New Recipe Spotlight!
The Brewer
-I’m Chris, my wife is Jenny and we’re Broken Branch Brewing. We started homebrewing back in 2016 and were sort of blind to craft beer back then, but trying a Märzen from a local brewery opened up the realm of homebrewing. I was looking for a way to unleash my inner creativity and I found it.
-After reading up on brewing (not comprehending 90% of what I read) I went out and bought a kit. I brewed on my stovetop for 2 batches and moved to a BIAB system. To my surprise, all of my friends loved the beers on those systems, or they were just too kind to tell me it belonged down the drain.
-I love that I can lock in or tweak any recipe and easily recreate a crowd favorite on the 15-gallon Spike Trio. I took home 1st place at NY Homebrew Alley!
The Beer
-The name of the beer was given life after we brewed a Munich helles lager—named “Lange Reise”, meaning long journey in German. We wanted to give the beer another layer so we added 20% Weyermann beechwood smoked malt. When developing the recipe, I think I told Jenny, “I want to release the smoke.” So it fit perfectly!
-The flavor profile is what you would expect of a traditional helles lager but the beechwood smoked malt adds that “is there smoked brisket in this?” to the aroma and on the finish. 20% smoked malt is the perfect amount and doesn’t overpower the base beer.
The Why
-This beer is all about execution—yeast pitch rate, fermentation temperature, and water profile will play a large role. Try to follow the water profile of a yellow dry beer (under 6 SRM). As for fermentation temperature-you can either ferment this at 50 degrees for 2 weeks with a 3-4 day diacetyl rest or if you have the ability to use a spunding valve you can ferment at 60 degrees.
-If using a spunding valve, I ferment under 6 PSI and then raise pressure to also carbonate during the end of fermentation. Once fermentation is complete, lager at 34-35 degrees for 6-8 weeks.
@brokenbranchbrewing