Kalua-Style Pork

Here's a recipe I did about a month ago and it turned out really well. Our son-in-law Tyrone recently suffered from a stroke and I'm making this dish especially for him as a welcome home treat. It was a scary situation but his rehab is going amazing and he's about to be discharged from the hospital, so I'm hoping this will taste better than the hospital food he's been eating.

This recipe is based on one posted on the Green Egg Blog. Don't skip the banana leaves; they add complexity.

Ingredients

• 1 Pork Butt - 10-12 pounds with the bone in, or smaller if you can only find boneless
• 2-4T Alaea Sea Salt (aka Hawaiian Red Sea Salt) - This is critical as a lot of the flavor is derived from the salt
• 1T Liquid Smoke
• Banana leaves
• Butcher's Twine

Instructions

1. Use a sharp knife to score the pork in a criss-cross pattern, cutting about 3/4" into the pork shoulder.
2. Coat with liquid smoke*, then coat with Alaea sea salt. Don't be afraid to use more than 2T of salt.
3. Wrap in banana leaves and secure with butcher’s twine. Note: To prepare the banana leaves, you'll want to remove the central stem/vein, then pass the leaves over a burner until they've become shiny and pliable.
4. Smoke over charcoal and mesquite at 250F. After 2 hours, wrap tightly in foil then return to the smoker for the duration of the cook.
5. Plan on a minimum of 1 hour per pound cooking time, then check temp and continue at 250F until you reach an internal temp of 190-200F.
6. Pull the meat off the smoker and allow it to rest in the foil for at least an hour, but you can also wrap it in a towel and put it in a cooler for several hours.
7. Pull pork for serving and reserve the juices…you’ll want to pour the juices back over your pulled pork.

*Normally I’d say it’s sacrilege to use liquid smoke on true BBQ. This is one case where I'd say it's ok. Basically it's just adding a little complexity, plus the banana leaves will reduce the smoke character.

The first time we made this, we served it as sliders on Hawaiian rolls, but it's also great over rice.

Read more...

Roggenbier 2020

Today I'm brewing up a style I've never brewed before, a Roggenbier. Roggenbier is a historical style that's essentially a Dunkelweizen brewed with rye rather than wheat. Dunkelweizens typically have prominent yeast-derived flavor and aroma consisting of clove, banana, and/or bubblegum. These flavors and aromas are also common in Roggenbiers. This may seem like sacrilege, but I'm not a huge fan of these kinds of yeast character; one Dunkelweizen every three or four years is plenty for me. Fortunately, it's also very appropriate to do clean lagered versions of Roggenbiers, and that's the goal with this beer.

One thing I'm really excited about is the majority of grain in this batch is from Mecca Grade Estate Malt. I've been wanting to try out their malt for a while. My buddy Chaz at Beer Nut recently won a giveaway from Mecca Grade and he hooked me up with a bunch of their Rimrock Rye Malt. Originally I was planning on doing a re-brew of my Sour Rye beer from 2014, but a Roggenbier will have a much shorter turnaround time and should be a great beer heading into late summer and the fall. Beer Nut also brought in a bunch of the other Mecca Grade malts, so I picked up a full sack of Lamonta. If you've never brewed with rye malt before, it can get really gummy. Rice hulls can help and they're cheap, so save yourself some heartache and use some. Here's the recipe as I'm brewing it today:

4.75# Mecca Grade Rimrock Rye

2.06# Mecca Grade Lamonta Pale

2.06# Briess Bonlander Munich

0.25# Simpsons DRC

0.25# Weyermann Caramunich III

1.0g BrewTan B (Mash)

Rice Hulls - a couple handfuls to help with recirculation and lautering

0.25# Carafa Special I (cold steeped overnight, then strained and added to boil)

3ml Hopshot (60 min)

4.66g BCAA (10 min)

10g Saaz (10 min)

10g Saaz (Whirlpool)

Yeast Nutrient

Whirlfloc

Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager

Single infusion mash at 152F. 90 minute boil. Start fermentation at 51F then raise temps a couple degrees over a couple days.

Water Profile

To 10 gallons of RO water, add:

1.72g Epsom Salt

4.57g Baking Soda

10.15g Chalk

Brewing Notes

No issue so far. The color is great in the mash, deep orange approaching copper. After adding the Carafa Special I cold steep, it should be a beautiful deep copper color. No issues the remainder of the brew day. OG ended up at 13 Brix (1.051). My target was 1.050, so pretty dang close. With the summer heat, I was only able to chill down to 70F, so it'll continue to chill in the fermentation chamber before I pitch the yeast.

Update 8/17/2020

I aerated and pitched yeast this morning. When I did my yeast starter, I split a single smack pack in half and stepped them up to a total volume of about 1.5L on stir plates. Both had grown up substantially, so I hope fermentation takes off rather quickly.

Update 8/18/2020

Fermentation is pretty active this morning. The Tilt is showing a drop of five points although it's hard to say if that's really accurate when fermentation is rolling. It's just good seeing minimal lag.

Update 8/19/2020

Tilt is reading ~1.035 today. It started off reading a little high, 1.055 (compared to the refractometer 13 Brix/1.051). Regardless, fermentation is moving right along. I've allowed the temp to free rise to 53F as of today. I'll leave it here until I'm ready to start the diacetyl rest.

Update 8/21/2020

Tilt is reading 1.024 this morning. I'll start raising the temps for the diacetyl rest at about 1.018-1.020, so later today or possibly tomorrow morning. Here's a screen cap showing the progress so far:

Update 8/24/2020

I allowed the fermentation temperature to free rise up to 65F starting 8/22. Tilt is currently reading 65F and 1.012.

Update 9/9/2020

This beer went in the keg today. It finished out right about 1.011/1.012 for an ABV ~5%.

Read more...

NZ Pilsner 2020

I'm breaking in my new 15 gallon Spike Brew Kettle by brewing another New Zealand Pilsner. This one uses a bit of Maris Otter in place of German Pale (because that's what I had on hand). I'm trying out Saflager S-189 on this batch, and I'm also using a little less Loral than I did the last time I brewed this beer. Here's the recipe as I'm brewing it today:

6.75# Viking Pilsner Malt

0.75# Crisp Maris Otter

0.3125# Weyermann Cara Red

0.25# Pale Wheat Malt

1.0g BrewTan B

3ml Hopshot (60 min)

4.66g BCAA

14g Motueka (1 min)

14g Rakau (1 min)

14g Waimea (1 min)

4g Loral Cryohops (1 min)

21g Motueka (Whirlpool @170F)

21g Rakau (Whirlpool @170F)

21g Waimea (Whirlpool @170F)

4g Loral Cryohops (Whirlpool @170F)

(2) Saflager S-189

Whirlfloc

Yeast Nutrient

28g Motueka (Dryhop)

28g Rakau (Dryhop)

28g Waimea (Dryhop)

7g Loral Cryohops (Dryhop)

Mash at 150F, 90 minute boil, start fermentation at 47F then ramp up to 52F over a few days.

Water Profile - To 10 gallons of distilled water, add:

4.0g Gypsum

2.8g Epsom Salt

4.8g Calcium Chloride

Brewing Notes

No issues. I was a little worried that I might have a different boil off rate compared to my keggle, but it wasn't too different. OG came in at 1.052 which is exactly the same as the last time I brewed this recipe.

Update 7/27/2020

I had to let the wort chill overnight to get it down to 47F, so the yeast wasn't pitched until this afternoon. The wort was aerated at 0.5L/minute for 2 minutes. The yeast was rehydrated before pitching.

Update 7/29/2020

Fermentation is a little slower starting than I'm used to, and/or than I prefer. The Tilt started out bouncing back and forth between 1.052 and 1.053, so the actual gravity was likely right on the cusp. It held pretty constant at 1.052 most of yesterday then started reading 1.051 early evening yesterday. I started fermentation out fairly cold for this strain so I've been allowing the temp to slowly rise. Hopefully it'll take off soon. 

Update 7/30/2020

Per the Tilt, gravity is down to 1.048 this morning and I'm hearing a glug, glug, glug sound coming out of my fermentation chamber, so activity has definitely picked up. Temp is set at 52F right now and I'll likely keep it there until the diacetyl rest.

Update 7/31/2020

Things are really moving along this morning with gravity readings down to 1.038.

Update 8/2/2020

Gravity is down to 1.020 this morning. I went ahead and dropped the dry hops and started raising the temps for the diacetyl rest. Normally I'd wait to dry hop until after the d-rest, but there's been a be lot of talk about yeast biotransformation lately, usually more related to brewing hazy IPAs. My understanding is not all yeast are capable of biotransformation, or at least they're not all equal in their capability. It's a fairly complex process that's been studied quite a bit recently, likely due to the popularity of hazy IPAs. Long story short, some yeast are capable of transforming hop compounds into different compounds, adding complexity to the finished beer. I've brewed this beer several times, so I thought I'd see if I notice any difference by dry hopping a little earlier than "normal". Here's a link to a Lallemand article on the subject.

Update 8/3/2020

Tilt is currently reading 1.015, but has read as low as 1.012. Current temp is 65F. I'll let fermentation finish out then hook up my cold-crash assembly and dropping the temps in order to get as much yeast and hop debris to drop out of suspension.

Update 8/11/2020

I started cold crashing this beer over the weekend. Gravity finished out right about 1.010 - 1.011, so ~5.5% ABV.

Update 8/16/2020

This beer went into the keg today.

Read more...