Subscriber Exclusive
Recipe: Eik & Tid Cerasus
This recipe is for a raw ale—no boiling—fermented with a distinctive kveik and later steeped with lots of sour cherries. Eik & Tid cofounder and brewer Amund Polden Arnesen calls it “a beer to capture the experience of eating fresh berries off the vine.”
Photo: Courtesy Eik & Tid
For more about Eik & Tid and their kveik-fermented, mixed-culture, barrel-aged ales, see Metamodern Tastes in Country Beer, Part I.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.042
FG: 1.004
IBUs: 10-ish
ABV: 5%
Make & Drink Better Beer
Subscribe today to access all of the premium brewing content available (including this article). With thousands of reviews, our subscribers call it "the perfect beer magazine" and "worth every penny." Your subscription is protected by a 100% money back guarantee.
For more about Eik & Tid and their kveik-fermented, mixed-culture, barrel-aged ales, see Metamodern Tastes in Country Beer, Part I.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.042
FG: 1.004
IBUs: 10-ish
ABV: 5%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
8 lb (3.6 kg) favorite pale malt, local if possible
HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
Roughly 10 IBUs worth of any hops (such as 3.4 oz/96 g of 4% AA Hallertauer Mittelfrüh) added to the mash, just after mash-in
6.6 lb (3 kg) fresh-frozen sour cherries
YEAST
Escarpment Hornindal Farm Kveik, if available; or Hornindal Blend plus Lactobacillus paracasei; or any Hornindal kveik plus favorite Lacto strain (see Brewer’s Notes)
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 153°F (67°C) for 90 minutes, adding mash hops just after mash-in. Raise to 167–172°F (75–78°C) for mash-out. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge as needed to get about 5.5 gallons (21 liters) of wort. Do not boil. Chill to about 95°F (35°C) and pitch the yeast—feel free to yeast-scream (gjaerkauk) if you like. Ferment at 95°F (35°C) until complete, then transfer to a barrel or other oak-aging vessel.
When the flavors are balanced and stable (usually after 2–3 months), transfer on top of fresh-frozen cherries. Allow 4–6 weeks refermentation to extract the freshest colors and flavors from the cherries without over aging. Rack off the fruit, package, and carbonate to about 2.8 volumes.
BREWER’S NOTES
Kveik: The original kveik collected by Eik & Tid from Hornindal, and adopted as a house culture that is continually re-pitched, includes Lacto. Many labs sell a “clean” version of Hornindal that no longer includes that bacteria; however, Escarpment occasionally sells a Hornindal Farm Kveik that includes it, or the L. paracasei that was isolated from it. (For much more about kveik, see “Brewing with Kveik: What Have We Learned So Far?” beerandbrewing.com.)
Fruit: Feel free to sub in berries or preferred local fruit. Freezing fresh fruit helps to prepare it for extraction and sanitizes it. You can also reuse the fruit for a second beer; the cherry/berry flavor will taste more candy-like on the second extraction.
