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Recipe: Westphalian Farmhouse Ale
One of the most industrialized parts of Germany has a surprising farmhouse brewing tradition, but information about it is scarce. Based on interviews with surviving farmhouse brewers, conducted in the 1950s by the Folklore Commission of Westphalia, here’s our attempt at a recipe. We also include some variations in the notes below.
Photo: Matt Graves/mgravesphoto.com
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ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.036 (9.1°P)
FG: 1.008 (2.1°P)
IBUs: 43
ABV: 3.7%
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ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.036 (9.1°P)
FG: 1.008 (2.1°P)
IBUs: 43
ABV: 3.7%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
6.7 lb (3 kg) beechwood-smoked pale malt
HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
2 handfuls straw in the mash
2.5 oz (71 g) Spalter at mash hop [6 IBUs]
2.5 oz (71 g) Spalter at first wort [37 IBUs]
3–4 fresh juniper branches at first wort
0.3 oz (9 g) noniodized salt at flameout
YEAST
Voss or other kveik
DIRECTIONS
Place fresh straw in the bottom of the mash tun. Mill the grains, add mash hops, and mash at 152°F (67°C) for 60 minutes. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle atop the first-wort hops and juniper branches. Sparge and top up as needed to get about 7.5 gallons (28 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 3 hours, adding hops and salt at flameout. Chill to about 100°F (38°C) and pitch the yeast. Once fermentation is complete, package and condition—ideally, perhaps, in a cask.
BREWER’S NOTES
Smoke: By the 1950s, Westphalian farmhouse brewers had apparently covered the holes in their kilns that would have smoke-dried their malts in earlier times. Here we go with the idea that the beer would have been smoked—but using less or no smoked malt is a reasonable modern take. Air-dried malt is another possibility (see “Brewing with Wind Malt,” beerandbrewing.com).
Hops: Reported usage rates vary from 3 to 10 grams/liter (or roughly 2 to 7 ounces per 5 gallons), but these would have been homegrown or landrace hops, low in alpha acids. When brewers added them is open to guesswork. Adding multiple additions to the boil is modern practice (and therefore unlikely), while adding to the mash, first wort, start of boil, or even dry hopping in the barrel is more plausible.
Juniper: Totally optional. You could also add a few berries (fresh or dried) to the boil.
Yeast: Our suspicion is that the brewers originally kept and passed around a hardy kveik-like culture. For a modern version more akin to altbier, go with a German ale strain (adjusting fermentation temperatures and times accordingly).
