nikro000 Brew Day! Ale, Ginger, Kona, Lemongrass

Introduction

Last year I went to Hawaii. For the first time. With me came my wife, my son, and my mother. Yes, my mother! My mother never wants to be ANYWHERE other than Austria (her home), but three days into our vacation in Kona on the Big Island she said: “I could live here.” I was shocked but not surprised. Hawaii is… unique to say the least. The fauna, the flora the food the ocean, and the way of life. Coming to Kona, for me, also meant to visit the Kona brewery. My family and I patronized the excellent restaurant and the next day my wife and I took the brewery tour.

At the end of the tour I wanted to take a metal growler home with me. The growler came with a beer of my choice and I chose one I had never heard before: Lemongrass Luau.

It is a blonde ale, cloudy, light in color and body, with a restrained hop bitterness and a citrusy finish. It was just the right thing for a hot Hawaiian day. The growler soon had a disturbingly hollow ring to it and to my disappointment I could not find the beer back here in California.

So what is a brewer to do… he clones it!

First comes the investigation.

Kona themselves tell you quite a bit about this beer online:

It is made from a simple malt bill of two row and wheat ( I guessed that from the cloudy appearance)

Turbinado sugar is used

Hawaiian Ginger adds a “pop” (what the hell is a “pop” of ginger?)

Hops are Williamette, Northern Brewer, Pacific Gem

The beer is filtered through lemongrass that is grown at brewery employees’ homes

ABV: 5, IBU:20

Planning

Here is my screenshot form Beersmith. THIS RECIPE IS FOR 2.5gal!

Malt

For the grain bill I decided on at least 20% wheat to produce the cloudy appearance but not brew a hefeweizen. The rest is made of two row.

Hops

Since Pacific Gems are mostly bittering hops, I decided to drop them and get the bitterness from Willamette and the aroma from Northern Brewer.

Adjuncts

The amount of sugar was a guess. The body of the beer is light, but not too light. So I would add around half a pound of Turbinado and tweak that amount in future batches.

Yeast

For a blonde ale I chose White Labs WLP0001 California Ale, for a clean fermentation.

Water

Since I was using very light colored grains I added 20% distilled water to the Arrow Head Mountain spring water.

Other ingredients

The ginger was difficult. I did not remember any ginger flavor in the beer but I could have missed a subtle tone. Under no circumstance I wanted any hot taste, so I decided on 1 oz in the last 10 minutes of the boil for a batch of 2.5 gal

The lemongrass would go in the secondary. I estimated three stalks should do it.

Brewing

Mashing and Boiling

I heated 2 gallons of water to 154F. The mash settled at 150F and was kept at that temperature for 60 minutes.

The ph kept at 5.3

I sparged with 178F water and collected 3.7 gallons.

The wort was boiled with the first addition of Willamette at 60 minutes.

Second hop addition was the Northern Brewer at 30 minutes

10 minutes before the end I added the sliced ginger in a hop sock, Fermentis yeast food, and the Turbinado sugar.

The last aroma hop addition was added after flameout.

Cooling, Settling, Oxygenation, Pitching

The wort was cooled for 30 minutes in an icebath.

Then it was transferred to a settling bucket for 30 minutes.

The original gravity seems to be lower than expected. 1.046 rather than 1.051.

After settling it was dribbled slowly into a 3 gallon Speidel Fermenter to oxygenate the wort

The WLP001 was pitched and stirred.

Icebottles will keep the fermenter between 60 and 70 F

Update Brewday +1

The wort shows signs of fermentation right away

Update Brewday +4

After 4 days of active fermentation the airlock is slowing down. I have acquired 3 stalks of Lemograss. The stalks are washed with vegetable soap , cut and put into a hopsock. I soak the hopsock for 30 seconds in a Star San solution.

For a 6 gallon batch recipe, go to Kona Lemongrass Luau Revisited