Historic Foraged Pennsylvania Swankey

Historic Foraged Pennsylvania Swankey

(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.030  FG = 1.004 
IBU = 15  SRM = 10–15  ABV = 3.5%

Ingredients
1.8 lbs. (0.82 kg) 6-row malted barley
1.8 lbs. (0.82 kg) wheat bran
1.7 lbs. (0.77 kg) light molasses (10 min.)
3.6 AAU Cluster whole-leaf hops (first wort hop) (0.66 oz./19 g at 5.5% alpha acids)
10-qts. (10-L) fresh-picked alehoof
Fleischmann’s Active Dry or similar bread yeast
6.85 oz. (195 g) brown sugar (if priming)

Step by Step
Boil roughly 1.25 gallons (5 L) of water and dough in the mash tun with the wheat bran. Rest 15–20 minutes then measure the temperature. Add roughly 1.25 gallons (5 L) of room temperature water a little at a time to bring the temperature to around 156 °F (69 °C). This extra water will allow you to break up the bran easier while mixing to thin out the mash and ensure that there are no dough balls.

 Add 6-row malted barley to reach a target mash temperature of about 150 °F (66 °C), then rest for 60 minutes. Sparge with 172 °F (78 °C) water (mash tun will rise to 168 °F/76 °C), and lauter to 6.5 gallons (25 L) in the kettle. Before kettle heat is turned on, add the hops and half (~5 quarts/5 L) of the alehoof.

Total boil time is 90 minutes, adding molasses at 10 minutes until flameout. Stir well to mix the molasses into solution and then add remainder of alehoof. When the boil is complete, allow the wort in the kettle to naturally cool to about 98 °F (37 °C). Then transfer to the fermenter and pitch yeast.

Once fermentation is complete, transfer the beer over to a bottling bucket or keg for packaging.

Bottle or keg condition to 2.8 volumes of CO₂ using brown sugar. You must accurately measure the volume of beer needing to be primed to hit your target. Dose the brown sugar at a rate of 1.37 oz. per gallon (10.26 g/L) and let rest at room or ambient temperature for about three days to condition.