Archives for December 2013

Here’s what you need to brew this, in addition to your normal extract brewing equipment — a 3-gallon (11-L) beverage cooler and a large grain steeping sack. A relatively big brewpot, like the 5-gallon (19-L) one in the picture, is also needed.

Here’s Krampus Klaws, a 14% ABV holiday lager that’s very reminiscent of Samichlaus, in a stovetop extract formulation. To brew this, you’ll need a 3-gallon (11-L) beverage cooler (the kind with a spigot for serving drinks) and a grain bag large enough to hold 6.0 lbs. (2.7 kg) of malt. (The recipe uses a small partial mash. This is completely explained in the procedures, in case you’ve never done a partial mash before.)

For best results, you’ll also need to be able to boil 3.5 gallons (13 L) of beer. In other words, you’ll need a 5-gallon (~20-L) brewpot. The biggest key to successfully brewing this beer is raising enough yeast (in your yeast starter) and holding the fermentation temperature as constant as possible.

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The Krampus puts a child in a bag.

Here’s the recipe for Krampus Klaws, worked out for BIAB procedures. This is a huge beer and requires lots of grain. You can scale down the grain bill and batch size to make things more manageable, if needed.

To brew the full 5.0-gallon (19-L) recipe, you’ll need a 15-gallon (~60-L) kettle. I would recommend splitting the grain into two (or more) bags as the wet grains for this recipe will weigh approximately 52 lbs. (24 kg).

This is a stepped infusion mash and you’ll need to be able to stir your mash as you heat. The mash thickness is such that this shouldn’t be a problem if you have a large enough mash paddle. It’s unlikely you’ll hit your target OG with the grains alone, so you’ll need to hold a small amount (about 3.5 lbs/1.6 kg) of dried malt extract in reserve. Other than the mash details, everything about this recipe is the same as the continuous sparging recipe. The biggest key to success is making the large volume yeast starter wort called for.

Tomorrow, I’ll post a workable stovetop extract version of this monster beer.

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The Krampus, collecting a bad child and stuffing him into his basket.

December 6th is the day that Samichlaus is traditionally brewed. Samichlaus was at one time the strongest beer in the world, a malty holiday lager clocking in at 14% ABV. The Hurlimann Brewery made it every December 6th, then conditioned it for 9 months to be released the next holiday season. In 1996, they stopped production, but in 1999 the brand was picked up by Castle Brewery Eggenberg.

I’ve brewed a Samichlaus clone twice before. It’s challenging to brew, ferment and condition, but well worth it when the beer is finished. Below I present my modified recipe, based on my brewing and tasting notes for the next time I brew it. In this recipe, I dialed down the amount of crystal 60, added a little bit of aromatic malt and altered the percentages of the other malts slightly compared to my previous brews. Nothing drastic, just fiddling. I also ditched a single decoction mash for a ramped infusion mash and refined the procedures just a bit, based on my previous experiences.

The biggest key to brewing this beer is running a good fermentation. The yeast strain chosen — White Labs Zurich Lager yeast — can handle the job if you make a large enough starter. (This is a seasonal yeast from White Labs, available September through October, but your homebrew shop might still have some in stock. If not, brew this next year.) Without the starter, you’d need 9 tubes of yeast (9.2 actually, according to the Mr. Malty calculator). With time, temperature control and a little swirling at the end, you can coax the yeast to get the job done.

Samichlaus is, of course, named after Santa Claus, or St. Nicholas. I’ve named this homage Krampus Klaws, after the Krampus, the “Christmas demon.” In Europe, the Krampus is St. Nick’s sidekick. While the good St. Nicholas rewards children for behaving around the holidays, the Krampus punishes them for being bad. December 5th is Krampusnacht (“Night of the Krampus”) every year — if you survive that next year, brew this beer on the 6th.

I have also posted brew-in-a-bag (BIAB) and stovetop extract versions of this recipe. 

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