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Brew #2: Toasty Olive Oil Ale




This Christmas was the first in a awhile where I didn't receive any gifts that were beer or homebrew related but like any good homebrewer I made something from nothing.  My wife thought it would be fun to get me a giant tub of Tapioca Maltodextrin so I could play around with making different powders at dinner time.  This sparked an idea, what if I added one of these powders to beer? 

There's already some good ways of adding chocolate and peanut butter so I figured that I'd try adding some olive oil.  It's fruity and bitter and at least it would help with oxygenation of the wort if all else fails.  Adding oil to beer is disgusting and has many negative effects such as poor head retention and increased rate of spoilage but maybe the maltodextrin will help in some way. 

For this recipe I wanted to create something toasty for the olive oil to complement.  Using some biscuit malt for a some light toasty biscuit flavor, a fair amount of wheat to help with head retention and a small bit of Carafa II to add a slight hint of roast and color.  The Saison yeast was chosen to add some peppery spice notes.  The one hop charge was kept as a neutral bittering hop with no aroma hops.  I'm hoping that this will allow some of the Olive Oil aroma to come through.  Two ounces of olive oil were mixed with enough tapioca maltodextrin to form a powder.  It was pulsed in a food processor then added to primary.

Primary fermentation started within a couple of hours and the airlock has continued steadily bubbling for about a week and half.  The olive oil powder dissolved back into oil but it's hard to tell if any stayed in powder form due to the krausen.  I'll give this a taste in a week or two and see if it needs any more olive oil or maybe a touch of herbs or spices.
Recipe: Toasty Olive Oil Ale
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 1.85 gal
Post Boil Volume: 1.30 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 1.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.060 SG
Estimated Color: 13.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 26.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                                          
75%    Pale Malt (2 Row) US        
5.0 %   Biscuit Malt
7.5%   Wheat Malt
10.%   Cane Sugar           
2.4%   Carafa Special II 

26.6 IBUs      Warrior [15.00 %] - 60.0 min

1.0 pkg            WLP Belgian Saison I Ale
2.00 oz            Olive Oil Powder (Primary)

Mash at 148 for 60 minutes. Add maltodextrin to 2 oz of Olive Oil and pulse in food processor until powdery.
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