“Freya’s” Eyes Golden Ale (All-grain)

Here is an all-grain recipe for a golden ale. Through malt choice, and the fact that the grain bed in fully sparged, a grainy/bread-y malt character is achieved. This crisp beer showcases a blend of hops that balance the malt and are aggressive enough to keep the beer from being insipid. A Belgian yeast strain is used, but at a pitching rate and fermentation temperature that will yield a mostly clean fermentation. (This strain also flocculates out well, but produces a lot of kräusen.) In all, a golden ale with a bit more character than is usually seen in light or blonde ales.

Thor dresses as Freyja to retrieve his hammer. Painting by Elmer Boyd Smith (1902)

The name “Freya’s” Eyes comes from an old Norse myth. In it, Thor’s hammer is stolen by a frost giant. The frost giant agrees to return it in exchange for the hand of Freyja — the Norse goddess of love and fertility — in marriage. Loki convinces Thor to dress as Freyja and retrieve the hammer by trickery. So, when “Freya” arrives in the hall of the frost giant, he is shocked at how much “Freyja” can eat and how much mead “she” can drink. At one point, he looks behind “her” veil and sees a set of very, very angry blue eyes. Later in the marriage feast, the frost giant decides to present Thor’s hammer to his new bride and things turn ugly for the assembled frost giants.

There is also an extract version of this recipe.

“Freyja’s” Eyes

Golden ale

by Chris Colby

All-grain; English units

DESCRIPTION

A crisp golden ale with a grainy and bready pale malt flavor. Hop bitterness and flavor are quite high for this type of beer, but not to the point of masking the malt character. The relatively high pitching rate and low fermentation temperatures yield a fairly clean fermentation, even though a Belgian yeast strain is used.

INGREDIENTS (for 5 gallons)

Water

adjust brewing liquor so that mash falls into pH range of 5.2–5.4

Malt (for an OG of 1.052 and 8 SRM)

5.0 lbs. US 6-row malt

3.0 lbs. German Pilsner malt

1 lb. 4 oz. Vienna malt

7.0 oz. crystal malt (30 °L)

Hops (for 29 IBUs total)

0.30 oz. Magnum hops (12% alpha acids, 60 mins) (13 IBU)

0.25 oz. Centennial hops (10% alpha acids, 60 mins) (9 IBU)

0.50 oz. Willamette hops ((5% alpha acids, 15 mins) (5 IBU)

0.25 oz.  Cascade hops (5% alpha acids, 15 mins) (2 IBU)

0.50 oz. Willamette hops (0 mins)

0.25 oz. Amarillo hops (0 mins)

Yeast (for an FG of 1.012 and 5.2% ABV)

Wyeast 3787 (Trappist High Gravity) or White Labs WLP530 (Abbey Ale) yeast

(2.5-qt. yeast starter)

or

Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) yeast

(1.5-qt. yeast starter)

or

relatively neutral ale yeast of your choice

(make appropriate sized starter and ferment at a temperature that will yield a fairly clean fermentation)

Other 

1 tsp. Irish moss

Optional: 1 vial Clarity Ferm or 8 g (~3 tsp.)  Polyclar AT (PVPP)

4.75 oz. corn sugar (for priming to 2.5 volumes of CO₂)

PROCEDURES

Make yeast starter 2–3 days ahead of brewday. (Do not use Belgian yeast strain unless you make the specified size yeast starter.) Aerate starter wort well. On brewday, heat 13 qts. of brewing liquor to 163 °F and mash grains at 152 °F for 60 minutes. Mash out to 168 °F. Recirculate the wort for 20 minutes, or until it clears significantly, whichever comes first. Collect around 6.5 gallons of wort over 90 minutes by continuous sparging. Keep the sparge water heated so that the grain bed temperature remains at 168 °F. Monitor the final runnings and don’t quit sparging as long as the pH is below 5.8 (or the specific gravity is above 1.010). Taste the final runnings to ensure that you are not extracting excessive tannins. Boil the wort hard for 60–90 minutes to reduce the wort volume to just over 5.0 gallons (5.0 gallons of usable wort plus about 1.5-2 qts. of trub). If hot break does not appear as big, fluffy flakes after first 10 minutes of boil, add 0.25 tsp. each of calcium chloride and gypsum. Add hops and Irish moss at times indicated. Chill wort to 65 °F and transfer to fermenter. Aerate the wort thoroughly and pitch sediment from yeast starter. Ferment at 66 °F. (Ferment at 68 °F if using American ale yeast strain.) If feasible, after fermentation has been complete for 2–3 days, rack to secondary and move fermenter to a cool location (below fermentation temperature, but above freezing). Cold condition for 2 weeks. Bottle or keg and carbonate to 2.5 volumes of CO₂.

Option (for clearer beer): Add 1 vial of White Labs Clarity Ferm when yeast is pitched. Alternately, if you rack to secondary, dissolve 8 g of PVPP in roughly 2 fl. oz. 60 mL of hot water and gently stir into top layer of beer. Let settle overnight, then rack beer to keg or bottling bucket.

Batch Sparging Option: Collect three worts total. Mash with 3.4 gallons (13 L), recirculate and collect first wort (approximately 2.2 gallons/8.5 L). For each of the subsequent two sparges, add 2.1 gallons (8 L), recirculate and collect the wort.

“Freyja’s” Eyes

Golden Ale

by Chris Colby

All-grain; metric units

INGREDIENTS (for 19 L)

Water

adjust brewing liquor so that the mash falls into pH range of 5.2–5.4

Malt (for an OG of 1.052 and 8 SRM)

2.3 kg US 6-row malt

1.4 kg German Pilsner malt

570 g Vienna malt

200 g crystal malt (30 °L)

Hops (for 29 IBUs total)

8.5 g Magnum hops (12% alpha acids, 60 mins) (13 IBU)

7.1 g Centennial hops (10% alpha acids, 60 mins) (9 IBU)

14 g Willamette hops  (5% alpha acids, 15 mins) (5 IBU)

7.1 g Cascade hops (5% alpha acids, 15 mins) (2 IBU)

14 g Willamette hops (0 mins)

7.1 g Amarillo hops (0 mins)

Yeast (for an FG of 1.012 and 5.2% ABV)

Wyeast 3787 (Trappist High Gravity) or White Labs WLP530 (Abbey Ale) yeast

(2.4-L yeast starter)

or

Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) yeast

(1.5-L yeast starter)

or

relatively neutral ale yeast of your choice

(make appropriate sized starter and ferment at a temperature that will yield a fairly clean fermentation)

Other 

1 tsp. Irish moss

Optional: 1 vial Clarity Ferm or 8 g (~3 tsp.)  Polyclar AT (PVPP)

134 g corn sugar (for priming to 2.5 volumes of CO₂)

PROCEDURES

Make yeast starter 2–3 days ahead of brewday. (Do not use Belgian yeast strain unless you make the specified size yeast starter.) Aerate starter wort well. On brewday, heat 13 L of brewing liquor to 73 °C and mash grains at 67 °C for 60 minutes. Mash out to 76 °C. Recirculate the wort for 20 minutes, or until it clears significantly, whichever comes first. Collect around 25 L of wort over 90 minutes by continuous sparging. Keep the sparge water heated so that the grain bed temperature remains at 76 °C. Monitor the final runnings and don’t quit sparging as long as the pH is below 5.8 (or the specific gravity is above 1.010). Taste the final runnings to ensure that you are not extracting excessive tannins. Boil the wort hard for 60–90 minutes to reduce the wort volume to just over 19 L (19 L of usable wort plus about 1.5-2 L of trub). If hot break does not appear as big, fluffy flakes after first 10 minutes of boil, add 0.25 tsp. each of calcium chloride and gypsum. Add hops and Irish moss at times indicated. Chill wort to 18 °C and transfer to fermenter. Aerate the wort thoroughly and pitch sediment from yeast starter. Ferment at 19 °C. (Ferment at 20 °C if using an American ale yeast strain.) If feasible, after fermentation has been complete for 2–3 days, rack to secondary and move fermenter to a cool location (below fermentation temperature, but above freezing). Cold condition for 2 weeks. Bottle or keg and carbonate to 2.5 volumes of CO₂.