Attempt to create recipe based on ANHC ancient Belgian beer style blog.

http://www.anhc.com.au/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86%3Abiere-dorge-danvers&catid=42&Itemid=67

>> Still need to work on hop selection and additions, and the mashing schedule.

25kgs per hetoliter ( 5.75kg for 23ltrs )

Process variations:

1st Mash, 1/3rd of water with 48-50C water.

2nd Mash with 2/3rds of "slightly warmer water"

This mash is held for 30 mins then runoff and is heated (text says allowed to boil for short duration)

The 2nd step is done with new mash water and let to stand for another 2 hrs (should have 1.045-1.058 at this stage)

The first runnings is then added back in with additional water to perform a shorter mash then (1hr?)

This runnings are added to the 2nd running to form the wort for the strong ale.

Full text below for reference:

Bière d’Orge d’Anvers (Barley Beer of Antwerp)

The barley beer they brew in Antwerp, which has long been known in this country by that name, is not only prepared with barley; most brewers also add some oats and wheat, but in such small quantities that I felt obliged to include this kind of beer in the category of barley beer, especially as it bears that name and some brewers often use only barley malt for their beer to age.

The oats and wheat used here are not subjected to germination; the barley we convert fully by germinating fairly long, then drying it very slowly; usually it takes two days to dry in old style kilns, in which one can not burn much coke. The drying is generally not advanced far enough to color the malt beyond white, but produces a smell of fresh bread in reaching a high temperature of 66-70°C (Ed: similar to Vienna malt?) . Malt is usually mixed with five to eight percent oats and four to six per cent wheat, which are milled together with the grinding wheels sufficiently spaced and gentle enough to provide a uniform grind . (This means the husk of the grain is ground into pieces which are smooth and rarely thick.) The ground malt is well mixed in the mash tun containing about one third of its volume of hot water, measuring 48-50°C. When all of the malt is mixed, we add a few more hectoliters of slightly warmer water through the false bottom, and mix it thoroughly with mashing forks until the mixture is perfect, then it is allowed to stand for half an hour, after which the first runnings are drawn off.

This extract contains much starch and starch is subjected to a short boil in the boiler, then returned to the mash tun to undergo a new maceration and a new flltration.

The second mash, made with boiling water added through the false bottom, usually lasts two hours, during the first hour it is constantly mixed, after which one leaves the mixture, which then extracts quite a clear wort, measuring 6 to 8 degrees Beaumé (Ed: OG 1.045-1.058) . This wort is poured into the boiler for strong beer, which they light as soon as it contains a sufficient quantity of this liquid.

A third mash is made with boiling water and the first runnings, and it lasts a bit shorter than the second mash but is conducted in the same way, and the wort is combined with that of the second mash usually in an open boiler, but it is covered with a lid as soon as the hops are put in and it contains all the wort.

Most brewers conduct two more mashes with boiling water, which are intended to prepare a second quality of beer, some brewers, however, add the fourth runnings, which is actually the third to enter the boiler, to give the volume of strong beer they want.

Most brewers in Antwerp and Belgium do not use hydrometer , they take longer to get the same amount of beer from the same quantity of grain, which leads to a degree of variability in their beers. The proportions of grain used in Antwerp, vary by season and brewers between 24 to 26 kilograms per hectolitre of finished beer, with a small beer of lower quality, for which the wort before fermentation usually measures three and a half degrees Beaumé (Ed: OG 1.025), while the strong beer is usually twice as strong as the small beer and comprises three fifths of the total volume of product.

The wort for the strong beer undergoes a brisk boil for three and a half to four hours with hops, which concentrates the wort a little and colours it quite strongly if the malt was well prepared and the mash and lauter was conducted well. If after two hours, we note that there is not enough color, 60 to 80 grams of lime per hectolitre of wort are added, which hastens the darkening process.

The proportions of hops for the first beer vary from 580 to 460 grams, depending on the variety and quality . For this beer, one usually gives preference to local hops from the last harvest, or the second last when the last year was bad. Immediately after the boiling is finished, the wort is poured into a hopback with hops, where it lays for three quarters of an hour to an hour, after which it is transferred into wooden cooling trays, from where it is allowed to flow into the mixing tank when it has reached 26 to 28 degrees centigrade in the very cold weather, and 24 to 25 during typical temperatures of spring or autumn. Usually the brewers of Antwerp, as with most Belgian brewers, judge the temperature of the wort before fermentation with their hand, which is a very bad way, because despite great experience, it is very difficult to assess the temperature within three or four degrees, yet it is of utmost importance for proper fermentation. Hence it follows that you rarely have two brews fermenting in the same way, although they employ the same proportions of yeast.

This amount of yeast required for the beer in question is usually two decilitres of good yeast slurry per hectolitre of beer. One adds the yeast when all of the wort is mixed in the fermenting tanks, where it usually undergoes the beginnings of fermentation, which lasts a total of three to four days. In good weather, 8 to 10 hours after adding the yeast it is racked into casks of one to two hectolitres placed horizontally in double rows, which permits easy filling in place, recovery of yeast which flows out of the cask and topping up of the cask two or three times with the same wort. As soon as no more yeast comes out, you put the plug on the casks and they are stored in cellars.

The best barley beer from Antwerp is brewed only with barley malt, and probably for that reason is known by the Flemish name geheel gersten. It is never brewed in summer and rarely during very cold weather. It keeps very well for one or two years and is rarely consumed until at least four to six months old, but we do not consume it straight as is usually done for other beers in Belgium, the beer is cut with a similar, younger, beer, that is to say, brewed a month to six weeks previously specifically for this purpose, except during hot weather when we make a few brews for immediate consumption. The addition of green beer is designed to excite a new fermentation in the beer and generate a head, which it either doesn’t form, or forms very little and very slowly when the beer is old, pure and unmixed. Toward the same goal we also usually add a little cassonade (Ed: unrefined brown sugar), one to two pounds per ton, which is added just prior to delivery for consumption.

Mash schedule

Fermentables

Hops

Yeast