Ale of Asgard

Make yeast starter two to three days ahead of brew day. Using soft (less than 25 ppm bicarbonate), distilled, or reverse osmosis water, mash crushed malt and flaked maize at 150° F (66° C) in 15 quarts (14.2 L) water. Stir in first dose of calcium chloride and gypsum as you mash in. Stir mash every five minutes. (Add heat to keep temperature from dropping.) After 20 minutes, begin checking for conversion with an iodine test. Once test is negative (no starch indicated), or nearly so, collect 6.5 gallons (24.6 L) of wort from grain bed. (You can do this very quickly; for example, by batch sparging.) If possible, run off wort to your hot liquor tank (HLT). If not, run off to kettle and transfer to your HLT. This wort is your brewing liquor. Heat it to 152° F (67° C). Quickly clean mash tun and combine 15 quarts (14.2 L) brewing liquor with crushed malts and flaked maize to mash at 140° F (60° C). Add second dose of calcium chloride and gypsum. Mash for 30 minutes, then raise temperature to 152° F (67° C). Stir mash when heat is being applied and raise temperature by approximately 2° F (1° C) per minute. (Do not add hot water to raise temperature.) At 10-minute intervals, take a reading of the density of the wort (by refractometer or hydrometer). Record time and specific gravity or Brix. Stir the mash and add heat to maintain mash temperature as needed. Decide when to stop mashing based on the rate of change in wort density. (Eventually, mashing for another 10 minutes will yield only a few extra gravity points.) Heat the mash to 168° F (76° C) for mash out. Recirculate wort until it’s mostly clear and begin running wort off. Use remaining wort from first mash as sparge water (heated so that the grain bed temperature remains near 168° F). Sparge slowly to get as many sugars from the grain bed as possible. Do not use water to sparge at the very end (this will dilute the wort). Collect enough wort for a 90-minute boil. Bring the wort to a boil, and boil for 90 minutes. Add hops with 75 minutes left in boil. Cool to 68° F (20° C) and rack 5 gallons (18.93 L) to fermenter. Aerate the wort thoroughly and pitch the sediment from your yeast starter. (Especially if your OG is over 1.100, aerate for one additional minute eight hours after pitching.) Ferment at 68° F (20° C) until primary fermentation ceases. Rack finished beer to a keg and force carbonate to 2.4 volumes (4.8 g/L) of CO₂. If you pitched an adequate amount of yeast, Ale of Asgard will condition faster than you might think. After a few weeks, pull a small sample and evaluate. Continue sampling every few weeks. Serve when ready.