Farmhouse Ale

Get advice on making beer from raw ingredients (malt, hops, water and yeast)
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Peatbogbrewer
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Farmhouse Ale

Post by Peatbogbrewer » Sat Mar 18, 2017 8:45 pm

Hiya,

Ive got a spare kilo of maris, flaked rye and some wheat malt and I'm thinking of experimenting with a gallon sahti/gotslandricka type ale. I've been inspired by Lars Garshol, his blog is excellent for farmhouse ale traditions (http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/archive1.html).
So I'm gonna use juniper berries to flavour mash water and add to the boil. A little hops for preservative value. Some bog myrtle. I don't know if to boil the wort or ferment raw?
Also considering the yeast, some say baking yeast, others a hefeweizen yeast to achieve the banana and phenolic notes.
Has anybody else tried anything like this?
To boil or not to boil and and baking yeast or not?
What do you think?

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Re: Farmhouse Ale

Post by Wonkydonkey » Sat Mar 18, 2017 9:13 pm

Defo Boil, and kill all those darn bugs..after all you want a half good beer.. Yeast, well that's up to you, I just grab what ever is in flavour at the time.. 8)

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Re: Farmhouse Ale

Post by jaroporter » Sun Mar 19, 2017 11:48 am

raw ale works. it's heated to pasteurisation temperatures anyways.
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Re: Farmhouse Ale

Post by Peatbogbrewer » Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:44 pm

jaroporter wrote:raw ale works. it's heated to pasteurisation temperatures anyways.
You sound like a person of experience jaroporter?

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Re: Farmhouse Ale

Post by Peatbogbrewer » Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:46 pm

Wonkydonkey wrote:Defo Boil, and kill all those darn bugs..after all you want a half good beer.. Yeast, well that's up to you, I just grab what ever is in flavour at the time.. 8)

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You brewed something similar WD?

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Re: Farmhouse Ale

Post by jaroporter » Sun Mar 19, 2017 9:34 pm

not personally so much, but a dude at our brewclub has. believe he was inspired by the same blog. he's made some more regular styles (where you wouldn't expect/want "funk") raw, rather than farmhouse, and had good success. maybe he'll see this and jump in. maybe you'll find some difference in mouthfeel (proteins kept intact) without boiling, but just saying killing the bugs isn't the consideration.
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Re: Farmhouse Ale

Post by Peatbogbrewer » Mon Mar 20, 2017 7:59 pm

jaroporter wrote:not personally so much, but a dude at our brewclub has. believe he was inspired by the same blog. he's made some more regular styles (where you wouldn't expect/want "funk") raw, rather than farmhouse, and had good success. maybe he'll see this and jump in. maybe you'll find some difference in mouthfeel (proteins kept intact) without boiling, but just saying killing the bugs isn't the consideration.
ah nice one, who is it?

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Re: Farmhouse Ale

Post by YeastFace Brew Co. » Tue Mar 21, 2017 10:03 pm

Last year I brewed an attempt at Gotlandsdricka, didn't turn out smoky enough. I only used 10% smoked malt in with some Lager and Munich. Turned out very clear, despite only having a 10 minute boil and being fermented with baker's yeast.

Recently I brewed something approximating a Norwegian Farmhouse Ale. Lars has recently offered his thoughts/definitions on some of the different styles/regional difference but mine doesn't seem to fit into any of these.

I have a juniper bush so made an infusion and trimmed some boughs off to line my mash tun. I also added a handful of hops to the mash.

Malts were a mix of pale, Munich, Vienna and a touch of wheat (would need to check, was a bit of a user-upper). Wort was not boiled at all (a raw ale, the mash temp will pasteurise) and fermented with baker's yeast. I made the error of attempting to prime with honey and it's ended up quite overcarbed (in normal beer terms, so far too much for this style) however tastes very interesting after it's settled down. Next time I will leave the carbonation low as it should be and may try one of the commercial kveik strains.

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Re: Farmhouse Ale

Post by Peatbogbrewer » Wed Mar 22, 2017 5:42 pm

YeastFace Brew Co. wrote:Last year I brewed an attempt at Gotlandsdricka, didn't turn out smoky enough. I only used 10% smoked malt in with some Lager and Munich. Turned out very clear, despite only having a 10 minute boil and being fermented with baker's yeast.

Recently I brewed something approximating a Norwegian Farmhouse Ale. Lars has recently offered his thoughts/definitions on some of the different styles/regional difference but mine doesn't seem to fit into any of these.

I have a juniper bush so made an infusion and trimmed some boughs off to line my mash tun. I also added a handful of hops to the mash.

Malts were a mix of pale, Munich, Vienna and a touch of wheat (would need to check, was a bit of a user-upper). Wort was not boiled at all (a raw ale, the mash temp will pasteurise) and fermented with baker's yeast. I made the error of attempting to prime with honey and it's ended up quite overcarbed (in normal beer terms, so far too much for this style) however tastes very interesting after it's settled down. Next time I will leave the carbonation low as it should be and may try one of the commercial kveik strains.
Nice one! I think I'm going to go for the Norwegian Farmhouse. I don't have any common juniper so will get the flavour via juniper berries. how did you go about using the bakers yeast, any particular brand you used? Ill need a better water bath heater for kveik, it goes up to 30 degs max. What were hops for both brews? My NFA will feature pale malt, munich, wheat and flaked rye.

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Re: Farmhouse Ale

Post by YeastFace Brew Co. » Wed Mar 22, 2017 6:38 pm

I used Allinson's, but if you're able to get hold of some Norwegian it may be more authentic (I think the brand Lars mentions in Blå, but can't check at the moment).

I made a starter, thinking being to get the yeast in a dominant position over any wild strains or lactobacillus which may be present in the package. Whether this was needed or not, I'm not sure - but there was no recognisable funk or sourness in either case.

You may be able to use Kveik without a heater, the range is from 22-38°c, without much change in profile (according to The Yeast Bay).

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Re: Farmhouse Ale

Post by Peatbogbrewer » Wed Mar 22, 2017 9:02 pm

Excellent, did you do a 4.5l batch? if so how much bread yeast did you use?

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Re: Farmhouse Ale

Post by legion » Mon Mar 27, 2017 11:25 am

Hi, it was me that jaroporter mentioned. I have brewed 3 raw ales this year (hoppy 3.5% table beer, 4.5% Pilsner and a 10% Wee Heavy), after the mash i heat it up to 75c to pasteurize, then cool and ferment.

The table beer is the oldest, kegged in January and it's still tasting great.
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Re: Farmhouse Ale

Post by rlemkin » Tue Apr 04, 2017 9:45 am

legion wrote:Hi, it was me that jaroporter mentioned. I have brewed 3 raw ales this year (hoppy 3.5% table beer, 4.5% Pilsner and a 10% Wee Heavy), after the mash i heat it up to 75c to pasteurize, then cool and ferment.

The table beer is the oldest, kegged in January and it's still tasting great.
Jumping on the bandwagon to echo Legion's experience. I have brewed a far few raw Berliner Weisse and they've been great up to a year afterwards.

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Re: Farmhouse Ale

Post by Peatbogbrewer » Thu Apr 06, 2017 8:59 pm

rlemkin wrote:
legion wrote:Hi, it was me that jaroporter mentioned. I have brewed 3 raw ales this year (hoppy 3.5% table beer, 4.5% Pilsner and a 10% Wee Heavy), after the mash i heat it up to 75c to pasteurize, then cool and ferment.

The table beer is the oldest, kegged in January and it's still tasting great.
Jumping on the bandwagon to echo Legion's experience. I have brewed a far few raw Berliner Weisse and they've been great up to a year afterwards.
Like the sound of of the table ale. So what are the main differences to a boiled wort? Berliner weisse? Never tried one, how are they to brew?

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