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Raw Ale in Berlin

9/19/2016

3 Comments

 
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Breaking tradition with a traditional raw ale

​Raw ale is beer brewed without boiling. This particular style of brewing, for me, is one of the most intriguing. It's quite possibly one of the oldest ways humans brewed beer. The technology to get something boiling is much more complex than simply maintaining high temperature, as would be necessary for the mashing process. As with most things in archaeology, though, this is tough to prove.

Beer for me is defined as an alcoholic beverage whose sugars are derived from cereals. Given the adaptability of wheat, barley, rye, and oats to cold/wet climates, these grains became the dominant brewing materials. As a result, western society has, over time, come to define beer as an alcoholic beverage made from mainly malted barley, water, hops, and yeast, with the brewing process as mash, boil, and fermentation. Turning to history, one quickly finds that this idea is only a modern one. Raw ale is a perfect example as to why current brewing dogma needs more historical inspirations.

History

Raw ale is part of the larger Northern European ‘farmhouse ale’ family. Efforts to preserve such traditional brewing started around the 18th century, but more concrete research began with John Granlund's survey of Nordic brewing in 1928 (Revised with corrections, thanks to Lars Garshol). My entry into Nordic brewing history stems from Odd Nordland’s Brewing and Beer Traditions in Norway, published in 1969. It was based on a census in Norway in the 1950s, asking questions about the brewing process. I haven’t had the chance to read Nordland’s work, but it has been cited plenty by archaeologists (leading to my frustration with its unavailability). 

Thankfully, Lars Garshol has explored Odd’s work, and researched into the style extensively. Coincidentally, he has recently published a book on the topic. It was his prolific exploration of farmhouse breweries, and the discovery of these different styles that inspired me to brew a raw ale. 
​

Set Up

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One problem, I don’t have a homebrew setup in Berlin (the joys of moving countries). So, I got together with the awesome folks over at Pirate Brewing who were kind enough to let me throw Brettanomyces into their fermenters. The two-person team used to run homebrewing parties out in Spain and have recently gone pro out here in Berlin. They also have a killer brew set up at home. 
​

Gammel Bonde

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Recipe design based on the research carried out by Lars Garshol
​

Smell - Ripe banana, with a hint of pine. Don't smell any DMS, nor any hint of sourness.

Appearance - Two to three fingers thick fluffy white head, with some haziness. I didn’t expect the beer to be as clear as it was. Given the increase of proteins and unfermentable sugars, I anticipated full on haze.

Taste - Banana meringue or banana flavored whipped cream with a dry finish. Going into this brew session blind, I couldn’t be happier with how this turned out. I expected a 100% malt bomb, but we got something similar to a dry hefeweizen. Neither cloying nor lingering flavor.

Mouthfeel - Full bodied, but over carbonated. These immediately foamed once you opened a bottle. 

Final Thoughts: I am seriously surprised by this beer. I anticipated a DMS-filled malt wreck, but it was a well balanced and easy drinking. Plus, it was one of the easier brew days I’ve had, so that makes it even more appealing. According to Lars, the beers go bad quicker than normal beers. But for the sake of experimentation, we’ll keep a bottle or two to see what happens. There are Lacto- and Brett in the bottles, so perhaps something good will happen.

Changes: More branches. I didn't detect too much juniper/pine flavor, and it would have played nicely with the strong banana flavor. Also, it would be interesting to play with the malt bill. I’d like to see how oats or rye would play into a beer like this. 


Recipe

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Mash length: 2 h
Boil time: 0 h
Final volume: 19l (~5 gal)
OG: 12 P
FG: 1.3 P
ABV: 5.7%

Malt: 4.5 kg Pale Malt
Hops: 84 g Fuggles @ 120 min
Other: 1 bag full of Juniper / Pine branches 
Yeast: Belgian Saison Blend from White Labs

Notes:
  • Brewed on August 28th
  • Signs of fermentation on August 29th
  • Bottled on September 4th
  • Brewed on a Braumeister
  • Tasted on September 7th
3 Comments
Lars Marius Garshol link
9/20/2016 02:18:02 am

Documentation of the farmhouse brewing culture actually began way back in the 18th century, but the first organized effort to document it started with John Granlund's issuing of the first farmhouse brewing questionnaire from the Nordic Museum in 1928.

Rye should work fine in raw ale, being common in sahti, for example. I haven't tried oats, but beware that you already have a lot of protein in the beer, and the oats will leave even more protein in a raw ale than it usually does.

(And thank you for all the kind words! :)

Reply
Jordan Rex link
9/20/2016 03:41:46 am

Noted and revised! Thanks for the info. Just out of curiosity, was there much of a difference between farmhouse brewing and industrial brewing around the 18th century in Norway?

Interesting! I'm really eager to brew some more, and hopefully, someday, make it out to Norway and try a real one.

Reply
Lars Marius Garshol link
9/20/2016 09:48:32 am

The difference between farmhouse and industrial brewing in 18th century Norway is a good one. Right now the answer is that I don't know, because I don't have any documentation of what "industrial" brewing was like in Norway at that time, or what scale it had. It's possible that the commercial brewing at that time was only small inns and town breweries that brewed in the farmhouse style. Or maybe not, because I have seen mention of "Norwegian broyhan". I don't know yet.

If you want to try real farmhouse ale in Norway then don't hurry, because right now it's very hard to get. I'm hoping that situation will improve, but it's going to take a while. :-)

Reply



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    Jordan Rex

    Beer archaeologist

    From California, migrated to the UK to study,  drank in Berlin, now settled in Switzerland

    @timelytipple
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