Craft Beer Reaches New Depths As Mainers Brew A Batch From Seaweed

[ashling]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/07/16/331423345/craft-beer-reaches-new-depths-as-mainers-brew-a-batch-from-seaweed?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social


sugar kelp

More craft breweries are using exotic ingredients in their creations these days. There are ales made with all kinds of fruit, beers infused with coriander and other spices, stouts brewed with oysters — even beer made from yeast scraped off 35 million-year-old whale bones. But what about a beer made with seaweed?

At Marshall Wharf Brewing Co. on the Belfast, Maine, waterfront, new beers begin their journey into draft lines and pint glasses inside two large tanks. Marshall Wharf has a reputation for making some unconventional beers — a stout with locally sourced oysters, for example, and a wheat-infused kolsch with jalapeno and habanero peppers. A few years ago, David Carlson, the brewing company's owner, discovered a beer from Scotland, called Kelpie, made with seaweed.

"If there's seaweed in Maine and it's a good product," he says, "why not try putting it in the beer?"

Few if any U.S. breweries have tried making beer with seaweed.

[pinboy3niner]

1. Like the song says...

Kelp me if you can, I'm feeling dow-ow-n
And I do appreciate you being 'rou-ou-nd
Kelp me get my feet back on the grou-ou-nd
Won't you please, please kelp me.

[Initech]

2. I'll drink it!

[whistler162]

5. WHy do I have the feeling

you would drink beer made out of stink weed and skunk grass.

[Initech]

12. I'd try it at least once!

[onehandle]

3. Craft beer is the new art. nt

[T_i_B]

4. Not the first seaweed beer

There's this from Williams Bros of Scotland. And it is actually a very nice beer!

http://www.williamsbrosbrew.com/beerboard/bottles/kelpie

[Chan790]

6. It was mentioned in the article as their inspiration. n/t

[Iggo]

7. Soylent Green is people!

[Brother Buzz]

8. Seaweed has been added for ages to help clarify beer

Dried seaweed (Irish Moss) added in the final 15 minutes of the boil which coagulates loose particles in the wort, enabling them to precipitate and be left behind when the cooled wort is siphoned from the brew kettle to the primary fermenter.

Now I can add more and enjoy the flavor?

[geardaddy]

9. Yep, that or isinglass (fish guts)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isinglass

[Brother Buzz]

11. Isinglass is an old school fining agent and is used at the end, before bottling

Seaweed is an adjunct and is added during the boil.

I once used isinglass for wine, but now prefer egg whites (whipping the whites in a copper bowl is a wives' tale). Today, the beer boys use gelatin because it's cheap and readily available.

[geardaddy]

13. Cool. Thanks for the correction.

[Brother Buzz]

14. Here's all you need to know

it takes a lot of beer to make wine.

[T_i_B]

15. It should also be mentioned....

...that isinglass is in the overwhelming majority of UK cask ale.

There is however a trend towards unfined, naturally hazy beer. I myself prefer unfined beer.

[geardaddy]

16. Good to know.

I prefer unfined beer, as well. My brother brews and most of his stuff is unfined.

[T_i_B]

17. I find it a controversial topic in real ale circles

As some people find the prospect of drinking hazy beer very unappealing and some such as myself are all in favour of unfined beer. May even be more controversial then the rise of "craft" keg beer in the UK.

[geardaddy]

10. I'll drink it.

Sounds good.

[Populist_Prole]

18. More than willing to try it