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Beer Recipe of the Week: Raspberry Basil Porter Aged on Palo Santo Wood

Former Dogfish Head Craft Brewery lead brewer, Bryan Selders, shares his recipe for 'Raspberry Basil Porter Aged on Palo Santo Wood' in his article "Create Your Own Holiday Traditions," which is featured in the Nov/Dec 2008 Zymurgy. For the full article, which includes other holiday-inspired homebrew recipes, AHA members can access the full issue of in the eZymurgy online archive. Not an AHA member? Join today!

Ingredients for 5 U.S. gallons (19 liters)

7.75 lb (3.5 kg) | North American two-row
1.0 lb (0.45 kg) | Chocolate malt
0.5 lb (0.2 kg) | Black malt
0.6 lb (0.3 kg) | 60L Crystal malt
0.25 lb (0.1 kg) | Wheat malt
0.6 oz (17 g) | Columbus hops (60 minutes)
0.7 oz (19 g) | Vanguard hops (5 minutes)
25.6 fl. oz | Raspberry juice concentrate (65 Brix)
One good-sized handful Thai basil leaves
Nice English ale yeast
10.0 oz (0.28 kg) | Palo Santo wood sticks

Specifications

Original Gravity: 1.061 (15° Plato)
IBUs: 40-ish
Boil Time: 70 minutes

Directions

Mash in with 3 gallons (11.4 L) of water to achieve strike temperature of 152°F (66°C). Rest for 30 minutes. Vorlauf to achieve wort of acceptable clarity, free or large particulate. Collect enough wort in anticipation of sending 5.5 gallons to your fermenter keeping in mind that you'll be adding about a quarter gallon of liquid at the end of the boil in the form of raspberry juice concentrate.

Boil for 10 minutes and add all of the columbus hops. Boil for another 55 minutes and add the Vanguard hops. After another 5 minutes of boiling, remove the heat from the kettle and stir in the raspberry juice concentrate and rest for 10 minutes. Chill the wort and send it to the primary fermenter. Aerate the wort and pitch the yeast.

Once the beer reaches its terminal gravity of about 1.015 (3.8° Plato), prepare a secondary fermenter. To it add the basil which will be macerated with a bit of neutral spirit and the Palo Santo wood sticks, which can be soaked for 10 minutes in 185°F (85°C) water acidified with food grade phosphoric acid to a concentration of about 0.25 percent or steamed to sanitize. Rack the beer to secondary and allow it to age for about three weeks. Package it as you normally would and enjoy.

Note: Palo Santo wood sticks found online are pricey, but can be reused as they are rich in aromatic resin.