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Recipe: Wunderkammer Sumac Wheat
The beers of Wunderkammer get their own rustic character via locally foraged ingredients, mixed cultures that include Brett, and a stripped-down, old-fashioned process featuring direct-fired kettles and fermentation without strict temperature control.
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“This is a base wheat beer recipe I use when I am looking to make a nice cushion for a [tarter] adjunct, such as staghorn sumac,” says Vasilios Gletsos, founder-brewer of Wunderkammer Biermanufaktur in Albany, Vermont. The sumac, or Rhus typhina, “has its own lemony character, complemented with deeper red-fruit notes.”
For more on different technical approaches to brewing beers with rustic character, see Brewing Saison: The Taste of Rustic.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.044
FG: 1.002
IBUs: 18
ABV: 5.5%
“This is a base wheat beer recipe I use when I am looking to make a nice cushion for a [tarter] adjunct, such as staghorn sumac,” says Vasilios Gletsos, founder-brewer of Wunderkammer Biermanufaktur in Albany, Vermont. The sumac, or Rhus typhina, “has its own lemony character, complemented with deeper red-fruit notes.”
For more on different technical approaches to brewing beers with rustic character, see Brewing Saison: The Taste of Rustic.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.044
FG: 1.002
IBUs: 18
ABV: 5.5%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
4.5 lb (2 kg) two-row pilsner
2.3 lb (1 kg) red winter wheat malt
1.5 lb (680 g) raw red winter wheat
HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
0.9 oz (25 g) whole-cone Crystal at 90 minutes [16 IBUs]
0.4 oz (11 g) whole-cone Crystal at whirlpool [2 IBUs]
3 oz (85 g) staghorn sumac fruit at whirlpool
YEAST
Voss kveik or other heat-tolerant strain, plus any fruity and interesting strain of Brettanomyces
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 142°F (61°C) for 60 minutes; check conversion with an iodine test. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. 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, add the whirlpool hops and sumac, and allow 30 minutes to steep. After the whirlpool, chill to about 75°F (24°C), aerate the wort, and pitch the yeast. Allow the fermentation temperature to free-rise in a basement or cellar, if possible. Once fermentation has slowed and some yeast has settled, rack to secondary; the Brett should still be present and will keep slowly chewing away in the months to come. Aim for a pleasantly dry beer with some acidity. Prime with champagne yeast and dextrose or honey and package in sturdy Champagne bottles to 3 volumes of CO2. Serve at cellar temperature.
BREWER’S NOTES
pH: Try to maintain 5.2 pH throughout the mash and boil, acidifying your sparge water if necessary.
Brett strains: I usually pick one or two from the Yeast Bay catalog, but I’ve have had great success with others.
Sumac: I haven’t used commercially available culinary sumac, but that could be an option—just make sure there isn’t something else in it (e.g., salt or preservatives). Staghorn sumac is a very distinctive-looking plant, but do your research. I’ve also never tried the smooth-type sumac—and the poison “sumac” has no resemblance to the other two types—but research will serve you well. Pick the staghorn fruit in the fall, once the acidity develops but before the rains wash them out. Let the staghorn fruit dry a while, put on gloves, and strip the “berries” from the “drupes.” Save some extra fruit in case you want to macerate it and add more before packaging. If so, you can hot steep it first and add the tea to taste, with or without the berries.
Variations: Make any modifications or adjustments you like—I do it all the time!
