IDEA
One night I got my hands on a beer called Zen Mode from Ugar Brewery. The beer was a session pale ale with oats and infused with green tea. It was so good it immediately got me thinking, what if I do a similar beer but try to achieve the green tea flavor without any green tea. In my search for hops with such a character, I came across the fairly new Diamant.
Recipe
I want to emphasize that this is not a clone recipe, thus I did not check any information (other than what’s on the label) about the beer. My goal was to create a fresh, crushable, mid-low alcohol beer with a good body and nice spicy/herbal notes.
This was my second brewday with the new strike:sparge water ratio to test out if this makes any real difference. I will try this method a couple of times and write down the final verdict in one of my upcoming recipes.
Stats:
Est. OG: 1.045
Est. FG: 1.011
ABV 3.8%
Color: 3.9 SRM
IBU: 35.2
Est. Brewhouse Efficiency: 82%
Boil-Time: 60 minutes
Water Profile: IPA/Pale Ale
| Name | Temperature (Metric) | Temperature (US) | Time (minute) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mash In | 67.8C | 154.04F | 60 | |||||||
| Mash Out | 75.6C | 168.08F | 10 | |||||||
| Boil | 100C | 212F | 60 |
| Name | Weight (Metric) | Weight (US) | Percentage | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weyermann Pale Ale | 2 kg | 4.41 lb | 54.1% | |||||||
| Crisp Maris Otter | 0.8 kg | 1.75 lb | 21.6% | |||||||
| Flaked Oats | 0.5 kg | 1.1 lb | 13.5% | |||||||
| Weyermann Carafoam | 0.2 kg | 0.44 lb | 5.4% | |||||||
| Rice Hulls | 0.2 kg | 0.44 lb | 5.4% |
| Name | Weight (Metric) | Weight (US) | IBU | Alpha Acid | Time (minute) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magnum | 8g | 0.28 oz | 13.4 | 12.5% | 60 | |||||
| Diamant | 22g | 0.78 oz | 11.3 | 6.3% | 20 | |||||
| Diamant | 22g | 0.78 oz | 6.8 | 6.3% | 10 | |||||
| Diamant | 56g | 1.98 oz | 6.8 | 6.3% | 20 Whirlpool |
| Name | Producer | Type | Style | Dry Alternatives | Liquid Alternatives | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hotspur Viking (YF-503) | Yeastflow | Liquid | Voss Kveik | - | Yeastbay Voss Kveik |
| Strike Water (Metric) | Strike Water (US) | Sparge Water (Metric) | Sparge Water (US) | Ca | Mg | Na | SO4 | Cl | HCO3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23L | 6.08 gal | 5L | 1.32 gal | 60 ppm | 7 ppm | 7 ppm | 141 ppm | 28 ppm | 7 ppm |
| Name | Weight (Metric) | Weight (US) | Time (minute) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yeast Nutrient | 1g | 0.04 oz | 15 | |||||||
| L-Ascorbic Acid | 3g | 0.11 oz | Strike Water before mash |
Brewday
Since I already collected the RO water yesterday, I only needed to crush the malts to begin the brewday.
With the bigger amount of strike water, it was easy to mix the grains into the water.
After 10 minutes I checked the PH of the wort, it was within the ideal range.
The pre-boil gravity came 0.002 point below the predicted 1.039.
I measured the hop additions, while heating the wort to boil. I’m using whirlpool instead of dry-hoping, because of the relatively low alpha acid content of the hops.
I added the bittering hops when the wort reached boiling temperature. After 40 minutes, the flavor hops were the next, which was followed by the aroma and then the whirlpool additions.
After the boil was done, I cooled down the wort to 30C (86F) and measured the OG. The measured value was 1.040 which, after correction, was 1.043.
The fermentation temperature was between 28C (82.4F) - 33.8C (92.84F), with an average of 30.1C (86.18F).
Please note that the gravity readings by my iSpindel are used for the tracking of the fermentation and should not be taken as specific gravity.
With correction, the final gravity indicated the previously observed differences, with a 0.003 gravity point of deviation.
Tasting
First week: The aroma of the beer was reminiscent of herbals. In its taste, the beer had distinct herbal and spicy notes, with slight citrusy tones. The malt and the oats gave it a smooth and mildly bready/sweet body. The voss kveik gave the beer an extra citrusy layer, which nicely complemented the hops. The overall experience was amazing and there was no giveaway of the lower ABV.
Later on: The beer had a short life as it was a great success among my friends. Because of this, I could not determine the long-term effects of storage.
Conclusion
Like on many other occasions, I didn’t really have any experience making such a beer. I had to scour the internet for hops, because my first and second choices were unavailable at the moment. Also, I never really used oats in a pale ale, so my expectations were low with this brew. The end product surpassed these low expectations, and the beer became one of my favorite. I will definitely re-visit this recipe with new ideas. Until then, I recommend you give this brew a try, although I don’t recommend brewing it with a non NEIPA compatible yeast strain.