Krampus Klaws (Brew in a Bag)

377px-Gruss_vom_Krampus

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.

Krampus Klaws

Strong holiday lager

by Chris Colby

BIAB; English units

 

DESCRIPTION

A strong, malty holiday lager.

 

INGREDIENTS (for 5.0 gallons)

 

Water

adjust so mash pH falls into 5.2–5.4 range

Malt (for an OG of 1.136 and 19 SRM)

17.5 lbs. Pilsner malt

5.0 lbs. Vienna malt

2 lb. 4 oz. Munich malt

5.0 oz. aromatic malt

7.0 oz.  CaraMunich III malt (60 °L)

3.0 lbs. cane sugar

3.5 lbs. light dried malt extract (held in reserve)

Hops (27 IBUs)

German Magnum hops (24 IBUs)

0.5 oz. (at 12% alpha acids), boiled for 75 minutes

Tettnanger hops (3 IBU)

0.5 oz. (at 5% alpha acids), boiled for 10 minutes

Yeast (for an FG of 1.027 and 14% ABV)

White Labs WLP885 (Zurich Lager) yeast

(2.6-gallon yeast starter)

Other

1.25 tsp. Irish moss, boiled for 15 minutes

0.25 tsp. yeast nutrients, boiled for 15 minutes

0.25 tsp. yeast nutrients, add at high kräusen

 

PROCEDURES

Make yeast starter 3 days ahead of brewday from 1 lb. 2 oz. of dried light malt extract. This makes approximately 2.6 gallons of wort at 1.020. You can make the starter in your fermenter, if needed. Aerate the wort thoroughly and pitch the tube of yeast. Ferment starter at 65–68 °F. Each day, aerate wort again for about 30 seconds (if using oxygen) or 3 minutes (if using air). Swirl starter several times a day. To let the yeast settle, let starter beer sit undisturbed for 12 hours prior to brewing. Cooling the starter (for example, if your fermentation chamber) would help.

Heat 9.6 gallons of water to 151 °F. Distribute crushed grains roughly equally into 2 grain bags. Submerge bags to mash in to 140 °F. Immediately start heating mash towards 153 °F. Heat mash slowly enough that it takes about 30 minutes to hit that temperature. Stir constantly while heating. Hold at 153 °F for 20 minutes, then ramp temperature (at same rate) up to 168 °F. Stir constantly while heating. Lift bags out (one at a time, if needed) and let drip into kettle. Stir in sugar. You should have roughly 6.5 gallons of wort. In order to hit your target OG, this volume of wort should be at a density of SG 1.105. Stir in however much malt extract is required to reach that density (it will probably be around 3.5 lbs.), then proceed towards the boil.

Boil the wort hard for 75–90 minutes to reduce it to 5.0 gallons. Add hops and Irish moss at times indicated. If hot break appears weak at beginning of boil, add 0.5 tsp. gypsum and 0.5 tsp. calcium carbonate to the boil.

Cool wort to 50 °F. Pour starter beer out of yeast starter. If you made the starter in your fermenter, rack chilled wort onto yeast. Aerate wort thoroughly (and pitch yeast if you made your yeast starter in a vessel other than your fermenter). Ferment at 53 °F. At high kräusen, dissolve the second dose of yeast nutrients in as little water as possible. Heat mixture to 170 °F and hold for 5 minutes to sanitize. Cool and stir into fermentation. When fermentation slows to a crawl, allow temperature to rise to 60 °F and swirl fermenter to rouse yeast. (Do this only once.) Let sit at 60 °F for 3 days once evidence of fermentation (airlock bubbling) stops. Rack beer to a secondary fermenter with little or no headspace and let lager (at refrigerator temperature, around 42 °F) for at least 4 months. When finished, rack to keg and carbonate to 2.3 volumes of CO2.

 

Krampus Klaws

Strong holiday lager

by Chris Colby

BIAB; metric units

 

INGREDIENTS (for 19 L)

 

Water

adjust so mash pH falls into 5.2–5.4 range

Malt (for an OG of 1.136 and 19 SRM)

7.9 kg Pilsner malt

2.3 kg Vienna malt

1.0 kg Munich malt

200 g aromatic malt

340 g CaraMunich III malt (60 °L)

1.4 kg cane sugar

1.6 kg light dried malt extract (held in reserve)

Hops (27 IBUs)

German Magnum hops (24 IBUs)

14 g (at 12% alpha acids), boiled for 75 minutes

Tettnanger hops (3 IBU)

14 g (at 5% alpha acids), boiled for 10 minutes

Yeast (for an FG of 1.027 and 14% ABV)

White Labs WLP885 (Zurich Lager) yeast

(10-L yeast starter)

Other

1.25 tsp. Irish moss, boiled for 15 minutes

0.25 tsp. yeast nutrients, boiled for 15 minutes

0.25 tsp. yeast nutrients, add at high kräusen

 

PROCEDURES

Make yeast starter 3 days ahead of brewday from 510 g of dried light malt extract. This makes approximately 10 L of wort at 1.020. You can make the starter in your fermenter, if needed. Aerate the wort thoroughly and pitch the tube of yeast. Ferment starter at 18–20 °C. Each day, aerate wort again for about 30 seconds (if using oxygen) or 3 minutes (if using air). Swirl starter several times a day. To let the yeast settle, let starter beer sit undisturbed for 12 hours prior to brewing. Cooling the starter (for example, if your fermentation chamber) would help.

Heat 36 L of water to 66 °C. Distribute crushed grains roughly equally into 2 grain bags. Submerge bags to mash in to 60 °C. Immediately start heating mash towards 67 °C. Heat mash slowly enough that it takes about 30 minutes to hit that temperature. Stir constantly while heating. Hold at 67 °C for 20 minutes, then ramp temperature (at same rate) up to 76 °C. Stir constantly while heating. Lift bags out (one at a time, if needed) and let drip into kettle. Stir in sugar. You should have roughly 25 L of wort. In order to hit your target OG, this volume of wort should be SG 1.105. Stir in however much malt extract is required to reach that density (it will probably be around 1.6 kg), then proceed towards the boil.

Boil the wort hard for about 75–90 minutes to reduce it to 19 L. Add hops and Irish moss at times indicated. If hot break appears weak at beginning of boil, add 0.5 tsp. gypsum and 0.5 tsp calcium carbonate to the boil.

Cool wort to 10 °C. Pour starter beer out of yeast starter. If you made the starter in your fermenter, rack chilled wort onto yeast. Aerate wort thoroughly (and pitch yeast if you made your yeast starter in a vessel other than your fermenter). Ferment at 12 °C. At high kräusen, dissolve second dose of yeast nutrients in as little water as possible. Heat mix to 77 °C and hold for 5 minutes to sanitize. Cool and stir into fermentation. When fermentation slows to a crawl, allow temperature to rise to 16 °C and swirl fermenter to rouse yeast. (Do this only once.) Let sit at 16 °C for 3 days once evidence of fermentation (airlock bubbling) stops. Rack beer to a secondary fermenter with little or no headspace and let lager (at refrigerator temperature, around 5.6 °C) for at least 4 months. When finished, rack to keg and carbonate to 2.3 volumes of CO2.

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