The Homebrewer’s Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to Making Your Own Beer from Scratch offers a month-by-month primer on making your own beer from the ingredients all around you, and the beer recipes are perfect for those brewers interested in creative ways to use these culinary ingredients in their brewing.
Carrots are an ancient cultivated plant found in writings before the Christian Era. Their dual flavors—fresh and spicy when raw, and sweet and caramelly when roasted—and their wealth of vitamins have made them a longtime favorite. They are a great plant to store. Pack in sand or in the ground at cellar temperature, and they will keep up to six months. The greens can be harvested along with the root and add extra carrot flavor.
Batch Size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.011
ABV: 5.6%
IBUs: 33
GRAINS
8 lb (3.6 kg) Pilsner
2 lb (907 g) Munich
4 oz (113 g) Special B
MASH
Mash in with 4 gallons (15 l) water to hit 147°F (64°C). Sparge with 7½ gallons (28.4 l) water at 168°F (75°C).
HOPS
1/2 oz (14 g) Nugget at 60 minutes
2/3 oz (19 g) East Kent Goldings at 15 minutes
ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS
1/2 lb (227 g) fresh ginger, roughly chopped in a food processor, at 60 minutes
1 Tbs ground spicebush berries (you can substitute with black pepper and/or allspice) at 10 minutes
2 lb (907 g) roasted carrots, added into the fermentor
LENGTH OF BOIL
90 minutes with 15-minute whirlpool at flameout
YEAST
Belgian Saison
FERMENTATION
Start at 68°F (20°C) and allow to rise naturally to 85°F (29°C) and above until fermentation is complete. Add the roasted carrots and condition for another two weeks.
This recipe was featured in an excerpt from The Homebrewer's Almanac: A Seasonal Guide To Making Your Own Beer From Scratch, by Marika Josephson, Aaron Kleindon, and Ryan Tockstein, published by The Countryman Press, and reprinted in our Cooking with Beer 2016 special issue with permission from the publisher. Buy your copy of The Homebrewer's Almanac at better bookstores, homebrew shops, craft-beer stores, or your favorite online retailer.
For more information about Scratch Brewing, see this Breakout Brewer profile from the August/September 2015 issue of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine®.