Swedish indigenous beers
<editor's note> Fredric, does any of this bring memories of home? From a post to the HBD. </editor's note>
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 06:27:27 -0500 (EST) From: Jonathan Royce Subject: Swedish indigenous beers Jim Wilson asks for Info on Swedish indigenous beers: I found some recipes here from a Swedish homebrew site: http://www.shbf.se/Hembryggning/old_recept/recept.php In the rightmost column is the heading "Specialol". There is a recipe for Gotlandsdricka (which I've translated below). There is another for Svagdricka, which many Swedes might today call "lattol" or even "folkol"--it's a very low alcohol beer. My personal favorite (which is not listed on the above website) of the Swedish varieties is julol or Christmas beer. Most of the major Scandanavian breweries have a variety of this, which is (at its most basic) a Vienna dark lager. Here's a recipe for a Gold medal winner (FWIW): http://hem2.passagen.se/frhj/recept/1999_ulfards_originalwiener.htm If you (or anyone else on the list) wants one of the other recipes translated, send me an email and I'll do my best. Hope that helps with your task at hand. You've got me inspired to try a Gotlandsdricka now. SKAL! Jon Woodbury Brewing Co. www.woodburybrewingco.com GOTLANDSDRICKA recipe makes 125 liters 25 kg Gotlansk malt 37 liters juniper twigs (loosely packed) 6 kg brown sugar 6.5 kg table sugar + Water used is from Klintehamn + 33 grams Gotlansk hops (7.0% AAU) - 20 minutes + Fresh baker's yeast + 60 minute single temp mash at 68 C Begin by making a juniper liquor with 80 liters of water and approx. 25 liters of juniper (a paper grocery bag, loosely packed). Heat to boiling. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and let the juniper stand in the water 8 hours (overnight). Prepare the mash in a large pot by adding the 25 kg of malt and enough water so that the malt is completely covered. Let convert approx. 60 minutes, mixing occasionally. (Don't use your mash tun--you'll need this later.) Discard the juniper twigs and heat the juniper liquor to boiling. Sparging and lautering should take place in a mash tun with a bottom drain valve. In the bottom of the tun, spread 12 kg of fresh juniper twigs (1/2 a paper bag, loosely packed) to create a filter bed. Ladle the malt onto the juniper bed and pour the rest of the sweet wort into the tun. The boiling juniper liquor is now poured into the tun so that it is completely full. Let the mixture stand an additional 60 minutes. Drain the sweet wort via the bottom valve. Recirculate and sparge with enough water to have 125 liters of wort. Heat the wort to boiling and carefully skim off the hot break. Add the brown sugar, table sugar and hops (in a hop bag). Boil the wort 60 minutes, removing the hop bag after 20 minutes. Chill to 20-25 C and add 1/3 teaspoon of fresh bakers yeast. After 2 days of vigorous fermentation, rack to a secondary. After 4-6 days of secondary fermentation, the drink is ready for consumption. This drink continues to develop positively for awhile but is considered to be a fresh good and should be not be saved for a long time. The sediment which continues to grow over time can be removed by additional racking. In order to prolong the fermentation, the yeast can be fed regularly with small portions of sugar. Note that this drink should be consumed while the yeast is active. Directly after fermentation this drink is really sweet. The sweetness diminishes, of course, with time. Description of the raw ingredients: Water should have a high calcium content (should be hard). Juniper should be newly picked and fresh, best if the berries are still present. The wood should not be thicker than 10-15 mm. The malt should be from Gotland with a weak smoke aroma and slightly darker color than normal lager malt. (This could be replaced with lager malt combined with 3-5% smoked malt and 0.5% "color" malt (**color may be crystal?) The hops are a variety that is often grown in Gotland. (German or Czech hops could also be used.)
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