Discover SOMI’s India Pale Lager with French hops! At 5.5% ABV, this red-fruit-flavored beer has a thirst-quenching dryness balanced by a perfectly controlled roundness.
The recipe for India Pale Lager by SOMI :
- Color : Straw blond
- Alcohol content : 5.5%.
- Quantity : 20L
- Bitterness : light
- Brewing time : 5h
- Difficulty : moderate
Ingredients
- 4kg Pilsner Malt
- 0.7kg light wheat malt
- 10g Barbe Rouge hops (First Wort)
- 50g Elixir hops (Hop Stand)
- 45g Barbe Rouge hops (Dry Hop)
- 45g Elixir hops (Dry Hop)
- 2 sachets Nova Lager yeast
- Total water volume: 32L (Chloride > Sulfate = 2:1)
Brew SOMI’s “Au chant du coq” India Pale Lager recipe step by step :
Step 1
Heat 16 liters of water to 70°C and pour in the crushed grains.
Stir well, and don’t hesitate to crush any lumps against the sides of the tank. Continue brewing until you reach a temperature of 67°C and hold for 60 minutes. Nico, SOMI’s brewer, recommends a pH of 5.4.
In parallel with this step, heat 16 liters of water to 77°C.
Step 2 (recommended by Nico)
If you’re brewing by infusion or in the traditional way, perform a recirculation (also known as Vorlauf). This involves taking a few liters of must before filtration and passing it through the brew cake.
Thanks to recirculation, particles (protein agglomerates, pieces of grain husk, flour, etc.) are trapped in the spent grain, which acts as a highly effective natural filter.
This purifies the wort before boiling, and reduces the volume of sediment that will later accumulate at the bottom of the fermenter. After 4 or 5 liters of recirculation, the wort coming out of the tap in your mash tun should be clear. You can now move on to the next step.
If you’re brewing in an automatic tank, the recirculation pump will do the job for you throughout the entire process. So ignore this part. The same applies to brew-in-a-bag brewers.
Step 3
Filter and rinse the spent grains.
Now add the first 10 grams of Barbe Rouge hops. They will remain in the wort until the end of the brewing process. This is called First Wort Hopping. The main effect is to allow better integration of the bitterness.
Step 4
Heat the wort for a 60-minute boil.
Once boiling is complete, cool the wort to 83°C, add your 50g Elixir hops and leave to infuse for 30 minutes.
Step 5
Cool the wort to 18°C and transfer to the fermenter, not forgetting the yeast.
Initial specific gravity should be around 1.053.
Ferment at 18°C until you reach a stable final density (which should be 1.010). This should take 2 to 3 weeks.
Then add the last two hops for a 3-day dry hop.
Step 6
Perform a cold crash, lowering the temperature as close as possible to 0°C.
Finally, Nico recommends good lagering, ideally between 0°C and 2°C, for 3 to 4 weeks.
Step 7
If you have a CO2 cylinder and a keg (or a pressurizable fermenter), carbonate the beer to 2 vol. If you’re using conventional bottling, dose the sugar at 5g/l and proceed with bottling.
Tips and advice from SOMI brewer Nico
If you have the necessary hops (the same as in the recipe), you have the option of mash hopping. For 20 liters of beer, you can add between 70g and 80g of hops as soon as you start mashing. This will release thiols, which will considerably boost the aroma of the hops in the finished beer. Don’t worry about bitterness: at impaction temperature, the alpha acids are not isomerized, so there will be no impact on the final IBU.
This recipe can also be made with Fermentis 34/70 yeast for a more traditional lager taste. Start fermentation at 10/12°C, followed by a diacetyl rest before lagering.
We’ve chosen to offer the Nova Lager strain because it works very well at diacetyl rest temperature without ester production. You can pit it at 18°C and leave it there until the final density is reached. At this temperature, you eliminate the risk of diacetyl in the beer and minimize handling.
Over View
The choice of hops gives aromas of red fruit (strawberry, raspberry, redcurrant) mixed with tropical fruit, citrus (kumquat, lime, tangerine), white fruit notes like pear and a hint of spiciness typical of European hops.
This well-hopped India Pale Lager is surprisingly full of flavors not usually found in this type of beer. It’s a wonderful discovery and a great way to get to grips with the frank expression of French hops.
A word about the SOMI microbrewery
Established in 2022, SOMI was born of a deep passion for beer and an intense desire to create. Its approach is characterized by a constant search for bold, innovative recipes. SOMI excels in the production of hoppy, sour and bottom-fermented beers, fusing contemporary styles with classics to offer a selection that will appeal to beginners and “Beer Geeks” alike.
Each beer produced by SOMI, ephemeral and unique, is the result of a meticulous selection of the finest ingredients. One of SOMI’s aims is to share its enthusiasm for craft beer in all its forms. Whether you’re an expert or a novice in the world of beer, there’s always something new and fun to discover at SOMI.
SOMI also stands out for its artistic visual approach, which is unique to each can.
