Monday, March 14, 2011
Amaranth Belgian Table Beer
9:11 AM | 
Posted by
Ryan
Ive recently been playing catch up with my brewing. The hot summer months here in AZ are coming up quickly and I need to build up my stash of homebrew for the summer. This summer I think I'm going to build up a stock of almost only Belgian ales.
My last attempt at a Belgian Table beer turned out fantastically. Generally when a recipe is as good as that one was I don't mess around with it too much, but I had a few questions from people looking to brew their own and I really think that yeast profile really lets the grain flavors shine through. So I had been thinking of alternative grains that might work well in the beer, and a couple Ive been wanting to brew with recently have been Amaranth and Quinoa.
Ive been eating quite a bit of both lately, and I really thought that the nutty flavor of Amaranth in particular would lend itself well to this type of beer. I googled around trying to find out if anyone else out there had used Amaranth in homebrew, but I didn't have much luck past finding a few references to chicha, or to it being banned by the conquistadors due to its ritualistic use in sacrifices.
Now I wasn't sure what to make of its gravity contribution, so I did some back of the envelope calculations and came up with Amaranth having roughly 30pts/lb/gal, due to its starch content relative to wheat and barley. Amazingly this seemed to work out extremely well, and I hit my numbers exactly post-boil. To prepare the grain for using in the brew, I soaked it in water and boiled if for about 20min. The seed starts out with a whitish color, when its done all the seeds will be translucent. Then I added it to the mash as usual; I did think about blending it so it was smoother, as I was a bit worried about getting the starches out of the tiny seeds but everything seemed to work out well enough. When I use it again though I think I will grind it up first.
For the rest of the recipe I stuck to the basics from the last attempt. A balance of pilsner to get to my desired gravity, and lots of European hops late in the boil. I did knock the IBU's down a notch for this one, but I did that so I could really focus on the flavor contributions to the beer from the amaranth.
| Malt Bill | ||
| Amt (lbs) | Type | |
|---|---|---|
| 7.0 | Pilsner | |
| 1.0 | Amaranth (Boiled) | |
| Hops | ||
| Amt (oz) | Type | Time |
| 0.75 | Mt Rainier (6.8%) | 60 |
| 1.00 | EKGs (4.5%) | 10 |
| 1.50 | EKGs (4.5%) | KO |
| Mash Schedule | ||
| Temp | Ratio | Time |
| 150F | 1qt/lb | 60 |
| 170F | 2qt/lb | 15min - vorlauf |
| Yeast | Ardennes WY3522 - 1.2L Starter | |
| Stats | ||
| 5.5gal | OG | 1041 |
| 80% eff | IBU | 24 |
| 7gal Boil | FG | - |
Labels:
Belgian Beers
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6 comments:
Awesome brew idea! Looking forward to hearing how it turns out.
I made a Belgian wit last year with 50% unmalted amaranth. I ended up with the densest four-finger head I've ever experienced. The head was creamy, perhaps even viscous, and never dissipated. I suspect this was a result of the high protein content found in amaranth. The beer itself was nice, but the head was too much.
Agreed, looks really tasty. I just used buckwheat for the first time, so many grains I need to try out. I need to get my summer beer production ramped up.
What did you use the buckwheat in? I was a bit disappointed with the flavor contribution from buckwheat when I used it, it did give a very thick creamy body though
I put the buckwheat in an amber-ish sour with some Jolly Pumpkin dregs. The wort was almost gloppy pre-boil, but the sample I pulled had a "normal" consistency.
Buckwheat is supposed to have to capric/caprylic acid that Brett (according to Wild Brews) can turn into some interesting fruity esters. I’ve got a dark saison going with buckwheat honey as well.
I used the buckwheat and buckwheat honey in a braggot, and it definitely has a funky note to it, I could see that being pretty interesting in a saison
The bragot, despite how low it finished, had a really nice thick mouthfeel
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