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Recipe: Goldfinger Smoke Two Lagers
From Tom Beckmann, owner and brewer at Goldfinger Brewing in suburban Chicago, here’s a recipe for their smoothly smoky collab with Fair State Brewing Cooperative in Minneapolis.
Photo: Courtesy Goldfinger Brewing
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“This recipe is very much a helles first, a smoked beer second,” says Tom Beckmann, owner and brewer at Chicago’s Goldfinger.
“The smoke on this beer is much more subtle than on a typical rauchbier, which helps to not distract from the pleasant malt sweetness and gentle Noble-hop character throughout. Using two different woods—oak and beech—as the source for smoke provides a multidimensional smoke character.”
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.010
IBUs: 17
ABV: 5%
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“This recipe is very much a helles first, a smoked beer second,” says Tom Beckmann, owner and brewer at Chicago’s Goldfinger.
“The smoke on this beer is much more subtle than on a typical rauchbier, which helps to not distract from the pleasant malt sweetness and gentle Noble-hop character throughout. Using two different woods—oak and beech—as the source for smoke provides a multidimensional smoke character.”
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.010
IBUs: 17
ABV: 5%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
7.1 lb (3.2 kg) German pilsner
1 lb (454 g) beechwood-smoked malt
11 oz (312 g) oak-smoked wheat malt
3 oz (85 g) acidulated malt (or as needed to adjust pH)
HOPS SCHEDULE
0.5 oz (14 g) Hallertauer Mittelfrüh at 60 minutes [8 IBUs]
0.75 oz (21 g) Hallertauer Mittelfrüh at 15 minutes [6 IBUs]
0.75 oz (21 g) Hallertauer Mittelfrüh at 5 minutes [3 IBUs]
YEAST
Fermentis SafLager W-34/70, Omega OYL-106 German Lager I, or similar
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 144°F (62°C) for 45 minutes; raise to 154°F (68°C) and rest 15 minutes; then raise to 162°F (72°F), rest 15 minutes, and mash out. Sparge and top up as necessary to get about 6 gallons (23 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops according to the schedule. After the boil, do a whirlpool step: Stir or recirculate to create a vortex, then allow 20 minutes to settle. Chill to 50°F (10°C), aerate the wort, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 50°F (10°C) for 10 days to clear diacetyl. Crash to 32°F (0°C), package, and carbonate to 2.5–2.6 volumes of CO2.
BREWER’S NOTES
Mash: We aim for a mash pH of 5.3; adjust the acidulated malt as needed. (We also aim for a wort pH of 5.1.) If you can’t do a step mash, a single infusion at 149°F (65°C) for 60 minutes is fine.
Smoke: The original version of this beer had 10 percent of the grist as beechwood-smoked malt, but it got added smoke character from the re-pitched yeast of our Grodziskie (made with 100 percent oak-smoked wheat malt). If you find the oak-smoked malt too sharp, you can dial it back and add more of the gentler beechwood-smoked. The goal here is to not be strongly smoky, but for the smoke to provide an interesting dimension to an otherwise delicious helles.
