So last night I had a bottle of HaandBryggeriet's Harvest Ale. Not having much experience with these types of beers, I must say I love it!!! Not wanting to shell out 12 or so bucks for each 750ml I buy, just wanted to know if anyone could reccomend a recipe similar to this style?
I assume a new fermenter and maybe a better bottle for long term conditioning may be needed.
After lots of research we have finally managed to come up with a
recipe for a traditional Norwegian harvest ale. We are calling the
ale for 'Hesjel'. To hesje is what they do when the freshly cut
grass is piled up onto wires to be dried before taken into the barn.
It was tradition in the old days to call in lots of labour during
harvest time to help with all the work. The harvest went on from
August to well into September and October, this could be warm
and thirsty work. The farmers had to brew lots of refreshing beer
for this season (to keep the workers happy) and as this was near
the end of their grain reserves they didn't exclusively use barley
(as they preferred for brewing) but had to make do with other
grains as well. Our harvest ale is a blend of barley, oats and rye,
wheat was not an alternative as this grain was not widely grown in
those days.
Our harvest ale is a supped up version of 6,5% alc, this is
somewhat stronger than the historical versions.
Hesjel is our recreation of a traditional Norwegian
farmhouse harvest ale. Farmers always served up
refreshing harvest ale's for thirsty workers. Our Hersjel
is a refreshing fruity and floral ale with a slight smoky
and spicy flavour. Slightly supped up harvest ale.
Made from 3 grains, barley, oats and rye and fermented
with our special wild house yeast.
6,5% alc. 28 ibu. 21 ebc colour
Serving temperature 8 - 10 C or 46-50 F
Burton Ale yeast is used for many of their beers, but a wild yeast is probably used (in addition?) for this one.
Good Luck, and report back.
