Viking Pine Tree Beer

So... What is it?

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This is an ancient style (or as close as we can get) of Norwegian farmhouse ale, so the focus is all about amazing kveik yeast expression, pine tree resinous flavours and beautiful malty mouthfeel and character! To make this beer we ran a 4 hour boil, we cut down and made a pine tree luge and we ran an open fermentation! So this was a lot of firsts for us, but boy this beer does not dissapoint! Its packed full of sweet and complex malt character, almost like a decoction mash Marzen, but bursting with tropical fruits like mango, orange citrus and guava from the Kveik yeast, and underneath it all there's hints of the forest from the pine tree infusion. This is truely on of my favourite brews ever, and it was made with the symbol of Christmas!

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Batch Size & ABV

• 38L (2 19L corny kegs) / 10 gal finished beer
• 48L (12.7 gal) wort
• For a smaller 19L (5 gal) batch size simply half the ingredients of this recipe
• Starting gravity – 1.077
• Final gravity 1.01
• ABV – 8.8%
• IBU - 34
• Mash Efficiency - 81%

Brewfather link

Ingredients

‍Water 

• With sparging

• 50L (13.2 gal) strike water approx. for a 60 min mash at 67°C (152.6°F) with a 10 min mash out step at the end at 77°C (170°F)
• 30L (7.9 gal) sparge water at 78°C (172°F)

• Without sparging

• 70L (18.5 gal) strike water approx. for a 60 min mash at 67°C (152.6°F) with a 10 min mash out step at the end at 77°C (170°F)

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Malts: 14kg (30.9 lb)

• 14 kg - 30.9 lb (63%) — Pilsner Malt

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Hops & whirlfloc tablets  

70 g - 2.5 oz (4 IBU) — East Kent Goldings 5% — Mash

58 g - 2 oz (14 IBU) — East Kent Goldings 5% — 60 Min Boil

70 g - 2.5 oz (6 IBU) — East Kent Goldings 5% — 10 Min Boil

70 g - 2.5 oz (6 IBU) — Fuggles 4.5% — 10 Min Boil

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Adjuncts

250 g (8.8 oz)— Pine Shoots - Mash

250 g (14.1 oz) — Pine Shoots - Boil 10 min

1 Pine tree Luge - Mash

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Yeast options & fermentation temperatures

• 33 g — Lallemand (LalBrew) Voss Kveik - 34 °C (93 °F)

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Water Profile

Ca²⁺‍ 61

‍Mg²⁺‍ 9

‍Na⁺‍ 20

‍Cl^-‍ 50

‍SO₄^2-‍ 44

‍HCO₃^-‍ 155

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Step by step process

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Step 1 – Milling

• Mill grains to medium crush (set mill rollers to a gap of approx. 1mm / 0.039 inches) (BUT DONT crush the rice hulls or oats, add them into your grain separately after crushing them)
• Just keep in mind roller gap settings are not universal so as you brew more batches you will find the ideal crush size for your setup
• Alternatively if you don’t have a grain mill you can order your grains crushed from most homebrew stores, both online and in person

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Step 1.1 – Cut your Tree!

• Using a saw cut down a pine tree of your choice and slice off the branches of the tree from the trunk
• Then cut a channel through the centre of the trunk to make a luge to flow the hot wort through during the mashing step
• seperate your pine needles (shoots) to be used for both mashing and boiling

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Step 2 – Mashing 

• Add your brewing salts and mix to ensure they are fully dissolved prior to mashing in grains
• Mash for 60 minutes at 67°C (152.6°F)

• ensure you mix in the grains thoroughly with a mash paddle to prevent dough balls from forming (big spoons, spatulas or whisks will also work)   

• its easier to mash the grains and prevent dough balls if you add a little grain at a time, mix, add more grain and repeat until all the grains are mixed
• now add your mash hops!! This is going to free a bunch of bound thiols from your hops and make this beer even more juicy! I would recommend adding these in a hop bag to make sure you can remove all the hop particles before you start boiling so you don't get extra unaccounted bitterness
• Now begin recirculating your wort through your pine tree luge and add your mash pine needles!

• if you don’t have a mash tun with heating then ensure after you have finished mixing the grains in to insulate your mash tun (thick neoprene or heavy blankets both work well)
• after 60 minutes of mashing raise temperature to 77°C (170°F) for 10 minutes to Mash out

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Step 3 (optional) – Sparging

• if your setup has the capability to sparge then do so with 30L (7.9 gal) of sparge water at 78 °C (172°F)
• if you are not sparging and using a BIAB (brew in a bag) method then remove grains from mash tun and twist and squeeze the bag to get as much liquid out of the grains as possible
• as you start sparging (or straining your BIAB bag) begin raising the temperature of your wort to a boil

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Step 4 – Boiling

• once your wort begins to boil start a timer for a 4 hours!! we want a nice long boil to raise our original gravity and create complex Maillard reactions to produce melanoidins in our beer and help change the colour!
• After 3 hours of boiling add your 60 minute boil addition of hops, 58 g - 2 oz of East Kent Goldings
• With 10 minutes of boiling left add your final flavour & aroma hops, 70 g - 2.5 oz each of East Kent Goldings & Fuggles as well as your boil addition of pine needles, 400g / 14.1 oz

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Step 5 – Cooling & Transferring

• After the full 4 hours of boil, begin cooling the wort down to yeast pitching temperature, around 34 °C (93 °F)
• once you’ve reached yeast pitching temperature take an original gravity reading of your wort

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Step 6 – Yeast Pitching

• It is best to make a yeast starter before beginning your brew day (ideally 1 day before) to ensure your yeast are as active and healthy as possible before pitching, but not completely necessary – you could also just rehydrate yeast 30 minutes before pitching.
• Pitch yeast in wort a degree or two higher than the target fermentation temperature to help yeast take off more aggressively 

• To make a yeast starter you can use either:

• DME (dry malt extract) at a ratio of approx. 100g per 1L water (3.5 oz per 33 fluid ounces) for gravity of approx. 1.040 
• some unfermented wort kept cold and sanitary from a previous brew day
• 70g of table sugar per 1L water (2.5 oz per 33 fluid ounces) – however, it is best to use malt sugar (wort / DME) whenever possible to reduce the chance of shocking the yeast with a different food source from starter to wort pitching

• To rehydrate yeast

• Add yeast to approx. 10 times as much room temperature water as the weight of the yeast e.g. 10g yeast in 100 ml water (0.35 oz yeast in 3.5 fluid ounces water)

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Step 7 – Fermentation

• Allow yeast to ferment over the next 5 days to two weeks 
• If you have a temperature-controlled system keep the fermenter temperature to the recommended fermentation temperature for each yeast strain (stated in the yeast ingredients section above)
• Monitor the fermentation activity over the first 7 days by the bubbling of the blow-off tube/airlock of your fermenter, as the bubbling slows down (roughly around day 7) take a gravity reading. When the gravity is the same 2-3 days in a row fermentation is finished

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Step 8 (optional) – Cold crashing 

• begin cold crashing your fermenter (bring the temperature of your fermenter down to as close to 0°C (32°F) as possible, for 2 days to a week depending on how patient you are
• If you don’t have a temp-controlled fermenter, you can cold crash by putting your fermenter in a fridge or temp-controlled chest freezer
• After you have finished cold crashing it's time to keg/bottle your beer! If you are bottling your beer from the fermenter uncarbonated remember to add about 5-7 grams (0.17 - 0.24 oz) of priming sugar to your bottles to carbonate your beer.

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