OnTap Magazine

Since we’re celebrating South Africa in this issue, we thought we’d bring you a beer based on the country’s favourite snack. Dissident Beer’s Shawn Duthie designed the brew back in 2011 for the Southyeasters Summer Festival. “The idea was to give the classic biltong flavour of smoked meat and coriander – and it really worked,” says Shawn. “The beer got great feedback from consumers, particularly the vegetarians who could get their biltong fix without putting their principles on the line.” Nuts & Bolts Batch size: 20 litres Estimated OG: 1.042 BREW-IT-YOURSELF Due to the nature of Umqombothi - it is an actively fermenting community of bugs - there is an optimum time to drink it, when it is young and fresh. e umlungu version wasn’t ready, but it was time to taste the packet brew so I invited my friend Lethu of Ukhamba Beerworx to come and taste my creation. I could see that he was quite sceptical (that made two of us) but once he smelled and tasted it, he got a big smile on his face. “It’s a bit too sweet but it tastes good. Tastes like the real stu ,” which for me, was a huge success! After analysing it a little further, it could have used a little more time souring; another day and it would have been great. He also said that the packet instructions are wrong and one shouldn’t add boiling water to the maize in step one, just lukewarm water. He attributed the faecal smell I described to this and said when done properly, that shouldn’t be there. So what did I think? Well, I was surprised how much avour the maize brings to the table. It de nitely had a rich porridge avour in the background. e sorghum gives it a bit of a fruity character, which I nd hard to describe but am now starting to recognise the more I brew with it. e sourness was surprisingly clean and pleasant and the texture, although very viscous and a little gritty, was a little bit like drinking a thin porridge. e aroma, however, still had that chicken coop vibe to it which was pretty o - putting to me and I struggled to get through much more than a tasting glass of it. But how did my Umlunqombothi come out? In fact, it was surprisingly similar! e aroma was cleaner, so I was actually able to drink more of it. e sourness was a bit more bracing, so maybe a little more “according to style”, and it lacked some of the sweetness of the original, which I missed. I think the additional malt and traditional mash regime made it more fermentable so it was also a little thinner in body and likely a little stronger in alcohol. So what next? I would like to explore both versions further. On one hand, I would like to brew some traditional Umqombothi with someone who actually knows what they are doing, while on the other I would like to take my Umlunqombothi even further into the realm of what a more modern beer is, while still taking deep and meaningful inspiration from this quintessentially African beer. THE TASTE TEST Sample of the mash of Umqombothi after the over-night souring phase. Thick, fragrant and chunky The final product. Both looked identical. Opaque and slightly gritty with a funky aroma and a rich, porridge-like flavour in the background Estimated FG: 1.010 Estimated ABV: 4% Bitterness: 15-20 IBUs Mash ingredients Pale malt 5.5kg Munich light 2kg Smoked malt 2kg Wheat 0.5kg Boil ingredients 30g Fuggles [4.5%] @ 60 min Coriander seeds 10g @ 10 min Ferment ingredients Try to use a clean, fresh American yeast so no esters or other yeast- derived aromas cover up the biltonginess. We’d recommend US05. Brewer tips The goal is to get the meatiness of the smoked malt without the beer being too phenolic or smoky. We used Weyermann® Beech Smoked malt as it is not too aggressive on the aroma. We mashed at 65°C for 60 minutes. Hop-wise, no aroma hops are needed as the idea is for the beer to smell like biltong! The goal is just to add a little bitterness so that the beer doesn’t turn out too sweet. When it comes to the coriander seeds, put them in a muslin bag before adding to the boil so they don’t separate and end up clogging your pipes and tubes as you transfer to the fermenter. BILTONG BEER Could there be a more South African combination than beer and biltong? HOMEBRU 54 | Spring 2019 | ontapmag.co.za