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Skull Splitter
Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer • All Grain • 19.50 L
Another herb beer. No hop is used for this one. I expect a very herby, sweet, and light beer, not like what many people would imagine from the name of this alcoholic drink. I didn't make up this name, so don't blame me for that. It seems that the accent from the smoked malt is necessary to balance out the herby and sweet taste. So, if we want to use a lot of herbs, we will need a strong smoky flavor. In this case, we definitely need to make our own smoked malt at home.
May 5, 2011 pm 12:24pm
1.0/5.0 1 rating
Ingredients (All Grain, 19.50 L)
- 3.15 kg
American 2-row
American 2-row
Yields a slightly higher extract than Six Rox brewers Malt. Tends to give a smoother, less grainy flavored beer. Some brewers claim they can detect a significant difference in flavor. Lower protein and will yield a lower color than Six-Row Brewers Malt
- 0.37 kg
Maris Otter Pale
Maris Otter Pale
An English thoroughbred and a favored choice of malt for many brewers. Simpsons' Maris Otter has a rich and nutty flavor and despite its small, berry size has a strong husk. This malt delivers predictable brewhouse performance with modest, yet consistent extracts. Brewers can expect good runoffs with clear wort.
- 0.68 kg
Belgian Biscuit
Belgian Biscuit
Warm baked biscuit flavor and aroma. Increases body. Use in Belgian beers.
- 0.5 kg
German Smoked
German Smoked
Earthy, rich smoke flavor
- 0.05 kg
Belgian Munich
Belgian Munich
Used to increase malt aroma and body with slightly more color.
- 0.05 kg
German Vienna
German Vienna
Increases malty flavor, provides balance. Use in Vienna, Märzen and Oktoberfest.
- 1 tsp
Irish Moss - boil for 15 min. (omitted from calculations)
Irish Moss
A dried red-brown marine algae. Fining agent to remove large proteins. Negatively charged polymer attracts positively charged protein-tannin complexes (extracted from grain husks and hops) during the boil. This action is aided by the clumping of proteins in the boiling process. Irish moss settles to the bottom of the brew kettle with spent hops and hot break material at the end of the boil.
-
Fermentis S-33 Safbrew S-33
Fermentis S-33 Safbrew S-33
A very popular general purpose yeast, displaying both very robust conservation properties and consistent performance. This yeast produces superb flavour profiles and is used for the production of a varied range of top fermented special beers (Belgian type wheat beers, Trappist, etc.). Sedimentation: medium. Final gravity: high. Also recommended for bottle-conditioning of beers. Excellent performance in beers with alcohol contents of up to 7.5% v/v but can ferment up to 11.5% v/v.Pitching instructions: Re-hydrate the dry yeast into yeast cream in a stirred vessel prior to pitching. Sprinkle the dry yeast in 10 times its own weight of sterile water or wort at 27C ± 3C. Once the expected weight of dry yeast is reconstituted into cream by this method (this takes about 15 to 30 minutes), maintain a gentle stirring for another 30 minutes. Then pitch the resultant cream into the fermentation vessel. Alternatively, pitch dry yeast directly in the fermentation vessel providing the temperature of the wort is above 20C. Progressively sprinkle the dry yeast into the wort ensuring the yeast covers all the surface of wort available in order to avoid clumps. Leave for 30 minutes and then mix the wort e.g. using aeration.
Notes
I used a commercial smoked malt this time, but is definitely better to smoke the malt at home. 1 steo mashing at high temperature range, 69-70C for 90 min. Add 1 tsp of gypsum at mash-in. Herbs are added as follows: Herb Set #1 (boil for 60 min. ): Dried Mugwort 28g Dried Yarrow 14g Herb Set #2 (boil for 10 min. ): Dried Yarrow 14g Sweet Gale 2g Juniper Berries (coasely crushed) 10g Brewed on 5/4/11. The OG was 1.058.
Style (BJCP)
Category: 21 - Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer
Subcategory: A - Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
| Range for this Style | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Original Gravity: | 1.050 | 1.026 - 1.120 |  |
| Terminal Gravity: | 1.010 | 0.995 - 1.035 | |
| Color: | 10.8 SRM | 1 - 50 | |
| Alcohol: | 5.3% ABV | 2.5% - 14.5% | |
| Bitterness: | 0.0 IBU | 0 - 100 | |
Discussion
Strange Taste
2011-05-29 6:12am
Lacked to the secondary on May 29th, 2011. I checked the taste, and it was something I have never exprienced. Very very fruity and absolutely no bitterness. It is like made of a fruit juice, apple or peach. Not a light beer, but quite refershing with a slightly sour note and a recognizable herb character. The famous gruit site suggests a use of Lambic yeast, but I think it is not a good idea, since that will make the fruity characteristics too strong. The commercial skull splitter (Oakley) uses some crystal malts, which I did not. A little bit of crystal malts may improve the integrity of the taste. Also many clone recipes for the commercial skull splitter suggest to add oak chips into the secondary. I followed this suggestion and added 7g of oak cubes (boiled for 5 min.) and 1-2g of oak chips (sanitized in the water with campden powder for 15 min).
Spoiled and Discarded
2011-08-24 12:05pm
Racked to the secondary on 5/26/11, with oak cubes and chips. Tasted today (8/23/11) for bottling. The beer smelled like a vinegar, and tasted heavily sour. No alcohol was noticed. It is obvious the beer has been spoiled. There are several causes for it I suspect: (1) The recipe used no hops, so that the wort was far less durable than the one with hops. (2) I've left the beer for almost 3 months in the secondary. The temperature has been very high and the weather has been rainy so that the humidity has been also very high in this period. These factors made the wort spoil very easily. (3) The oak cubes and chips were boiled or soaked in the water with campden powders resolved prior to be put into the secondary, but that may not have been enough to sanitize them well. I thought about making it a malt vinegar, but finally I decided to throw them away. Actually it tasted well as a young malt vinegar. But I do not know the way how to make a vinegar properly, and I do not want it either. Very disappointing.
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