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Recipe: Halfway Crooks Kelvin Smoked Helles
“Kelvin is one of our favorite beers,” says Shawn Bainbridge, cofounder of Halfway Crooks. He describes the beer as “a happy place” for the “finest German hops and smoked malt.”
Photo: Courtesy Halfway Crooks
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“When the aroma of smoked malt fills the brewery,” Bainbridge says, “it brings back great memories of a time we all loved—a time with our friends when our normal palates were turned into beer drinkers’. When the aroma of delicious smoked lager fills our glass, we know winter is coming.”
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.010
IBUs: 20
ABV: 4.8%
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“When the aroma of smoked malt fills the brewery,” Bainbridge says, “it brings back great memories of a time we all loved—a time with our friends when our normal palates were turned into beer drinkers’. When the aroma of delicious smoked lager fills our glass, we know winter is coming.”
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.010
IBUs: 20
ABV: 4.8%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
6.8 lb (3.1 kg) Weyermann pilsner
1.7 lb (771 g) Weyermann beechwood-smoked malt
HOPS SCHEDULE
0.25 oz (7 g) Perle at first wort hopping (FWH) [8 IBUs]
0.15 oz (4 g) Perle at 40 minutes [4 IBUs]
0.5 oz (14 g) Hersbrucker at 10 minutes [2 IBUs]
1.25 oz (35 g) Spalter Select at flameout/whirlpool [6 IBUs]
YEAST
Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager, or other German lager yeast tolerant of lower temperatures
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 149°F (65°C) for 60 minutes. Vorlauf until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle and add first-wort hops. Sparge and top up as necessary to get about 6.7 gallons (25 liters) of wort—or more, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 75 minutes, following the hops schedule. At flameout, add the final hops and stir 5 minutes to produce a whirlpool, then rest 20 minutes. Chill the wort to about 45°F (7°C), aerate well, and pitch plenty of healthy yeast. Ferment at 49°F (9.5°C). When the beer is 60 percent attenuated (at about 1.024), start diacetyl rest, allowing the temperature to free rise up to 60°F (15.5°C). Once fermentation is complete and the beer is free of diacetyl, lower the temperature by about 3.6°F (2°C) per day until you reach 38°F (3°C). Lager for 6 weeks at 38°F (3°C), then package and carbonate.
BREWER’S NOTES
Experiment with the smoke. We like to keep the smoke subtle so you can enjoy all the components that a helles has to offer. Maybe smoke your own malt?
Try kräusening. When Metric, our Helles, is at high kräusen, we add a portion of it to Kelvin. This adjusts the level of smoke in the beer along with the other benefits of kräusening. (See “Breaking the Sugar Habit with Kräusening,” beerandbrewing.com.)
Experiment with lagering times. It’s fun to see how this beer is different at 4 weeks, 6 weeks, and 8 weeks.
