Beers From the Top of the World
“Denmark?” my wife asks, slightly incredulously.
“Denmark,” I say.
It was Valentine’s Day 2010 and my wife and I had just finished up a fairly extensive beer tasting of commercial offerings of chocolate, coffee and vanilla stouts. The line up of beers was a present to my wife who — luckily for me — doesn’t want roses or jewelry for Valentine’s Day, but is absolutely giddy when I send her on a scavenger hunt to find beer bottles hidden around the house. Some of these beers might even have been considered white whales (highly sought after) in the world of stouts. Among the line up is Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Breakfast — a last second addition as it had just recently shown up on shelves in my area. I had little prior knowledge of the beer or the brewer, and figured it was an underdog at best. So, as we revealed our favorites, I don’t think anybody could have been more shocked than I when our blind taste test revealed that we unanimously picked Beer Geek Breakfast as the winner, chosen for its velvet cream-like body, which exploded on the palate with incredible coffee, dark chocolate and roasted grain flavors. As most fellow beer geeks do at this point, we poured over every nugget of information the bottle offered about the beer and its brewer. It was obvious to me that more research was needed.
Over the course of the next couple of months, I believe my wife was able to completely sack any stock of Beer Geek Breakfast that our region received. As a homebrewer, the obvious next step was to see what Mikkeller’s website had to offer for information on the beer, piece together a possible recipe and see if the brewer would offer comments on the recipe. Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, Head Brewer and founder of Mikkeller’s, promptly responded to my email and a whole series of email exchanges followed. Soon, I became transfixed not only with Mikkel and his brewery, but also the whole beer culture, both past and present, of the region.
Norway, Sweden and Denmark all boast a growing band of beer enthusiasts. Tightly woven into this beer culture is the homebrewing subculture, since a growing number of these beer enthusiasts are getting their own hands dirty cleaning their own brewpots. Homebrewing is taken seriously and tasting quality, hand-crafted beers is a thing of pride and enjoyment. It is from this pool of homebrewers that the new Scandinavian craft brewers are emerging.
This beer movement is, however, in its nascent stages. Homebrewers in the region were hard pressed to find any brewing supplies in the 1990s through the early 2000s. Kjetil Jikuin of Nøgne Ø Brewery remembers, as an airline pilot in the ‘90s, stowing brewing supplies from abroad. “Often I had a whole 50 lb. bag of malt in my suitcase and frequently kept my yeast in the cold carts and lockers in the galley,” he says.
Craft breweries in these countries have started springing up just in the past decade and the brewers behind the wheels didn’t have a Fritz Maytag or Ken Grossman as forerunners. These are the folks leading the charge in their part of the world and they all have one thing in common — they all got their start homebrewing.
Rising out of the ashes of the long lost traditions of Scandinavian beer is a brand new phalanx of brewers, mixing Old World style with New World spark. Each brewer I talked to mainly cited the traditional centers of brewing — Britain, Belgium and Germany — as their inspiration, but some also gave credit to the American craft scene, leading the way in the “why not here, why not now?” realm to create a new, distinctive path. Some also are looking inwards for sources of inspiration, since most all sections of Scandinavia have brewing traditions dating back hundreds, even thousands, of years and are actually quite storied once you delve into its history.
Historical Background
The three countries were once united under a single monarch, starting in 1397, although each retained their independence. This union was known as the Kalmar Union and although its lifespan was relatively short since Sweden officially cut ties in 1523, it reaffirms the fact that these three countries have a history that is inextricably tied together.
Beer brewing has long been a tradition throughout this region, although its exact origins can only be surmised at this time. Homebrewing was not only a tradition in this part of the world — for some farmers it was the law. No beer; no farm. While the exact origins are hard to trace, in Norway the Gulatingsloven, or law of Gulating (an early legislature), were the laws that governed their people during the late Viking period onward. One part of the Gulatingsloven stated that if a farmer didn’t brew a beer for three years, his farm could be confiscated and split amongst the church and state. Every farm had to have their own working brewhouse, although it usually served many purposes such as acting as the farm’s bakery, smokery and even the bathhouse. Farms would grow their own grains, kiln (smoke) their own malts and brew their own beer. Juniper and bog myrtle would have been the most widely utilized spice to add to the beer, especially prior to the arrival of hops.
Beer was a farmer’s commodity and was subject to being taxed, traded and, of course, consumed. While I couldn’t find any information in my research, I kept wondering whether there would have been homebrew competitions back in the pre-industrial times, village or region-wide. I feel that it’s likely because a farmer’s beer would have been a source of pride for the farm and in the spirit of competition, leaders would have organized such challenges.
While each region in Scandinavia has its own unique heritage, communication with Germany, the Baltic countries, the British Isles and other far-reaching European regions would have been a regular occurrence due to the fact that these cultures are all well known seafarers. Beers from Germany and Britain Isles would have had some influence on the brewing practices, especially near larger ports where heavy trading occurred.
Hops were not indigenous to the area and were slowly introduced to the southern parts of the region around the 10th Century, adding a new element for the brewers to utilize. Hops were slow to gain traction, though, amongst the farmer/brewers as juniper was very much an intricate part of their beers and flavor profiles.
Another late comer to the area was lager yeasts from Germany, which would have also slowly gained preference over baker’s yeasts. But over time lagers came to dominate the baker’s yeasts found in farmhouse ales until the point in the past century when the traditional Scandinavian farmhouse ales were all but extirpated from the region. Luckily for us, small pockets of farmhouse brewers survived long enough for the modern movement to gain direct ties with the traditional brewing practices.
Another Scandinavian tradition which survived the onslaught of pale lagers was the annual tradition of brewing Christmas beers — Juleøl in Norway, Julbrygg in Denmark and Julöl in Sweden. I don’t think any culture in the world took the tradition of brewing holiday beers more seriously than Scandinavians.
NORWAY
Jens P. Maudal of Haandbryggeriet jumped on the homebrewing bandwagon early after returning from studies abroad in England during the first part of the 1970s. He kept at it and by the early 1990s, he helped organize Norway’s homebrewer’s society, Norbrygg, and was its first sitting chairman. As an early homebrewer, he looked mainly to Germany, Britain and Belgium for inspiration. A quick glance at beers brewed by Haandbryggeriet reveals a nod to each of these brewing epicenters, from a Flemish red to a lambic to a Bavarian weizen to a pale ale. Since he has been brewing for four decades, Jens has had to look deeper for new inspiration. And, he has found it in his backyard, in the tales of how beer was brewed throughout not only Scandinavia, but adjacent regions as well, in the pre-industrial age. Jens has gone to great lengths to try to reproduce these by-gone beverages. In his line-up you will find such beers as Norwegian Wood, Hesjeøl and Farewell, a funeral ale, to name a few. Jens and his fellow brewers at Haandbryggeriet are very much into experimenting with traditional beers. Sit back with one of his creations and you may understand why. Jens has no plans to slow down brewing these historical beers of Northern Europe.
When Kjetil Jikuin founded Nøgne Ø (naked island) brewery in 2002, there were few other craft beers commercially available in Norway aside from some imports. As an extra hurdle, there was very little interest in full-flavored beers at the time. Luckily for Kjetil, “we got lots of attention in the media when we started,” which — when coupled with his palate-enticing beers — seemed to be the catalyst for the change in the general public’s attitude towards what beer could be. Inspiration for Kjetil came from all over the world since his job as an airline pilot took him to all corners of the globe. But, it was beers from the United States and its respective homebrewing scene that seemed to be most influential to him. He built his own 6-barrel brewhouse and his fermenters from scrap metal and dairy equipment, bottling each beer by hand. Nowadays, he is at the helm of a 40-barrel system making only beers that are true to his heart. English, American and Belgian-style beers dominate his line up. Nøgne Ø also makes sake and their craftsmanship stands up to the best the world has to offer.
SWEDEN
For more than 400 years, starting in 1442, it was mandated by law that all peasants in Sweden grow their own hops to assure a good steady supply. Obviously, beer had quite the historical significance in Sweden. One island off the coast of Sweden has garnered a lot of attention in recent years with the help of beer journalists such as Michael Jackson writing this island onto the world beer map. Gotland is a small 90-mile (145-km) long by 35-mile (56-km) wide island located in the middle of the Baltic Sea off the southeast coast of Sweden. Its claim to fame may be the fact that it has been the proposed homeland for the Goths, whose incursions on the Roman Empire wrote them into the annals of history. But for our purposes it is the Gotlandsdricka or “the drink of Gotland” that is of greatest interest. Farmhouse beers are still brewed here in a very traditional manner. The malt for a Gotlandsdricka is smoked, sometimes heavily, with the use of birch wood. Juniper is a must for a proper Gotlandsdricka in the same way that hops are a must for an IPA. If you take a trip to Gotland today, you will still come upon many farmers operating their farmhouse brewery in a fashion similar to their forefathers.
H-G Wiktorsson and Berith Karlsson from Närke Kulturbryggeri feel very deeply about reviving these vestigial beers and the hand-crafted beers that once dominated their country. According to Berith, “one hundred years ago, there were about 400 breweries alone in Sweden. That’s just counting breweries that brewed higher strength beers, since lower alcohol beers didn’t need to be taxed and therefore were not counted. By the mid 1990s there were six breweries left in the whole country.” The Swedes can once again revel in their beer scene with 25 new craft breweries opening in the past 10 years and more on the way.
H-G and Berith are long time homebrewers. In 1994 they started their own homebrew club, Källarknut, and Berith is now the president of the Swedish Craft Brewers Organization, Föreningen Sveriges Småbryggerier. Both Berith and H-G hold a special place in their hearts for traditional Belgian beers, especially spontaneously fermented brews, although they have not tried this in their brewery . . . yet. They also cite Bamberg’s diverse Franconian beers as a source of inspiration, as well as the traditional English ales and the modern US craft beers. Since their earliest days of homebrewing, inspiration to brew fuller, more enticing beers has always been a priority. Look no further than their mouth watering Stormaktsporter, a 9.5% ABV Russian imperial stout. (Hopefully next time I’ll get the recipe for it from them.)
DENMARK
With the closest ties to Germany of the three Scandinavian countries, it may come as no surprise that Northern-German-styled Pilsners came to dominate the beer output of Denmark relatively early. Despite this fact, a few regional breweries kept the Scandinavian Christmas beer (Juleøl) tradition alive. Even through the dark ages of beer in the country, when the pale lager dominated the market, Juleøl could still be found in most corners of the country. Even today pale lagers dominate 95% of the market, but the dynamics for change are well in the works. A microbrewery explosion has hit the country which roughly parallels Sweden and Norway.
One of those leading the charge is Mikkel Borg Bjergsø. Mikkel has taken an interesting road to opening a brewery. When he launched his brewery in 2006, instead of sourcing a brew system, fermenters, filter, pumps, grain mill, bright tanks, warehouse space etc., Mikkel decided to look at existing breweries that would allow him to rent their brewing equipment and fermenting space so that he could brew his beers at their breweries. And so the age of the “gypsy brewer” was born. Mikkel travels extensively to various breweries to brew his own beers. He has to adapt to the changing water profile and equipment, but it also allows him to pick and chose among various profiles if and when fermenter space is available to him.
Mikkel started homebrewing in 2003 as “a way of getting a good hoppy IPA without having to pay $10 for it.” He cites the US and Belgium as his two biggest influences for his brewing since Hoegaarden and Chimay were his original jumping off beers into the greater craft world. Later he found the big hop-bombs, imperial stouts and barrel aged beers of the US-scene to be very alluring. One particular aspect of Mikkeller’s beers that appealed to me is his experimental line of beers, most notably his single hop and yeast strain lines. Just as a homebrewer might split a batch between two or more yeast strains or dry hopping with different hop varieties, Mikkel has done these experiments at a commercial scale. If you come across any one of these series, I highly recommend doing some side-by-side tasting.
So do yourself a favor, find one of these Scandinavian offerings. You may feel like me and look north for inspiration for your next brew session.
Homebrewing in Scandinavia
by Svante Ekelin
Here in Scandinavia, homebrewing lives and develops in a setting which takes influence both from the regional history and from the world around us. Scandinavia consists of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Finland and Iceland are also sometimes thought (by non-Scandinavians) to be included in Scandinavia, although this wider community of nations should really be referred to as “Norden,” or the Nordic countries. Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland uphold retail alcohol monopolies, which have an impact on the beer scene. Denmark is directly connected to the main part of the European continent and much more densely populated than the others. It plays a more important role in the history of beer and brewing (think of the groundbreaking yeast isolation work by Emil Christian Hansen at Carlsberg around 1880), and it has a distinctly less restrictive alcohol policy.
Norway, Sweden and Finland all still have their own living traditions of centuries-old homebrewing. In Finland there is traditional sahti (juniper-flavored beer) brewing, and Norway has its traditional dark and smoky maltøl.
Gotlandsdricka, or dricke (drink) as it is called on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, is the only traditional homebrewed beer to survive the industrialization of brewing in Sweden, and still is produced in largely the same way as several centuries ago. Gotlandsdricka is characterized by smokiness, spiciness and turbidity. Traditionally, the barley is home-malted, and some farms still produce their own malt for dricke. Malted wheat or rye can also be used. Kilning is performed using open fire, typically beechwood, and the malt is heavily smoked and even tarry. The wooden vats used for mashing are lined with juniper twigs to provide a false bottom for lautering, and this gives the dricke its distinctly spicy character. Fermentation is typically carried out using baker’s yeast. Dricke is drunk very young, actually while still fermenting, and more sugar is added during the weeks it is being consumed, to keep the fermentation going and the dricke from souring.
Present-day homebrewing in Scandinavia is, however, more influenced by international trends in the professional brewing scene than by the locally-surviving traditional homebrews. Judges at the national homebrewing competitions in Norway or Sweden would find it much more difficult to judge a maltøl or a Gotlandsdricka than an imperial IPA or saison.
Until recently, homebrewing was dominated by Australian and British beer kits, but their sales have dwindled, as homebrewers in Scandinavia have gained access to top-quality malts, extracts, hops and yeasts. A fair amount of barley is grown in Scandinavia, and there are domestic maltsters, but the internationally recognized producers of quality malts have a strong position in both the microbrew and homebrew markets. The malt extracts used by homebrewers are to a large extent spraymalts (dried malt extracts) from the UK. Unlike in the US, homebrew retailers cannot rotate liquid malt extracts quickly enough to ensure freshness.
Historically, hops have been grown rather extensively in Scandinavia, but nowadays practically all hops used for both professional brewing and homebrewing are imported from the most prolific hop growing countries, including the UK, Germany, Czech Republic and Slovenia. In recent years, there has been a strong increase among microbrewers and homebrewers alike in the demand for American hops and most recently New Zealand hops, due to their unique aroma characteristics. Arguably most important of all, homebrewers and microbrewers in Scandinavia have ready access to the whole range of liquid yeast cultures as well as dried yeasts from the top yeast laboratories of the world.
Of course, good ingredients will only get you so far. To make great beer you also need to know how to make good use of them. So how do Scandinavian homebrewers obtain their information? Modern homebrewing in Scandinavia is to a large extent inspired by the English-speaking brewing community, and there is a multitude of books available. (For example, “How To Brew” by John Palmer is popular.) In addition, Brew Your Own has a sizable circulation in Scandinavia.
All these types of information sources are also available in the local Scandinavian languages. Each country has at least one modern brewing book written by homebrewers. In Sweden the magazine Hembryggaren (The Home Brewer) was founded twenty years ago. Each country has at least one Internet forum and several blogs dedicated to homebrewing, and at least one country has a homebrewing podcast.
In each of the countries there are several local brewing clubs, and each also has its own national homebrewing competition. To top it off, for the last several years there has been a Scandinavian championship where the top three brews from each national competition competed. All in all, Scandinavian homebrewing is alive and well. The future looks bright for this great hobby in the north of Europe.
Svante Ekelin is a co-founder of the Swedish Homebrewers’ Association and the Swedish Beer Judge Certification Program.
Scandinavian Recipes
Haandbryggeriet: Norwegian Wood clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.060 FG = 1.010
IBU = 28 SRM = 22 ABV = 6.7%
Jens P. Maudal, Head Brewer at Haandbryggeriet in Drammen, Norway, says, “The recipe is our recreation of a traditional farm ale that was every farm’s regular drinking ale, and a stronger version was normally brewed for the Christmas holiday season.”
Ingredients
8 lbs. 3 oz. (3.7 kg) Weyermann smoked malt
2 lbs. (0.91 kg) Munich malt
19 oz. (0.55 kg) Weyermann CaraAmber® malt
18 oz. (0.51 kg) British amber malt
11 oz. (0.31 kg) British pale malt
0.3 oz. (8.5 g) Northern Brewer hops (mash hop)
1.8 AAU Northern Brewer hops (60 min.) (0.2 oz./6 g at 8.5% alpha acids)
5.9 AAU Centennial hops (20 min.) (0.6 oz./17 g at 9.75% alpha acids)
5.6 AAU Cluster hops (0 min.) (0.8 oz./22 g at 7% alpha acids)
2 branches of fresh Juniper (with green berries)
Wyeast 3638 (Bavarian Wheat), White Labs WLP315 (Bavaria Weizen Yeast) or other wheat/wit yeast (2 qt./2 L yeast starter)
3/4 cup (150 g) dextrose (if priming)
Step by Step
Mash the grains as well as the juniper branches and mash hops at 151 °F (66 °C) for 60 minutes. Mash out, vorlauf, and then sparge at 170 °F (77 °C) to collect enough wort to result in 5 gallons (19 L) after a 90-minute boil. Boil wort for 90 minutes, adding hops at times indicated. Cool, aerate, and pitch yeast. Ferment at 70 °F (21 °C). After fermentation is complete, bottle or keg as usual.
Partial mash option:
Substitute the smoked malt and Munich malt in the all-grain recipe with 5 lb. 14 oz. (2.66 kg) Weyermann smoked malt extract and 1 lb. 6 oz. (0.62 kg) liquid Munich malt extract. Place the crushed malts, juniper branches, and mash hops in with steeping grains and steep at 151 °F (66 °C) in 3.75 qts. (3.6 L) of water for 45 minutes. Rinse the grain bag with 2 qts. (2 L) of 170 °F (77 °C) water. Combine “grain tea” and malt extracts along with enough water to top up to 6 gallons (23 L) and boil for 60 minutes. Follow the remaining portion of the all-grain recipe.
Nøgne Ø – Det Kompromissløse Bryggeri A/S: Imperial Brown Ale clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.079 FG = 1.021
IBU = 40 SRM = 17 ABV = 7.5%
“A dark brown English ale in which classic English malts meet the spicy hoppiness of the New World.”
Ingredients
11 lbs. (5 kg) Thomas Fawcett Maris Otter pale malt
1 lb. 11 oz. (0.77 kg) wheat malt
1 lb. 11 oz. (0.77 kg) Munich malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) caramalt malt
6.3 oz. (0.18 kg) amber malt
3.2 oz. (90 g) brown malt
3.2 oz. (90 g) chocolate malt
9 AAU Chinook hops (90 min.) (0.75 oz./21 g at 12% alpha acids)
11 AAU East Kent Golding hops (5 min.) (2.3 oz./65 g at 4.75% alpha acids)
1.6 oz. (45 g) Columbus hops (0 min.)
White Labs WLP007 (Dry English Ale), Wyeast 1098 (British Ale) yeast
¾ cups (150 g) dextrose (if priming)
Step by Step
Mash in at 151 °F (66 °C) for 45 minutes; raise to 162 °F (72 °C) for 15 minutes to finish saccharification. Or, you can just hold the mash at 151 °F (66 °C) for the duration of the 60 minutes. Mash out, vorlauf, and then sparge at 170 °F (77 °C) to collect approximately 6.5 (24.5 L) wort. Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops at times indicated. Cool, aerate, and pitch yeast at 68 °F (20 °C). Maintain that temperature through primary fermentation. Age for ideally 6 months after packaging before consumption.
Partial mash option:
Replace pale malt with 2 lbs. (0.91 kg) light dried malt extract and 5.75 lbs. (2.6 kg) light liquid malt extract. Mash grains in 6.5 qts. (6.2 L) of water at 151 °F (66 °C) for 45 minutes. Rinse grains with ~4 qts. (~4 L) of 170 °F (77 °C) water. Dissolve dried malt extract into wort and bring to a boil. Boil wort for 90 minutes, adding hops at times indicated and stirring in liquid malt extract for the final 10 minutes of the boil. Cool wort and transfer to fermenter. Add water to top up to 5 gallons (19 L). Follow the remaining portion of the all-grain recipe.
Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Breakfast Stout clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.080 FG = 1.023
IBU = 86 SRM = 64 ABV = 7.5%
Mikkel, Mikkeller’s gypsy brewer, says what truly makes this beer special is, “The coffee. The way of adding coffee gives the beer a fresh true coffee aroma and flavor.”
Ingredients
7 lbs. (3.2 kg) Pilsner malt
2 lbs. 3 oz. (1 kg) flaked oats
2 lbs. 3 oz. (1 kg) oat malt
1 lb. 2 oz. (0.5 kg) Belgian caramel Munich malt (45 °L)
10 oz. (0.27 kg) smoked malt
1 lb. 2 oz. (0.5 kg) brown malt
12 oz. (0.34 kg) pale chocolate malt
1 lb. 2 oz. (0.5 kg) chocolate malt
1 lb. 2 oz. (0.5 kg) roasted barley (450 °L)
12.3 AAU Centennial hops (90 min.) (1.4 oz./39 g at 8.8% alpha acids)
8.7 AAU Chinook hops (90 min.) (0.7 oz./20 g at 12.4% alpha acids)
2.8 AAU Cascade hops (90 min.) (0.4 oz./11 g at 7% alpha acids)
7 AAU Cascade hops (1 min) (1 oz./28 g at 7% alpha acids)
1.5 oz. (43 g) ground coffee
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale), White Labs WLP001 (California Ale), or Safale US-05 yeast
3⁄4 cup (150 g) dextrose (if priming)
Step by Step
Mash in at 153 °F (67 °C) and hold for 75 minutes. You may want to add in a handful or two of rice hulls to aid with the lautering process. Lauter slowly to account for the high levels of glucans in the mash. Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops as indicated. Cool, aerate, and pitch yeast, fermenting between 68–72 °F (20–22 °C). Two days prior to bottling or kegging, add the ground coffee to a 1-L French press for hot extraction of the coffee. Press off and very gently pour into the fermenter. Two days later, bottle or keg as normal.
Närke Kulturbryggeri: Tanngnjostr & Tanngrisnir clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.071 FG = 1.014
IBU = 27 SRM = 9 ABV = 7.8%
Berith Karlsson, from Närke Kulturbryggeri, said of this smoked doppelbock spiced with juniper twigs, “being a double bock lager, (it) is named after the two goats pulling the wagon of Thor, the god of thunder.”
Ingredients
7 lbs. (3.2 kg) smoked malt (Gotland, Viking or Weyermann)
4.5 lbs. (2 kg) Munich malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) Carapils® malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) wheat malt
13 oz. (0.36 kg) sucrose (15 min.)
7.5 AAU Northern Brewer hops (60 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 7.5% alpha acids)
4.3 AAU Hallertau Mittelfruh hops (1 min.) (1.3 oz./38 g at 4.25% alpha acids)
4 twigs female (with berries) juniper
White Labs WLP833 (German Bock Lager) or Wyeast 2206 (Bavarian Lager) yeast
2/3 cup (133 g) dextrose (if priming)
Step by Step
Submerge the juniper twigs in about 7 gallons (26.5 L) of water and bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Remove twigs and use the water for mashing and sparging. Mash the grains at 151 °F (66 °C) for 60 minutes. Mash out, vorlauf, and then sparge at 170 °F (77 °C) to collect 6 gallons (23 L) of wort. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops and sucrose at times indicated. Cool, aerate, and pitch yeast at 60° F (16 °C). Hold until visible signs of fermentation, then slowly chill to 50° F (10 °C) and hold for the remainder of fermentation. After fermentation is complete, allow temperature to rise to 55° F (13 °C) for two days. Then cool to 33 °F (1 °C) at least 4 weeks. Bottle or keg as normal.
Partial mash option:
Substitute the smoked malt and Munich malt in the all-grain recipe with 5.5 lbs. (2.5 kg) Weyermann smoked malt extract and 2.75 lbs. (1.25 kg) liquid Munich malt extract. Place 4 qts. (4 L) of water in your brewpot. Toss in the juniper twigs, bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Remove twigs and cool juniper water to 162 °F (72 °C). Place crushed grains in a large steeping bag and mash in juniper water at 151 °F (66 °C) for 45 minutes. Remove bag and rinse with 2 qts. (2 L) of 170 °F (77 °C) water. Top up to 6 gallons (23 L), add malt extracts, and bring to a boil for 60 minutes. Follow the remaining portion of the all-grain recipe.
