Pumpernickel Porter Kvass Recipe

The third and final entry into Nathan and my series of  Kvasses was a Pumpernickel Porter (just in time because the December issue of BYO Magazine showed up in my mailbox on Friday).  This recipe turned out a beverage much closer to what most people would recognize as beer than either the Scandinavian Gruit or the East End (a substantial addition of hops in the kettle and the switch from bread yeast to ale yeast prevented it from souring... so far).

The grain bill was based on East End's Wood Street Kvass with the addition of Carafa Special II and Chocolate Rye to give the beer a more suiting darker color and flavor.  Chocolate rye like Carafa Special is dehusked, and has a similar coffee flavor without being harshly ashy/acrid/burnt like other dark grains.  We also made the switch to Maris Otter for the base malt to provide more depth to the toasty malt/bread flavors.  Of course we also swapped out the loaf of seeded rye for pumpernickel bread. 

I primed half the batch with table sugar, but for the remainder I added caraway infused molasses at bottling.  To infuse molasses I mixed it with an equal volume of water and some coarse ground caraway in a small saucepan.  After bringing the mixture barely to a boil I allowed 10 minutes of steeping before straining through a piece of cheesecloth in a small sieve to remove the seeds.  I'm not usually an advocate of priming with unrefined sugars, but I think molasses is flavorful enough to be a worthwhile addition even in such a minuscule amount (although the carbonation will be less predictable).

Our beer isn't as big and rich as Beer Here's Mørke Pumpernickel Porter (an excellent beer), but the bread character certainly comes through making the beer feel substantial.  The plain version doesn't taste much different from a fresh bready brown porter, but the molasses/caraway version is certainly more reminiscent of its namesake.

Pumpernickel Porter Kvass

Recipe Specifics
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Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 8.25
Anticipated OG: 1.042
Anticipated SRM: 22.9
Anticipated IBU: 14.7
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80 %
Wort Boil Time: 30 Minutes

Grain
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72.7% - 6.00 lbs. Maris Otter
16.7% - 1.38 lbs. Rye Malt
4.5% - 0.38 lbs. Brown Malt
3.0% - 0.25 lbs. Chocolate Rye
3.0% - 0.25 lbs. Carafa Special II

Hops
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1.12 oz. Fuggle (Whole 4.75% AA) @ 30 min.

Extras
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1.00 Whirlfloc 15 min.

Yeast
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Safale US-05

Water Profile
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Profile: Washington DC

Mash Schedule
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Sacch Rest 60 min @ 152

Notes
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Brewed 9/24/10 with Nathan and Devin

1 gallon of bread goo (1 loaf of pumpernickel pureed in water after 24 hours of soaking) added at the start of the boil.

Chilled to ~80, left in the fridge overnight at 64. In the morning pitched most of a pack of US-05 and gave 30 seconds of pure O2.

Good fermentation after 12 hours, but the krausen never got very big.

10/1/10 Moved out of the fridge to ambient basement temps to help fermentation finish.

10/9/10 Bottled 2.5 gallons with 1.875 oz of table sugar. Bottled the remaining 2.25 gallons with 2.75 oz of Grandma's blackstrap molasses that was boiled with .25 oz of crushed caraway seeds and allowed to steep for 10 minutes before adding to the beer.

11/18/10 Great session beer, although I overdid it with the caraway addition on that half.  Next time I'd cut it down to 1/8 oz.

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