Santos
My first brew day since the Core exam was spent making a beer with my buddy Cody. We took a shot at a clone of one of his favorite beers, St. Arnold’s Santos. They call this a Dark Kölsch and admit that this is very much a contradiction. Breaking brewing rules sounds like good fun to me.
I couldn’t find any recipes for this clone, so I used Brew Target and the ingredient list from St. Arnold to come up with something.
Recipe
Mashed at 153 for one hour:
- 9 lb US 2-row pale
- 9 lb US pilsner
- 2 lb German Munich
- 1 lb Black Patent
Hops:
- 1.5 oz Hallertau, 60 min
- 1.0 oz Hallertau, 30 min
- 1.0 oz Hallertau, 15 min
- 0.5 oz Hallertau, 5 min
One hour boil, fermented at 16 degrees C (or as close as I can get) with Wyeast 2565.
OG: 1.050
FG: 1.01
ABV: 5%
A New Tool
This was the first batch for which I used a new tool that I built, which is just a small stainless pot modified with a thermometer and a dip tube that I’ll use to make yeast starters.
I attached a small aquarium air compressor to the dip tube to agitate and oxygenate the wort in an effort to improve the yeast health and number. I was a little more structured with my yeast starter this time, which was made with 2 liters water, 4 cups dry malt extract, and a half-cup of dead yeast. I should have also been able to use the compressor to force the yeast out of the bottom into the fermentor by attaching it to the top port I added, but a little of the dried medium created a small leak in the silicone gasket sealing the top of the pot. Maybe next time.
Brew Day
Cody and his wife Stephanie joined us for this brew day, and it was a great time full of laughter, delicious beer, and great food. Trang made double squid ink pasta with crab, and Cody supplied lots of Santos. Brewing went as smoothly as my brew days ever go, and I was a little rusty. We did multiple sparges and almost nailed the target OG of 1.051.
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- The Mash
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- The Boil
It’s taken the temperature controller a couple of days to get the temperature down to the target of 16 C due to the warm weather, but it’s holding nicely. Here’s a screenshot from my JavaFX application that interacts with my Arduino-based temperature controller.
Will this beer taste just like Santos? Probably not. Will it be as awful as the beer I brewed for Jeff and Adam? Impossible (sorry, guys!). I think it’ll be tasty, and I hope to have some carbonated by the time my dad visits late this month.
Cheers!