875 oz of table sugar. Bottled the remaining 2.25 gallons with 2.75 oz of Grandma's blackstrap molasses that was boiled with .25 oz of crushed caraway seeds and allowed to steep for 10 minutes before adding to the beer.

11/18/10 Great session beer, although I overdid it with the caraway addition on that half.  Next time I'd cut it down to 1/8 oz.

Smoked Spruce Gruit Kvass Tasting

After it was pointed out that De Molen is Dutch (and thus not Scandinavian) I've decided to just call this beer what it is, a smoked-spruce-elderberry-sour-gruit-kvass...  I really like this beer, but it isn't the type of thing I would want to have on tap.  The flavors are intense, and take a few sips to get used to.

Gruit Kvass

Appearance – Muddy amber-brown. The thin white head recedes quickly.

Smell – Sharply smoky. Almost comes across as peat, it might be the resiny spruce mingling with the beech wood smoked malt. Behind the singed woodlands there is some yeasty/bready “rustic” character.

Taste – Strong lactic acidity, that is a surprising after experiencing the aroma. The finish recalls the nose, smoky and bready (maybe a hint of pine). It is dry enough, and with the acid for balance I don't miss the hop bitterness. I don't get much from the elderberries.

Mouthfeel – Medium body, a bit more substantial than the East End Kvass (which works well with the more assertive flavors). The carbonation is moderate, which helps to clean the palate of all of the heavy flavors.

Drinkability & Notes – The smoke has already calmed down a bit, but I'd suspect that this will continue to get better for awhile. It will be interesting to see how this beer ages, certainly a nice first attempt at a gruit (but I'd like to do something with more spices and less smoke next time around).

Scandinavian Gruit Kvass Recipe

After Nathan and I brewed East End's recipe for Kvass, we decided to crank out a couple more kvasses with recipes of our own design. The first was inspired by a sample of Menno & Jens (a gruit that had a unique flavor that was smokey, tart, and herbal) a collaboration between the two Scandinavian breweries (Haandbryggeriet and De Molen).

Nathan took the standard kvass recipe and morphed it into a complex Scandinavian gruit.  The smoke character came from three pounds of Weyermann rauchmalt, a sizable addition for a beer that barely topped 4% ABV.  For winter spicing we added blue spruce (for evergreen aromatics) and elderberries (for dried fruit character).  The sourness was provided by Lactobacillus resident in the dried bread yeast working unconstrained by hops.

This was the first batch of beer I have brewed that was devoid of hops.  While today beer and hops are culturally (and in some cases legally) synonyms, this has not always been the case.  For centuries political and religious institutions required the use of gruit (a secret spice blend often containing mugwort, yarrow, marsh rosemary among others) both as a counterpoint to the sweet malt (beers were often far less attenuated than today) and as a way to tax/control brewing.  Hops became the dominant seasoning for beers only about 500 years ago, as a result of their ability to add bitterness as well as inhibit lactic acid producing bacteria.

Our method of incorporating the bread (by soaking it overnight in 190 degree water, pureeing it with a stick blender, and then adding it to the boil) was identical to our previous batch of kvass, but this time we used a loaf of pumpernickel bread in place of the standard seeded rye.  We hoped the darker bread would be a better complement for a slightly stronger beer intended for fall/winter drinking.

The results were intriguing, one of the most flavorful low alcohol beers I have tried.  Granted the beer is still young, but it turned out a bit smokier and not as sprucey as we intended.

Scandinavian Kvass

Recipe Specifics
-----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 7.50
Anticipated OG: 1.040
Anticipated SRM: 11.9
Anticipated IBU: 0.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain
------
40.0% - 3.00 lbs. Maris Otter
40.0% - 3.00 lbs. Rauchmalt (Bamberg Smoked)
6.7% - 0.50 lbs. Rye Malt
6.7% - 0.50 lbs. Brown Malt
6.7% - 0.50 lbs. Crystal Rye

Extras
------
5 g Blue Spruce @ 30 min
20 g Dried Elderberries @ 0 min

Yeast
-----
Red Star Bread Yeast

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Washington DC

Mash Schedule
-------------
Sacch Rest 60 min @ 152

Notes
-----
Brewed 9/24/10 with Nathan and Devin

1 gallon of pumpernickel bread puree (1 loaf) added before the start of the boil.

5 grams spruce at 30

20 grams dried elderberries lightly crushed at flameout

Pitched 1 gram of rehydrated Red Star bread yeast once the wort was cool. 

Left in Nathan's basement ~75 degrees to ferment.

FG 1.010

10/08/11 Turned out well, powerful smoke (mingling with the spruce) and as predicted bread yeast and no hops made for a tart beer.

Sour Kvass Tasting

We weren't surprised when the kvass we brewed based on East End's recipe went sour, with the minimal hopping, low gravity starchy wort, and bread yeast it was something we suspected might happen.  Luckily a low gravity, lightly hopped beer makes for a good base for sour flavors (as we tasted at East End in a sample of unintentionally sour Kvass). 

East End Kvass Clone

Appearance – Surprisingly clear (but still slightly hazy) pale orange. The thin white head floating on top has poor retention. The beer has gotten much clearer over the last few weeks as the yeast and the starches from the bread have slowly settled to the bottoms of the bottles.

Smell – Caraway is the first thing I get, as well as a yeasty/bready malt character. There is a sour, yogurtish component to the aroma as well.

Taste – Tangy lactic acidity followed by warm bread crust maltiness. The caraway comes in the finish, but it isn't as strong as in the aroma. The acidity isn't especially strong, just enough to make for a bright, interesting beer.

Mouthfeel – Medium body, with moderate carbonation. The body is thicker than you'd expect for such a low gravity beer.

Drinkability & Notes – A refreshing beer that is easier to drink than the highly acidic Berliner Weisses that I tend to make. I'd be interested to see if this method (minimal hopping and fermenting with bread yeast, could work for other sorts of low gravity sours).

Pumpernickel Bread Recipe

My friend Nathan and I are in the midst of writing an article on kvass for an upcoming issue of BYO.  A few weeks ago we brewed a "standard" batch based on the recipe we helped brew at East End Brewing in Pittsburgh back in July. I had brewed two similar batches of kvass a couple years back, but this time we had Scott's actual recipe and we used a loaf of my no-knead rye bread instead of store bought.

Unsatisfied to mimic East End, we also wanted to put our own twist on things by brewing a couple of additional batches.  In preparation, on Tuesday night I baked two loaves of pumpernickel bread that will be going into the experimental batches we are brewing tomorrow night (one soured, one gruit-style). 

I did quite a bit of research on pumpernickel while trying to figure out how I wanted to make the bread.  The recipes I found seemed to fall into two distinct categories, complex German (with traditional old-world techniques like adding soaked toasted bread crumbs from a previous batch, multiple long slow rises etc...) and simple American (with odd ingredients like instant espresso, cocoa powder, and caramel coloring).  I needed a recipe I could make in a single night (so not enough time for a slow rise with my sourdough starter), but I didn't want to get the color from something that would impart an out of place flavor.  My imagination was sparked by a post on The Fresh Loaf that suggested adding a small amount of chocolate wheat malt to boost the color of the pumpernickel.  I didn't have any chocolate wheat on hand, but I did have some Carafa Special II (left over from a Smoked Baltic Porter), so I put a small amount into my coffee grinder and let it run until it reduced the malt to a fine powder.

In addition to the Carafa "flour", I added whole rye flour, along with bread flour to ensure a good rise.  For additional color I added some molasses, which seems to be a somewhat standard ingredient in the recipes I saw (although I'm not sure how common it is in Germany).  I used a packet of bread yeast for two loaves, along with some actual kneading to bring the dough together to develop some gluten.  The rest of the procedure was pretty close to my usual no-knead loaf production, baking in my cast iron Dutch oven with the lid on to start, then removing it at the end to allow the crust to crisp.  The finished bread was pretty tasty, with some full city tones and a nice rich cocoa color without adding either coffee or chocolate. 

Pumpernickel Bread

For one round loaf.
Dry Ingredients:
6 oz Whole rye flour
9 oz Bread flour
1 tbls Carafa Special II, ground
1 tsp Table salt
2 tbls of Caraway seeds (optional)

Wet Ingredients:
1.25 cups of warm water
2 tbls Molasses
1 tsp Distilled white vinegar
.5 Packet dried yeast

1. Sprinkle the yeast onto the ~100 degree water and let sit for 5 minutes to rehydrate. 

2. Mix the dry ingredients together with a whisk. 

3. Mix the molasses and vinegar into the water

4. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. 

5. Once a dough is formed turn it out onto a floured work surface and give it a few kneads to ensure that there are is no dry flour. 

6. At this point the dough will be very sticky, so cover it with a towel and leave it alone for a 10-15 minute rest.  During this time the starch will hydrate and the proteins will align; when you return the dough will be much easier to work with. 

7. Knead the dough for 5 minutes.  Shape the dough into a ball, dust with flour, and place it somewhere warm (normally I would oil the dough at this point to prevent it from sticking to the bowl, but since this is going into a beer I wanted to avoid adding any head-retention-killing fat.)

8. After 90-120 minutes the dough should be double its original size, and ready to shape.  Fold the dough over a few times to distribute any large pockets of CO2, and roll it in a circle between your hands to form it into a round loaf.  Place the loaf on a tea towel with cornmeal or flour to prevent it from sticking. 

9. Leave it to double in size again (about 60 minutes). 

10. Place a cast iron Dutch oven in a cold oven and heat to 425 (450 for an enameled cast iron), this should take 25-30 minutes.  Once the pan is heated slash the top of the loaf with a sharp knife or razor a few times and place it into the pot, return the lid, and place the pot in the oven. 

11. After 25 minutes remove the lid and boost the oven temperature 25 degrees to finish browning. 

12. When the loaf is nicely browned remove it to a cooling rack, and try to give it 15 minutes to cool before slicing into it.

Easy No Knead Sourdough Rye Bread

Rye is a pretty interesting grain. It has much more character than the other grains we eat, having what some people describe as a slightly spicy flavor. These days though, most people don't see it outside of the occasional pastrami or corned beef on rye, but it has a varied history in both baking and brewing.

While rye may bring good flavor to your bread or beer it can cause some problems that other grains do not unless it it properly handled. When brewing a low temperature (~100 F) step is often added to the mash to help break down the sticky beta glucans (long chains of glucose) for improved wort flow during the sparge. When baking a sourdough starter is the most common leavening used because it lowers the pH (due to its lactic acid bacteria) making it so the amylase enzymes in the rye do not break down the gluten (which gives bread its structure).

Here is a variant of the easy no knead sourdough bread recipe I posted back in October tweaked to make a tasty rye bread.
Ingredients:
7.5 oz of bread flour
7.5 oz of whole rye flour
1.5 tsp of table salt
1.5 tbls of caraway seeds (more or less as desired)
11 oz filtered/bottled water (1.25 cups, plus a tablespoon)
2 tbls of sourdough starter

Technique:
(If using) Toast the caraway in a small pan over low heat until they begin to smell good (2-3 min). You can skip this step, but I think it really enhances the flavor of the finished bread.

Whisk together the flour, salt, and caraway. In a separate bowl dissolve the sourdough starter into the water. Then combine the dry with the wet, mixing for 20 seconds or until there is no dry flour visible. The dough may seem a bit stiff now, but as the starch molecules hydrate the dough will become softer.


Set the dough aside in a bowl covered with plastic wrap and then a tea towel for 18-24 hours in a cool spot. You could add more sourdough starter and save a few hours here (as I do in my standard sourdough recipe) but with my starter I find a longer rest gets the flavor where I like it. As always you should adjust the times based on how quickly your starter works and how much sourdough flavor you like.


Flour a surface and turn out the shaggy mass onto it, adding more (wheat) flour on top. Fold the dough back onto itself a few times until it loosely resembles a ball. If the loaf is too sticky to work with (it should be tacky) or if it won't hold its shape you can fold in a few extra tablespoons of flour (this can be due to the protein content of your flour or the humidity). On a clean surface roll the dough ball between your hands for a few seconds to form a smooth outer surface. I used semolina on this loaf, but cornmeal or flour could be used to prevent the dough from sticking to the towel.


Cover and leave the loaf to rise until it doubles in size (1.5-3 hours). When it has almost doubled in size place a dutch oven in a cold oven and set it for 425 F. If you have an enamel coated dutch oven you might try setting the oven to 450-500 F since the lighter/glossy surface will transfer heat at a slower rate. Once the oven has preheated wait another 10 minutes for the dutch oven to heat through.

With a shaped loaf (unlike my standard sourdough recipe) you need to slash the top to allow for oven spring and for steam to escape. I like a few parallel cuts with a sharp knife held at a 45 degree angle (1/8 inch or shallower). Place the loaf (as gently as possible) into the dutch oven.


Bake 25 minutes with the lid on, then raise the temperature to 450 and remove the lid, bake until the crust is golden brown and crunchy (20-25 min).


This rye bread is great for sandwiches, I particularly like it with corned beef, mustard, and young sauerkraut (cabbage sprinkled with ~.5 tsp/cup of kosher salt and left to wilt for 6-12 hours, you can rinse/dry it before using if too salty for your taste).

Easy No Knead Sourdough Bread

I've alluded to this technique in the past, but now with the weather cooling down I thought a full post was in order. This method was adapted from the New York Times, but they use regular packaged yeast, and I find their dough a bit too wet to work with easily. Dan, my bread nerd friend, told me that their ratio of water to flour (the weight of the water is 85% of the weight of the flour) in the original recipe is far too wet, so I scaled back to a more manageable 73%. I also upped the salt by 1/4 tsp as sourdough needs a bit more salt than a standard bread.

Sourdough starter care.
My original homemade starter always had good flavor, but it had problems rising the dough, so I decided to start over with a commercial starter. I got a San Fransisco sourdough starter from Fermented Treasures 6 months ago, and it is still going strong. That said it has changed (more sourness), and at this point probably has a good deal of microbes from my kitchen, flour, and water.

I keep my starter in the fridge at all times. When I use the starter I simply replace the volume with equal parts (by weight) flour and filtered water (chlorine is bad for microbes). If I haven't used my starter in a week or so, I'll just discard half of it and add flour and water. Changing the ratio of water to flour in a starter will favor different microbes.

The starter can occasionally survive a few weeks of neglect, but I wouldn't make a habit of it. If your starter seems to be faltering take it out of the refrigerator and feed it every 12 hours for a few days and it should perk up.

Recipe:
15 oz bread flour (about 3 cups measured with the scoop and sweep method)
1.5 tsp salt
11 oz warm filtered/bottled water (1.25 cups, plus a tablespoon)
1/2 cup sourdough starter

Mix the salt with the flour, and the sourdough with the warm water. Then combine all the ingredients and mix for 20 seconds or just until all of the flour is wet. The more you work the dough the more even the crumb structure of the finished loaf will be. If you want a rustic loaf with some air pockets (like I do) work it as little as possible.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then a tea towel, and leave it to rise at room temperature overnight (about 18 hours). The expanding bubbles of CO2, which the yeast produce, will do the work of kneading for you. The long rise also gives the acid producing bacteria from the starter time to produce the acids that define sourdough.

The next day dust the dough with a bit more flour and fold the sides into the middle to form a round loaf, dust a towel with stone ground cornmeal (other options include wheat bran, seeds, or coarse salt) and place the loaf onto it seam side down, putting more cornmeal on top then fold the towel over. The cornmeal prevents the loaf from sticking to the towel, and helps to enhance the flavor and appearance of the crust.

Let the loaf rise until it has doubled in size again (about 3 hours for my culture). After 2 and a half hours put a cast iron dutch oven with a lid into your oven and set it for 425 degrees (it is important to put the dutch oven into a cold oven so it doesn't experience thermal shock). If you have an enamel coated dutch oven you might try setting the oven to 450-500. If the bottom crust is getting too dark try lowering the temp and visa versa if it is not getting enough color.

When the dutch oven is rocket hot, place (toss) the dough, seam side up, into the dutch oven, and put the lid back on. Bake for 25 minutes, during this time the lid will trap moisture from the dough which will allow the crust to stay stretchy as the bread continues to rise. Then take the lid off and turn the oven up to 475. Take the loaf out of the oven once it is brown and crusty, 15-20 more minutes.

Put the loaf on a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it. The crust on this bread is better than on any other bread I have baked, crunchy and flavorful. The acid in the dough also helps it to stay relatively soft for 48+ hours if wrapped tightly, although the crust tends to lose its crunch after just 12.

Sometimes I sub in 50% whole wheat flour if I want something with a bit more soul, and I also do a rye variation that turns out pretty well.

The Smoke for Homemade Bacon

Yeah, I know the pun doesn't work for this one as well as for the first bacon post, but what can I do?

After the pork belly sat with the cure for 6 days (during this time I flipped it every other day) in the refrigerator it had released a good deal of liquid creating its own brine. The night before smoking I took each slab out of the Ziploc bags and gave them a rinse and patted them dry with paper towels. I then left the meat uncovered in the refrigerator overnight to develop a pellicle. In this case pellicle does not refer to the white layer that forms on the surface of an aging Lambic, but to the tacky dried protein layer that helps smoke adhere to the meat.

My friend Scott already had his charcoal smoker going when I arrived early on Sunday morning. We opted to go with a couple big chunks of hickory, the classic bacon wood, soaked in water for a few hours to prevent complete combustion. Once the smoker got up to 200 degrees we put the meat on (more to come later on that duck breast in back).


After 2 hours, with a second dose of charcoal added half way through, the meat hit the target internal temperature of 150 degrees, and looked wonderfully brown.


Once the meat had some time to cool we ripped (note the pliers) and cut the thin, but though, layer of skin away from the subcutaneous fat. I'm planning on tossing a piece of the skin into a pot of beans later this week.


When I got home I sliced up a few pieces of the plain bacon. It was hard to get it cut as thin as store bought bacon (getting it as cold as possible first would have helped), but who wants 1/16 inch thick bacon anyway?


The pieces fried up nicely and went well on a pizza (homemade sourdough crust, sliced zucchini, mozzarella, and two roasted red peppers pureed with a tablespoon of bacon grease).

Pork Loin Confit and No-Knead Sourdough Bread Dinner

Earlier this week, I made some pork loin confit with a recipe from the excellent book Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing. While not a fermentation confit (cooking something long and low submerged in rendered fat) has all the elements I love in a project: process, time, and delicious results.

The first step was to use a food processor to make a paste of herbs (parsley, bay, and sage), garlic, shallots, black pepper, and 2 tbls salt. This paste was rubbed onto a nice pork loin, and left to cure in the refrigerator for 2 days, turning once every 12 hours. You then rinse the herbs off and pat the meat dry.



When I was ready to cook, I melted three tubs of lard in my dutch oven. When the fat got to 200 degrees I submerged the pork loin in the fat and put it into a preheated 200 degree oven uncovered (to allow any moisture a way out). Three and a half hours later I took the pot out of the oven and put the pork and enough of the still liquid fat to cover it, into a smaller pan and then into the refrigerator.


Two days later I pulled the pork out of the fat and spiced it into 1/8 inch slices. I pan fried the slices in a bit of the lard to heat them up and give them a bit of color and texture. Another option would be to roast the whole loin, but pan frying is quicker and allows you to save some for sandwiches the next day.
The meat was excellent, good porky flavor with the herbs/spices infused throughout. The texture was rather tender, but not fall apart-y (although the darker meat was close). Next time around I'll use shoulder (Boston butt), which has more connective tissue and should make for an even more tender results (it takes closer to 5-6 hours in the oven to break down the extra connective tissue).

I also made some no-knead sourdough bread. The recipe is amazingly easy: mix together 3 cups of flour, 1.5 cups water, 1.5 tsp salt, and some sourdough starter (or 1/4 tsp dried yeast). Let it rise for 19 hours, then dust with cornmeal or wheat germ and shape into a round loaf and let rise for another 2 hours. Then cook 30 minutes in a dutch oven preheated in a 500 degree oven. Uncover for the last 10 minutes to let any steam escape and crisp the crust. The bread had an excellent irregular crumb, with a terrific crunchy crust. The long slow rise allows the yeast to do the work of kneading for you, the CO2 bubbles they produce stretch the dough creating gluten. The longer rise time also gives plenty of time for the sourdough microbes to do their thing.


We had a nice vinegary salad (not pictured) with clementines, dried cranberries, and walnuts to help cut the rich confit. To drink we had plenty of good beers (and some French cider for my non-beer drinking roommate). We had White Gold from Ithaca with the main course, but it just wasn't funky enough for my tastes. The year old bottle of Ommegeddon was much better, as was the bottle of Cuvee de Ranke we had after the meal to cleans our pallets. I also opened up bottles of Cuvee Tomme and my Cuvee Tomme clone. My clone was nice but the sweet cherries didn't POP in the same way that the sour cherries do in the original.

Imperial Sourdough Neo Kvass

My first attempt at Kvass came out so well that I decided to give it another go. However, being an ADD brewer I couldn't brew the exact same recipe again, so I made a few changes.

First I decided that instead of letting the bread stale, I'd toast it instead. I never found a great explanation for why the bread needed to be stale anyway, seems like it is just a part of the tradition for using up stale bread. The only thing I could think of was that the staling leads to a retrogradation of the starch which helps the bread retain some structure when it is cooked (the same reason day old bread and rice are best for French toast and fried rice respectively). The toasting will accomplish this same task without the hassle of waiting around, and the melanoidins from the toasting will give some added flavor to the beer.

My second change was the yeast. The first time I used American ale yeast for half, and bread yeast for half, this time I swapped out the 1056 for San Francisco sourdough starter from Fermented Treasures. This starter contains Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis, a relative of the bacteria that makes Berliner Weisse sour, and yogurt tangy. It also usually contains strains of Saccharomyces (brewer's yeast) and Candida (found in lambics).

My final change was to add the "bread juice" to the grain bed at the end of the sparge. This had the unintended consequence of bumping my gravity up .010. I decided to just roll with the sugar increase and call it an Imperial Kvass.

The picture shows the liquid starter I made from the fresh culture of sourdough, and the flour I started at the same time. I have since made several tasty breads with the flour starter, but it has yet to develop a significant sourness.

Imperial Sourdough Neo Kvass

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 2.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 3.69
Anticipated OG: 1.044
Anticipated SRM: 10.3
Anticipated IBU: 7.1
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68 %
Wort Boil Time: 35 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
---------------------
2.50 lbs. Maris Otter
0.94 lbs. Rye Malt
0.25 lbs. Brown Malt

Hops
-----
0.25 oz. Crystal @ 30 min.

Extras
-------
0.25 Tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 20 Min.

Yeast
-----
Split between San Fransisco Sourdough and Red Star Bread Yeast

Mash Schedule
-------------
60 min @ 154

Notes
-----
Brewed 5/18/08 by myself

Toasted 90% of a loaf of Whole Foods Organic Jewish Rye for 30 minutes @ 300 degrees. mixed with 1 gallon of distilled water w/ 1 g CaCl @ 170 Degrees. Strained the solids from the liquid next morning at the start of the brew day.

3 gallons water prepared for the brew, 1 g each CaCl, Salt, Chalk, Epsom.

Added the bread juice to the end of the sparge.

Added 1/4 g of Red Star Bread yeast to the green jug and ~1/4 cup of San Fransisco sourdough starter to the clear jug. The sourdough was cultured from a dough starter from fermented treasures, stepped up once.

Placed in the freezer at 64 degrees. Sourdough one started within 12 hours, bread yeast in 18.

5/30/08 Fermentation seems to be complete for both, took out of the freezer for 24 hours to make sure, then returned to the freezer. Both are at 1.012 (73% AA)

6/15/08 Took out of freezer to make room for Big Funky to go in, gravity on both is ~1.012. Ambient temp in 70s.

6/23/08 Bottled with .5 tsp of turbinado per bottle.

7/02/08 Decent carbonation already, the sourdough bottle I tried was surprisingly mild.

8/05/08 First tasting

8/23/08 I sent a bottle of each to Scott (the Brewer at East End) here are his comments: "Compared to mine (which is the only comparison I have to work with) I found it to be similar in many ways... mouth feel, aroma. Took me right back. I did get a bit more sweetness in the flavor that really just shifted me into tasting a "different" bread - like the way whole wheat bread varies in sweetness. Color was a little darker too, almost like a weizenbock is a darker version of a hefe, but to a lesser degree if that makes any sense. Sourdough version was enjoyable too with a nice crisp tang." I'm glad he liked them.

Neo Kvass: 1st Tasting

Bread Yeast
(Right in Photo)

Appearance -Pours with a huge white head, that prickly settles down into a very cloudy tan/orange. It is hard to tell if it would have been as cloudy if

Aroma -Yeasty, a bit spicy with some lemon. The yeastiness doesn't smell like rising bread (as the fermenter did for the first few days) or like noxious sulfur (like the fermenting beer did for a week after the middle of

Taste - Pretty clean, with a bit of yeast. A bit dry, but not overly so with no apparent bitterness. Definitely "bready" but no more so than some British ales. It has a slightly spicy flavor, similar to a Belgian ale (probably a phenol).

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with a strong carbonation.

Drinkability/Notes – Really easy to drink, yet still plenty of interesting flavor. Bread yeast really did a good job on this one. I'll certainly try using this in another beer sometime soon, maybe a Wit.

Wyeast 1056
(Left in Photo)

Appearance - Mildly cloudy tan/orange. Thin white head that dies down very quickly.

Aroma - Malty/toasty, very clean.

Taste - Actually reminds me more of a loaf of bread than the bread yeast version, toasted with a bit of rye. Almost has a hint of vanilla. Not much yeast or hop character.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with medium-light carbonation. Seems like the bread yeast either ate down further once bottled or it produces more CO2 from an equal amount of sugar.

Drinkability/Notes – A solid session beer, without as much rye bread character as I expected. I'm glad I have this “clean” version so I can see exactly what the bread yeast contributed.

Recipe

Neo-Kvass

Kvass is a traditional Russian beverage made by soaking stale rye bread in warm water and then fermenting it (how thrifty). There isn't much fermentable sugar in this preparation so the ABV is only around 1%, because of this it does not keep well for more than a few days. East End Brewing did a draft only version that they supplemented with a mash to give it a higher OG which gives it a longer shelf life and boosts the flavor. Since this is a pretty oddball batch I opted to make only 2 gallons.

I bought a loaf of organic Jewish Rye from my local Whole Foods, I then left it out to stale for 1 week.





The morning of my brew I tore up the loaf and combined it with about a gallon of 170 degree water in my cooler mash tun. I put the cover on and left it alone until I got back from work.



I poured the bread "goo" into a metal strainer to separate out the "juice." I got about 3 quarts of light-yellow starch liquid.





I did a small mash of pale malt, rye malt, and brown malt. I only did a 30 minute boil and added 2 quarts of the bread juice with 5 minutes left in the boil.





I chilled the wort and then pitched half with American Ale yeast and half with Red Star Highly Active dry yeast. The bread yeast started visible fermentation first, but gave off some unpleasant aromas (sulfur, meaty).


I sent an email to East End asking for some details on how they used the bread yeast, I heard back after I brewed, but I will certainly put the info to use in future batches. The head brewer Scott told me that they pitched only 2 tbls of dried Red Star yeast in 15 barrels (465 gallons)!!!! 7 gram yeast packets have 2 1/4 tsp of yeast, so that means my pitching rate was 25 times higher than his. This may explain the yeasty smell that is emanating from that half of the batch, but hopefully that is just a passing aroma.

Luckily after about a week the extremely yeasty aroma left. I took samples of both batches after 10 days, both were very nice. The 1056 batch was almost too clean (not much character), while the bread yeast half was very nice (bready with a mildly spicy Belgian character).

Neo-Kvass

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 2.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 4.00
Anticipated OG: 1.037 Plato: 9.23
Anticipated SRM: 9.1
Anticipated IBU: 9.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 51 %
Wort Boil Time: 30 Minutes

Grain
------
3.00 lbs. Golden Promise
0.75 lbs. Rye Malt
0.25 lbs. Brown Malt

Hops
-----
0.38 oz. Czech Saaz @ 30 min.

Yeast
-----
Bread Yeast/Wyeast 1056

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Washington DC
Profile known for: Where I live

Calcium(Ca): 45.2 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 8.0 ppm
Sodium(Na): 13.8 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 49.0 ppm
Chloride(Cl): 28.0 ppm
biCarbonate(HCO3): 86.3 ppm

pH: 7.60

Mash Schedule
-------------
Sacc Rest - 60 min @ 147

Notes
-----
Brewed 7/11/07 With Kyle

Steeped 1 loaf of stale organic Jewish rye bread from WF in 170 degree water (used cooler) for 12 hours. Boiled down wort to 1.75 gallons and added 1/2 gallon of bread water extract. Bread juice was about 1.012, tasted like wet rye bread. 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient added. Cooled to about 90, then divided into 2 4 L jugs and put into the freezer at 65.

In the morning I gave each 30 seconds of O2. One jug got ~1/5 a package of 1056 and the other half got 1 gram of red star highly active yeast.

7/21/07 Bottled each half with 7/8 oz of corn sugar. 1056 FG = 1.008(78% AA), Bread Yeast FG = 1.012 (68% AA)

7/28/07 Tried a bottle of the 1056, seems fully carbed. Nice bready flavor, solid.

Both came out well, the bread yeast half is more interesting and almost has a Belgian twang. The bread yeast half came out a bit over carbonated.

9/15/07 Tasting notes. Turned out to be a great session beer with the bread yeast and 1056 halves being very similar. The bread yeast gives it a slight Belgian character, but both a bready and easy drinking.

Homemade Sourdough Starter (not ambient)

The traditional method for making a sourdough starter is to leave loose (moist) dough outside until it picks up the local microflora (sound more than a little like making a lambic?). In this case, living next to a highway where I'll get more smog than microbes, I decided to use some yeast and microbes that I already have sitting around my home. I mixed a bit of Brett C slurry, kombucha, sauerkraut, and commercial bread yeast together with some flour, water and a pinch of salt. I'll try to keep this one going for awhile to see how it develops.

The kombucha and sauerkraut will provide various strains of lactobacillus as well as other souring microbes (all sourdough has both yeast and lactic acid bacteria, however the strains differ from region to region based on what microbes are native to the area, for example Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis is the signature of San Francisco sourdough). The bread yeast will provide most of the lift and will keep rise times reasonable. I hope the Brett will add some complexity, but that its flavor will not be as assertive as in my 100% Brett bread.

It may take some time for the microbes in the bread to adjust to their environment and start living symbiotically (and weed out the microbes that don't jive with the mixed fermentation environment).

Can Brett make bread?

I had some Brett from Mo Betta Bretta saved in a growler in the fridge. Not having anything else to do with it I decided to see if this yeast could lend its unique flavor to bread. To make things more interesting I decided to also add a few tablespoons of kombucha, I was hopeful that the microbes would get along and make a unique sourdough.

I made a sponge with 6 oz (by weight, so much more accurate than using volume) of all purpose flour, 3/4 cup lukewarm water, about 1/8 cup thick Brett slurry and 1.5 tbsp of fermented kombucha. I let it sit out overnight to make sure the Brett acclimated to its new task. By the morning there was clearly activity, although not as much as I normally get from dry baker's yeast.

I then kneaded in 10 oz of flour, 6 tbls warm water and 1 tsp salt. I put the dough in a saran wrap covered bowl and placed it in the oven with a pan of hot water to rise. After one and a half hours (the normal rise for this recipe) the dough had risen some, but not the requisite doubling. After another hour the dough was close to where it was supposed to be. I shaped the dough into two baguettes and put them back in the oven to rise until dinner time.

After the bread had doubled again (about three hours) I preheated the oven to 500 degrees with my baking stone (large overturned terracotta flowerpot base). The bread baked for about 15 minutes, until it was golden brown and crunchy.

After cooling for 30 minutes the baguette was ready to eat. The smell was mildly funky and Brett like, but other than that looked and tasted just like a regular loaf of bread. The second loaf is spending the night in the refrigerator, I'll save some of the dough from it to see if the Brett will adapt to its new home and produce a suitable sourdough starter.

The next night I used the second half of the dough to make a pizza with some left over roasted pork tenderloin and caramelized onion. The Brett character had intensified and nicely complemented the earthy flavors of the meat, onions and cheese. The dough, even cold, was very easy to work with, I have no idea if I can credit this to the starch munching Brett, or if it was just that particular dough recipe. Sadly, I forgot to save any of the dough, so I guess I'll be making a new starter soon.