I recently have been looking
through some of my brewing books. In
particular, I’ve been fascinated by adding various botanicals to my beer, with
the effect of flavor, but also other attributes. In particular, I’ve been scouring through Homebrewer’s Garden by Dennis Fisher and
Joe Fisher. I like the way the book
presents brewing herbs. The authors give
a brief description of the plant, how/where it is best grown, and then how it
applies to brewing. Most valuable of the
brewing section of each herb, they usually give recommended amounts.
A lot has been thrown around
on the Milk the Funk Facebook page about head retention in sour beers. For whatever scientific reason, they many
times go flat as soon as you pour them like a glass of champagne. While reading the Homebrewer’s Garden book, one plant stuck out in my mind,
licorice. On page 88 of the book, the
authors claim,
“Licorice
has a long history as a brewing ingredient.
Licorice contributes a sweet flavor and long-lasting head to beer. The characteristic flavor of licorice candy
comes from anise, not licorice root.”
This got me thinking about
how I could apply this in a sour beer.
It brings two things to the table that in my opinion that a sour beer
needs, a touch of sweetness and head retention.
Before I went out and used it in a longer turnaround sour beer, I
thought it would be good to add it to a quick turn around clean beer. I hadn’t brewed a mild in a while, and I
though it might be an excellent candidate.
Here is the recipe that I came up with to test out licorice:
Recipe: A Mild Lick Brewed: April 19, 2016
Style: Mild
TYPE: All Grain
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50
gal
Estimated OG: 1.036 SG
Estimated Color: 20.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 15.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
6 lbs 3.8 oz Maris Otter (Crisp) (4.0 SRM) 82.0 %
9.7 oz Crystal Malt 50/60L (55.0 SRM) 8.0 %
7.3 oz Crystal, Extra Dark (160.0 SRM) 6.0 %
4.9 oz Chocolate Malt (475.0 SRM) 4.0 %
10.00 g Phoenix [10.50 %] - First Wort 60.0 min 15.1 IBUs
7.00 g Licorice Root 60.0
min
0.50 Items Whirlfloc Tablet 10.0 min
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient 10.0 min
1.0 pkg London Ale III (Wyeast Labs #1318)
Mash Schedule: Single
Infusion, Batch Sparge Equal Runnings
Mash In Add 11.05 qt of water at 167.9 F 154.0 F 60 min
Mash Step Add 6.00 qt of water at 198.7 F 168.0 F 10 min
Batch sparge with 2 steps
(Drain mash tun , 3.53gal) of 185.0 F water
The licorice root I used was
in little chunks about 1/8 inch in size. To get an idea of the flavor I made a
tea of a couple of teaspoons of the root and a cup of water. I let it steep for 10-15 minutes and sampled
it. It tasted nothing like the anise
flavor that I had assumed it would have.
The beer came out very
nice. The actual numbers came out 1.035
OG, 1.012 FG, 3.06% ABV. It was kind of
a standard dark mild that was easy to crush 3-4 with out relying on the wall
for support while staggering down the hallway afterward. If I brewed it again, I would probably lower
the chocolate malt by a percent, maybe lower the dark crystal (because I get a
little bit of bitterness out of it), and pay closer attention to my carbonation. I shot for 2.0 volumes, but I was probably a
little closer to 2.5.
What was amazing about the
beer was the effect that licorice root had on what was a pretty ordinary
beer. First off, the sweetness was not
what I thought it would be from the description. It was very much in the background. It had an artificial sweetener thing going on
in a good way. It also had the tiniest
amount of an herbal note, which was nice but hard for me to describe. What it did not have was the anisey note that
we all know as licorice candy.
Second, the beer’s head
retention was off the chart. Granted
there was quite a bit of crystal malt in the beer, but I saw way more lasting
foam than other beers I have made with a comparable level of crystal
malts. And by off the chart, the beer
laced the glass all the way down. And it
was the kind of lace that I had to scrub off with a scour pad, because the
dishwasher wouldn’t get it off the glass.
It also hung around quite a while, too.
I left a glass of the beer out for thirty minutes and it still had an
appreciable head. Unfortunately, I have
lost the photo that I took of it, so I guess you’ll have to take my word for
it.
Summary: I think I have
satisfied my curiosity and convinced myself that it would be worth a shot in
any number of different sour beers. It
could go well in any number of quick sours, and at 7 grams per 5 gallons, it
wouldn’t have too much of a flavor impact.
It could also work in some longer-term sour/brett beers, although I am
not aware how Brett would interact with it chemically. Brett might be able to break it down, but I’m
not sure about that. Another thing worth
noting are the precautions associated with using licorice. The herb uses up potassium in the body when
consumed regularly, but at the tiny amount I used here, I doubt there would be
any problems. Also, it will eat up the
fins on a recirculation pump, so put it in some kind of hopsack or mesh bag.
No comments:
Post a Comment