“I always create our recipes with complexity in mind.”
That’s what Derek Brown of Bizarre Brewing told us when we asked about the mash bill for his upcoming Black Nettle — a sessionable Stout brewed with locally foraged stinging nettles that he’s working on for an upcoming release.
And this brew will definitely bring that multifaceted malt character that should play beautifully with the herbaceous, almost minty tones provided by the nettles. Derek is using four different specialty malts, flaked oats, AND caramelized oats to achieve what he calls “a rounded, smooth, milk chocolatey character.”
As anyone who’s worked in a brewery knows, all that grain means there’s a lot to keep track of on brew day. For Derek, that process starts the previous day, with milling whole grains in the brewery to create a grist — a mix of partially ground malts — for the next day’s brewing cycle. The actual beermaking usually begins around seven AM.
“The mash takes about 40 minutes, vorlauf [a process of recirculating the wort back through the gain] takes about 15 minutes, and sparge [slowly sprinkling water on top of the grain to push all the wort through during collection] takes about 45 minutes. We're on a two-vessel system, so after mash, we move the wort from our mash tun to our boil kettle and boil for 90 minutes. Then, whirlpool [spinning the beer to separate solids] takes about 30 minutes. I plan out my hot side/kettle hop additions in advance, which I log on that day's brewsheet.”
And between all those stages? He’s hauling heavy industrial hoses around, pumping wort from one vessel to another, cleaning a few thousand pounds of damp grain out of the mash tun, AND — along with his partner Colette Boilini — handling all the other little tasks that it takes to keep things running.
“Honestly, the trickiest part of the day is juggling everything else I need to do while brewing… filling kegs for wholesale orders, transfers, CIPs, ordering ingredients and materials, barrel work, harvesting yeast, maintenance… everything else that needs to happen in a brewery!”
And with all that, we’re one step closer to actually drinking Black Nettle! Next up in the process, it’s FERMENTATION! Stay tuned for part three, coming next week!
