16_Julelager 2018

This beer is based on the Julelager from Bakke Brygg (RIP).

Cool to 9-10 deg C for pitching

Run 11 deg C until gravity reads about 1,035-1,040 (7-9 days) and start to increase temp 2 deg pr 12 hours, up to 19 deg C. Keep it there for 6-10 days and check for diacetyl and acetaldehyde. Once clean, run the temp down 3-4 deg C every 12 hours. Let it stay at 1 deg C for 5 days to drop clear.

Prime with somewhere around 80-100 g table sugar to account for some C02 being absorbed back in the beer from the headspace during cold crashing. Replace the standard hose-in-a-beer bottle airlock to a S-shaped bulb lock to avoid liquid being sucked back into the fermenter.

Leave the bottles at 20-23 deg C for carbonating for 2-3 weeks before storing at 8-10 deg C. Keeping bottles in the fridge 5 days or more prior to consumption, helps the precipitation of most particulate matter and produces a clear and crisp lager beer experience.

Alternative yeast: WLP830, WLP838, Saflager 34/70

Notes:
The mash schedule only yielded 1.052 in our brewolution masher. Normally we get an efficiency of 75% with this setup. Ended up adding 250-300 g light DME and got 1.060 in the fermentor. Might be that the 72 degrees step could have been extended to increase efficiency, a little lost here?

We first added 2 g of the christmas spices, and got little to no aroma at boil. Decided to add 10g more of each to push it into the X-mas groove a little better. Those 10g only got about 5 min at boil. Only about 8g of the nellikspiker was crushed, the rest was whole seeds which probably didn't transfer over to fermentor.

This didn't go very well, unless you love the taste of nellik in beer. It is X-massy alright, but reeks of nellik. We'll probably bottle a case or so, just in case it smoothes out with storage.. But other than that, the taste now before bottling isn't very promising. It definitely was a mistake to add the powdered nellikspiker. Totally overwhelming.