The Kornol recipe
- Color : Cloudy yellow
- Alcohol content : 7%.
- Quantity : 20L
- Bitterness : None
- Difficulty : High
- Brewing time : 4h (+ juniper infusion overnight)
Ingredients
- 7.2kg Malt Pale ale
- 20 juniper branches (20cm long)
- 100g Saaz hops
- 1 sachet Kveik Stalljen yeast
- Total water volume: 32L. Ideal filling pH 5.3. Preferably : chloride = sulfate.
This recipe is a follow-up to our article on kornøl, the raw Norwegian farmhouse beer. Don’t hesitate to check it out !
Step 1
The evening before brewing, hose off your juniper branches.
Heat 22L of water to 70/72°C and infuse your juniper. Turn off the heat and leave overnight. You can also make this infusion 3 hours before your brew, leaving the heater on – it’s up to you.
I recommend that you find a filtration system, such as a brewing bag or grain basket, to make it easier to remove the branches before potting.
Step 2
Remove the juniper branches and heat your infusion to 75°C.
Pour in the crushed malt and stir well to avoid lumps. Stir until the temperature drops to 70°C and hold for 1 hour.
Once this hour has elapsed, raise the temperature to 75°C to proceed with the mash out.
At the same time, heat 10 liters of water to 75°C.
Step 3
Filter and rinse. You’ll notice that the rinsing volume is relatively low, which is normal since there is no boiling. Kornøl is a raw beer.
Step 4
Next, pasteurize. This is the most perilous part of the brewing process. Heat your wort to 80°C, but don’t exceed 82°C, or you’ll get DMS in your beer.
This stage eliminates the risk of contamination, so it’s important to maintain 80°C for 15 minutes.
If you’re cooling with a coil, clean it beforehand, and immerse it in your wort at this point.
It’s also during this 15-minute period that you’ll add the Saaz hops. It will bring only 5 IBU of bitterness, and the taste will be relatively imperceptible in the finished product. Its function is simply antiseptic.
Step 5
Cool your wort to 32-33°C.
Take your density, which should be 1.069. Transfer to a fermenter and inoculate with Stalljen yeast. The sachets are only 5g, but kveiks don’t need as much population as regular yeasts, so this will be enough to ferment your 20 liters. You can use 2 sachets if you want to play it safe. Maintain a temperature of 32°C throughout fermentation.
Step 6
After a week, the final density should have been reached, at around 1.017. You can now bottle, but another week’s rest won’t hurt. It’s up to you!
Normally, kornøl is not carbonated. That said, I advise you to look for the ghost bubble with a little 2.5g of sugar per liter.
After a week, the beer will be ready !
Conclusion
This cloudy yellow/orange farmhouse ale has lovely fermentation aromas. You’ll find notes of apple, anise and a very slight tropical edge. Although there’s only one malt in the recipe, the cereals are very present and pleasant, both on the nose and in the mouth. Juniper adds a few gin-like aromatic notes on the finish.
The texture is well rounded without being too sweet. The raw edge adds a grainy body to balance the roundness. At 7% ABV, the slightly perceptible warmth of the alcohol is quite pleasant and blends perfectly with the gin notes.
This kornøl recipe is a little out of the ordinary, both in terms of process and taste, but it’s a really interesting experiment.
