Recipe: Fifth Street Rough Gem with Cacao Pulp

“This is a riff on one of our classic drafts,” says Jon Naghski, head brewer and general manager at Fifth Street. “We played around with the addition of cacao pulp throughout several iterations, all starting with the same base beer.”

For much more about brewing with cacao fruit, see Pulp Nonfiction.

ALL-GRAIN

Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.040 (10°P)
FG: 1.002 (0.5°P)
IBUs: 9
ABV: 5%

[PAYWALL] MALT/GRAIN BILL
5.6 lb (2.5 kg) pilsner
1.9 lb (862 g) white wheat malt

HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
0.9 oz (26 g) Tettnanger as mash hops [3 IBUs]
0.1 oz (3 g) Magnum (or other high-alpha hop) at 60 minutes [6 IBUs]
1 quart (~1 liter) cacao pulp at packaging (see below)
Alpha-amylase enzyme, per product instructions (see Brewer’s Notes)

YEAST
Fermentis SafAle BE-256 and Omega OYL-201 Brett. claussenii

DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 150°F (66°C) for 60 minutes. Once a bed of grain has settled to the bottom of the tun, add the mash hops while stirring. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge and top up as needed to get about 6 gallons (23 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops according to the schedule. After the boil, do a whirlpool step: Stir or recirculate to create a vortex for 20 minutes, then allow 15 minutes to settle. Chill to about 68°F (20°C) and split the wort between two fermentors—one with 85–90 percent of the wort, and the other with the rest. Aerate the larger portion and pitch the Belgian ale strain; pitch the Brett into the other portion but do not aerate it. Allow the larger portion to rise as high as 74°F (23°C), while the Brett portion can free-rise as high as it wants.

Once the larger portion has fermented to about 1.012–1.016 (3–4°P), combine it with the Brett portion and cap the temperature at 80°F (27°C). Allow fermentation to continue until very little residual sugar remains—we usually continue for 6–8 weeks before step-crashing, transferring, and carbonating (as sparkling as your equipment allows). Add the cacao pulp to the kegs before transferring the finished beer on top.

BREWER’S NOTES
Cacao pulp: Adding the cacao pulp to kegs and topping with the finished beer creates a glass that showcases the sweetness of fruit with lots of tropical notes. But we’ve brewed multiple versions, teasing out different results. Optionally, you can add the pulp during active fermentation—this method integrates the ingredients, leading to a glass that amplifies the tropical notes of the Brett. claussenii with sweet, pale roast notes on the palate, while maintaining a dry, sparkling finish.
Enzyme: We add fungal-derived alpha-amylase to ensure higher attenuation; you can add it to either the mash or the fermentor.
More variations: Rough Gem is our go-to for flavor additions—blond and funky, it allows many ingredients to both integrate and shine. We’ll blend the finished beer with fresh fruit from local farms, or we’ll touch it with lightly toasted oak spirals at the end of fermentation, during conditioning. We’ve also collected the combined slurry and re-pitched it; by the fifth generation, it has a higher Brett expression while maintaining the Belgian strain’s fruit character.