Grain to Glass in 4 days – Rosemary Ale

Sometimes it’s really useful to have the ability to make a decent beer really fast. I’m talking grain to glass in a week fast. That might sound impossible to some, but with kveik this can be achieved, and there’s a range of styles available that this super yeast can ferment.

There are many recipes out there for kveik IPAs or hop forward kveik beers, and that’s great, but sometimes it’s nice to make something different and showcase other flavours. After all, there’s so much variety in beer, why settle on “tropical” flavours only? Plus, many kveiks have their own unique characteristics which can easily be covered up by strong hop flavours. 

Rosemary is a common herb in the UK. Its strong herbacious flavour goes really well in beer and blends well with some old world hops. It’s certainly unique, and also goes well with the orange and earthy flavours of Voss, plus with this yeast it can ferment super fast – within 3 days – if fermented at the right temperature. It’s a fun recipe to try out when a “regular” beer just isn’t what tickles your fancy.

The central flavour of this beer is the rosemary, and all other ingredients work to support this flavour and add complexity.

I used Crisp No.19 Maris Otter to bring a special malty characteristic to the beer. It’s richer, bolder and more flavourful than its mass produced counterpart. For hops I used fuggles as they are earthy and floral, which highlights the earthy flavours of the Voss and blends well with rosemary whilst adding a bit of extra dimension. I have a couple of fuggles plants on my farm which I like to use. I’m assuming most people reading this don’t grow their own hops so using store bought is fine.

Voss has orange, orange blossom, marmalade and earthy flavours which we want to get out of this beer. To get the most of these flavours and a fast fermentation, it should be fermented at 35-40°C.

Here’s the recipe:

OG: 1.048
FG: 1.007
ABV: 5.48%
EBC: 9.3
IBU: 27.2
Batch Size: 25L
Efficiency: 85%

Fermentables
Crisp No.19 Maris Otter 5kg

Hops
Magnum 20g @ 60 mins
Fuggles 25g @ 5 mins
Fuggles 25g @ F.O

Yeast
Voss Farmhouse

Process
Mash in at 65°C for 60-90 minutes, then raise the temperature to 75°C for 10 minutes. Drain off the wort and sparge, collecting around 30 litres of wort. Bring the wort to the boil adding the hops in at the prescribed times. Cool quickly and then pitch rehydrated yeast. Ferment at 35-40°C for three days or until final gravity is reached. If possible, cold crash for a few days then bottle or keg.

There’s a video above showing how we made it at KegThat, but let us know how you got on with your Rosemary ale.