Murkwood Brewing with Amoretti: Cottonwood Blonde with Cranberry Artisan

November 6, 2019

Murkwood Brewing: Cottonwood Blonde with Cranberry Artisan

Our homebrew friends at Murkwood Brewing in Northern California agreed to create a few special brews especially for us to show you how to incorporate Amoretti products in your beer. (Check out our extensive list of TTB approved flavors!)

Since we get so many questions about Artisan Natural Flavors, we're starting off this series with a Cranberry Blonde using our Cranberry Artisan. Aptly named Cottonwood Blonde after Sam's Rosie (stick around long enough and you'll realize Murkwood ties all their beer names to Tolkien's work), Cranberry Artisan adds that signature cranberry tartness and the most lovely pink color. If you start now, you'll have a batch ready in time for Thanksgiving! For an extra festive beer, we think orange and warming spices would be an excellent addition as well. Call our Brewer Team for product recommendations! Makes one 5 gallon batch.

Ingredients

California Ale Yeast (WLP001)
820g German Pilsner Malt
340g Vienna Malt
200g Crystal Malt (20°L)
1362g Golden Light Dried Malt, divided
9.4g UK Admiral Hops (13.3%AA) - 60 minutes
7.1g Perle Hops (7.1%AA) - 15 minutes
7.1g Willamette Hops (5%AA) - 5 minutes
14g Willamette Hops (5%AA) - 0 minutes
1 tablet Yeast Nutrients - 10 minutes
½ tablet Wirfloc - 5 minutes
7oz (198g) Amoretti® Cranberry Artisan
4oz (113g) Corn Sugar

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT

6 gallon brew pot
2 gallon (8 quart) pot
1 gallon (4 quart) pot
scale
thermometer
large colander
1-2 grain bags
no-rinse sanitizer
hydrometer
airlock + rubber stopper
primary fermentor
bottling bucket
glass swing-top bottles or glass bottles and caps + capper

Directions

Pull yeast from the fridge to come up to room temperature.
Begin heating 2 gallons of water to a boil in your brew pot (at least 6-gal capacity). This should reach a boil as the small mash is ending.
Bring 1 gallon of water to 161℉ in the second pot (8-qt/2-gal capacity). Pour the milled grains (German Pilsner, Vienna, & Crystal Malts) into a grain bag over the pot and submerge. Hold the mash at 150℉ for 60 minutes. Slowly bring the mash up to 168℉ while stirring constantly. This is the small mash.
Meanwhile, heat 2 quarts of water to 170℉ in a third pot, this will be the sparge water.
Put a large colander over the brew pot and put the grain bag in it. Pour the wort over the grain bag to catch any loose grains. Pour the sparge water over the grains to rinse out the fermentable sugars, this will bring the wort volume up to 3 gallons. Discard spent grains or set aside for another use.
Stir in 1 pound of malt extract (Golden Light Dried Malt) and bring the wort to a boil. Do not let the wort volume drop below 2.5 gallons and top off with boiling water if necessary.
When the wort comes to a boil and the hot break begins, add the first hop addition (9.4g UK Admiral) and set a timer for 60 minutes. The grain bag may be used to hold the hops during the boil to remove the need for filtering later.
When the timer reaches 15 minutes remaining, add 7.1g Perle Hops. At 10 minutes, add the remaining 2 pounds malt extract and yeast nutrients. At 5 minutes, add 7.1g Willamette and Wirfloc tablet. When the timer goes off, add the remaining 14g Willamette. Allow last hop addition to steep ~20 minutes while chilling.
NOTE: Everything that touches the wort after the boil MUST be sanitized to prevent infection.
Chill the wort to 68℉ and transfer to sanitized primary fermentor. Add distilled water to bring the volume up to 5 gallons and the gravity down to 1.049, splashing as much as possible to aerate the wort. Pitch the yeast and ferment at 68℉ for 10 days.
Remove about 2 cups wort into a sanitized bowl. Stir in Cranberry Artisan. Transfer remaining wort to sanitized secondary fermentor, minimizing slashing and air contact as much as possible.
Add diluted Cranberry Artisan and give a very gentle stir. Continue fermenting another 3-4 days or until the gravity falls to 1.011.
Boil 4oz corn sugar in 2 cups water for 10 minutes to sterilize. Set aside to cool, this is the priming sugar.
Transfer beer and priming sugar to sanitized bottling bucket. Allow sediment to settle. Meanwhile, sanitize all bottles, bottling equipment, caps, etc. Fill bottles, leaving about 1 inch headspace, and cap.
Allow about 1 week for beer to carbonate. Chill and enjoy!

TIPS:

We've included the percentage of alpha acids for our hops if you'd like to switch in different varietals.
We love Amazon as much as you but we HIGHLY recommend paying a visit to your local homebrew shop, not only will they have all the supplies you'll need to brew they have a wealth of information and can answer any questions that may have come up while reading this recipe.
Some great learning resources we non-brewers utilized were this video, Brew Your Own's Big Book of Homebrewing, and The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. Check out your local library as well, there are tons of awesome homebrew books out there these days.

GLOSSARY