SamiClones
Among the most famous of holiday beers is Samichlaus, which at around 14 percent alcohol by volume, also can claim to be one of the world’s strongest lagers. Every year until 1996, it was brewed only on December 6 — the feast day of St. Nicholas, when presents are exchanged in some European countries. After long fermentation and lagering for almost a year, the beer was released for consumption the following December 6th. For a while after the 1996 batch was brewed, it appeared that the Grinch had stolen Samichlaus and it would be no longer. However, in 1999, the beer was brewed again.
Austria’s Castle Brewery Eggenberg, which worked in conjunction with the Hurlimann brewers, revived the beer after Hurlimann gave it up as not being profitable enough.
Samichlaus is an extremely strong lager, with a malty, but not cloying, sweetness and caramel notes. The body is very full, but not quite as syrupy as the original gravity (reputed to be 32 °Plato or 1.140, although some of the brewery’s literature gives it as 28.5 °Plato) and final gravity (4.0 °Plato or 1.016, from a hydrometer reading) might indicate. The 30 IBUs of hop bitterness are really only enough to balance the pronounced malt flavor. The color is 18–20 SRM, a deep amber — perhaps largely because of a long (120-minute) boil. The finish is relatively smooth, the result of long lagering at cold temperatures, with a lingering — almost brandy-like — warmth from the high alcohol content.
Challenges
Brewing a Samichlaus clone presents a number of challenges to the homebrewer. The first is the high original gravity, which requires a considerable amount of grain or malt extract. All-grain brewers need to ensure they have the mash tun capacity for mashing such a large amount of grain, up to 25 lbs. (11.3 kg) for a 5 gallon (19 L) batch. For this you’ll likely need at least 12.5 gallons (47 L) of mash tun space. It’s worth considering a mash with a smaller volume of grain and augmenting it with dried malt extract in the kettle. High gravity mashes result in lower efficiency, so keeping some extract on hand if necessary to achieve the target gravity is a very good idea. The Eggenberg brewery uses runnings from one mash as mash water for the main Samichlaus mash.
High fermentability is an important goal for this beer. Otherwise the final gravity will be too high, resulting in a cloying sweetness that is out of character. The mash should be conducted so as to favor both the alpha and beta enzymes that convert the starches to simple, easily fermentable sugars. A popular step mash is the one advocated by the late homebrewer and author Dr. George Fix, with rests at 40, 50, 60 and 70 °C (104, 122, 140 and 158 °F). Another possibility is a decoction mash. If you use a single infusion mash, convert at a relatively low temperature of about 149–150 °F (65 °C).
Extract brewers should not feel as if they have coal in their holiday stockings. A worthy extract version of Samichlaus can be brewed. The choice of malt extract is important. The recipe is generally believed to have a portion of Vienna malt to increase the malty flavor. Extracts made with Vienna malt are difficult to find, but there are extracts available that contain Munich malt, which is similar to Vienna. The base extract should be light or extra light in color, with relatively high fermentability.
For all-grain brewers, an extended boil is necessary to concentrate the wort unless you stop collecting at a relatively high gravity and spike the wort with malt extract. A partial-wort boil and topping off the fermenter with cold water may be a more practical alternative for those with small kettles. Remember that hop utilization decreases with increasing wort gravity, so plan to use additional bittering hops if you do so.
Yeast and Fermentation
The White Labs yeast strain WLP885 (Zurich Lager) is widely believed to be the strain of yeast used to brew Samichlaus, and is available seasonally. However, our information indicates that multiple yeast strains are used. Homebrewed examples using WLP885 have, however, been successful.
High gravity fermentations are notorious for problems because they place so much stress on the yeast. Moreover, lager yeast strains are less tolerant of underpitching — that is, using less than the optimum population of yeast. With liquid yeast, making a starter is a necessity. Even the largest packages of liquid yeast available to homebrewers do not begin to be adequate for a beer this big. In fact, I would strongly recommend pitching the entire primary yeast sediment from another batch of a lower gravity lager if you want to avoid the issues associated with a stuck or incomplete fermentation. Alternately, make a yeast starter with a volume of 2.5 gallons (9.4 L) for a 5-gallon (19-L) batch. Or, perhaps you are fortunate and have access to yeast slurry from a brewpub or microbrewery that brews lagers. In that case, you’ll want about 4 cups of yeast slurry.
High gravity worts also require oxygen for healthy yeast reproduction. The chilled wort should be very well aerated, far more so than an ordinary beer. Some brewers provide additional oxygen up to 24 hours after the initial yeast is pitched. However, the beer should not be aerated once there is active fermentation, for fear of oxidation that can cause premature staling.
Another way to encourage a beer to finish fermenting is to raise the temperature once fermentation slows. This will not greatly affect flavor, most of which has already been determined.
It may be necessary to “rouse” (gently but thoroughly stir) the yeast sediment back into suspension periodically during the primary fermentation. This brings more of the fermenting beer into contact with the yeast as it flocculates and settles to the bottom of the fermenter. The Eggenberg Brewery racks Samichlaus periodically and adds a bit of fermenting wort to move the fermentation along.
Conducting a fermentation with a gravity this high requires monitoring its progress, taking periodic specific gravity readings and modifying the procedure as necessary. For example, it may or may not be necessary to pitch additional yeast, even when using the Zurich strain, or to rouse the yeast sediment. There is no precise estimate of the time necessary to reach the target final gravity, or even specifically what that gravity should be. Each batch should be thought of as its own special case.
Long, cold winter nights
As with any lager, the fermentation temperature is critical. Almost all lager strains work best at a temperature in the 45–55 °F (7–13 °C) range. Once the primary yeast has finished its job, the beer can be warmed to room temperature if a second yeast strain is pitched or if the fermentation becomes stuck or is unduly slow. Then when the beer is close to the estimated target final gravity and ready for lagering, it can be racked to a secondary fermenter and chilled to below 40 °F (5 °C). A beer of this gravity benefits greatly from long cold lagering, for at least six months, in order to smooth and mellow and to lose the sharp “bite” from the high alcohol content. Patience is definitely a virtue. Remember that Christmas comes only once a year.
After its long sleep (the original Samichlaus was literally lagered in a Swiss mountain cave), the beer is ready for bottling. The remaining yeast will have lost much of its vitality by this time, so another charge of bottling yeast is recommended to ensure adequate carbonation of the priming sugar. Again an alcohol tolerant strain such as dry Champagne yeast should do an excellent job. Samichlaus is not a highly carbonated beer, but neither is it flat. The target carbonation is about 2.2 volumes of carbon dioxide. If you are kegging the beer, it can be force carbonated without additional sugar or yeast.
Homebrewed clones
Walt Fischer, avid homebrewer and proprietor of My Home Brew Shop in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is a fan of high gravity brewing and large batch sizes. On December 6, 2003, he and two friends brewed 30 gallons (114 L) of a Samichlaus clone. The grain bill was more than 150 lbs. (68 kg), most of which was mashed in Walt’s system constructed from 55 gallon (208 L) stainless steel drums, and the remainder in a second much smaller mash tun. He says the efficiency suffered from the lack of sufficient mash tun capacity.
After a 90-minute boil, they pitched a mere half-gallon (1.9 L) starter of White Labs WLP885 into the chilled wort with an original gravity of 1.120. Fermentation was slow to begin, and the yeast had to be roused multiple times, but after one month they had achieved a specific gravity of 1.050. They debated whether to pitch additional yeast but decided against it, racking the beer to secondary fermenters. In a few more weeks, the gravity was 1.040 (yielding 10% ABV) and the beer was refrigerated for lagering, where it has remained since.
Walt has sampled the beer on several occasions. “It tastes a lot like Samichlaus,” he says, “but it’s a little on the sweet side and the body is a little bigger than the commercial beer.”
Joe Walton, a member of the Austin ZEALOTS, brewed his version of Samichlaus in the summer of 2003. “I started with 18.5 lbs (8.4 kg) of Munich malt and 8.5 lbs. (3.9 kg) of Pilsner malt and performed a triple decoction and collected enough wort for a 5-hour boil.” His brew day was 12 hours long and the original gravity was 1.160. “I don’t know if I did not pitch with enough yeast or if the wort was not aerated enough, but the fermentation petered out. I did lager for a year to help it mellow. It was drinkable with nice caramel malt characters, but not as balanced as I would have liked. Next time I am going to make sure I have sufficient aeration and pitch a massive amount of yeast.”
Chris Colby — another ZEALOT and editor of BYO — also made a “Samiclone” in 2003. “I did a single decoction mash and ended up with 3 gallons (11 L) of wort at around 1.125 — lower than the 1.140 I had planned. I pitched the yeast from a 1-gallon (3.8-L) starter and the fermentation really took off, but then slowed around 1.050. At this point, I racked to secondary and let the carboy sit at room temperature to finish. I was initially worried that I would get too many esters, although my clone turned out less estery than the real beer. The final gravity was 1.025 (for an ABV just shy of 13%).”
Dan and Joelle Dewberry, also ZEALOTS, boiled their wort for three hours, “to achieve that delicious caramelization.” They added yeast from a 1-gallon (3.8-L) yeast starter to the primary and aerated with an aquarium pump for 1.5 hours. Joelle says, “We kept some yeast in reserve, worked it up, and added 27 oz. (800 mL) to the secondary and 34 oz. (1 L) at bottling. All of this really seemed to help as the FG was 1.033, producing an ABV of 14.5%. All in all, this beer needs quite a bit of yeast!”
Clone recipes for Samichlaus abound. (See page 52 for two.) But, learning from homebrewers who have actually tried brewing one, the key to success is clear — pitch enough yeast.
Sidebar
I called Castle Brewery Eggenberg in Austria to get some information on how they brew the official Samichlaus. The Braumeister, Anton Hemetsberger, was on vacation so I spoke to the Quality Control Manager, Peter Kaufmann.
As in Germany, Austrian brewers adhere to the Reinheitsgebot, so malt contributes 100% of the extract in Samichlaus. The malt bill consists of helles (pale, likely Pilsner) and dunkels (dark, perhaps Munich) malt that the brewery mashes in a single decoction process. To achieve the original gravity of 32 °P, Eggenberg uses runnings from a previous brew as water in the final mash and then concentrates the wort further through a 2-hour boil heated by an external calandria (a heating device outside of the kettle). The target bitterness level ranges from 26 to 30 IBU. Primary fermentation lasts for 4 weeks at around 10 °C (50 °F) followed by about 9 months of conditioning between 0–10 °C (32–50 °F). Herr Kaufmann did not describe in detail the yeast strain or fermentation parameters, but he did confirm that they employed more than one yeast strain by means of one or more additions of kraeusen during conditioning.
I also called German Braumeister Hermann Hörterer, who works for Esau-Hueber — which manufacturers brewing equipment and is especially well known for its yeast propagation equipment — to obtain a general outline of techniques for producing a high-alcohol lager beer. Hörterer formerly worked for a brewer in Bavaria that made a strong doppelbock as well. He recommended pitching 30-40 million yeast cells/mL — at least twice the rate for normal lagers. Also, to promote yeast activity under a high alcohol environment, he recommended repitching one or more times with new vital yeast and to rouse the yeast by transferring the beer. — Steve Holle
Recipes
Samichlaus clone
(5 gallon/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.139 FG = 1.034
IBU = 28 SRM = 15
ABV = 14.2%
Ingredients
21 lbs. (9.5 kg) Pilsner malt (2 °L)
2.0 lbs. (0.91 kg) Vienna malt (3 °L)
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) Carahell dark malt (65 °L)
2.0 lbs. (0.91 kg) cane sugar
12.75 AAU Northern Brewer hops (1.5 oz./43 g of 8.5% alpha acids) (60 min)
2.25 AAU Tettnang hops (0.5 oz./14 g of 4.5 % alpha acids) (15 min)
0.50 oz. (14 g) Hallertauer Mittelfrüh hops (2 min)
1 tsp. Irish moss (15 min)
White Labs WLP885 (Zurich Lager) yeast(2.5 gallon/9.4 L starter or yeast cake from previous batch)
Champagne yeast (optional)
2.8 oz. (80 g) corn sugar (for priming)
Step by Step
Mash in with 8.3 gallons (31 L) of water (or runnings from another mash). Step mash with rests at 104 °F (40 °C), 122 °F (50 °C), 140 °F (60 °C) and 158 °F (70 °C) or single infusion mash at 148 °F (64 °C). Collect enough wort for a 120 minute boil. (Take pre-boil gravity and add malt extract if needed to hit target gravity.) Boil wort for 120 minutes and add hops as indicated in recipe. Cool wort, aerate thoroughly and pitch yeast from starter. Ferment at 52 °F (11 °C). When fermentation slows, rack to secondary, add fresh yeast and raise temperature to 60 °F (16 °C). Lager at 38 °F (3.3 °C). Bottle or keg, shooting for 2.20 volumes CO2. If bottling, add fresh yeast to bottling bucket.
Samichlaus clone
(5 gallon/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.140 FG = 1.034
IBU = 28 SRM = 17
ABV = 14.3%
Ingredients
10.0 lbs. (4.5 kg) Muntons extra light dried malt extract
3.0 lbs. (1.4 kg) Alexander’s Munich liquid malt extract (12 °L)
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) Carahell dark malt (65 °L)
2.0 lbs. (0.91 kg) cane sugar
12.75 AAU Northern Brewer hops 1.5 oz./43 g of 8.5% alpha acids) (60 min)
2.25 AAU Tettnang hops (0.5 oz./14 g of 4.5 % alpha acids) (15 min)
0.50 oz. (14 g) Hallertauer Mittelfrüh hops (2 min)
1 tsp Irish moss (15 min)
White Labs WLP885 (Zurich Lager)
Champagne yeast (optional)
2.8 oz. (80 g) corn sugar (for priming)
Step by Step
Steep Carahell dark malt in 0.6 gallons (2.1 L) at 148 °F (64 °C) for 30 minutes. Add grain tea and extract to kettle. Boil wort for 60 minutes, adding hops as indicated. Ferment 52 °F (11 °C). Lager for at 38 °F (3.3 °C). Prime with corn sugar and fresh yeast.
Note: The use of cane sugar in these recipes helps increase the fermentabiity of the wort and can be replaced by adding more malt or malt extract. Likewise, adding Champagne yeast is an option if your fermentation stops prematurely. Keep the temperature of the wort over 55 °F (13 °C) for best results when using Champagne yeast.
