Snow Harvest

battwave · Feb 5, 2012

Having dropped my Bittburger clone into secondary, and having been very encouraged by the emerging tastes sampled from the hydrometer jar, I was inspired to collect 15 gallons of fresh snow this morning. All stowed-away in sealed buckets in a cold out-building, I'm mentally evolving some Bohemian crisp summer beverage.

Has anybody got any advice on using defrosted (non-yellow) snow please?

graysalchemy · Feb 5, 2012

Since it is going to be boiled for 90 min then it should be safe. The only thing that would concern me is that you will have no idea of what the chemistry will be like. I would have thought it would be low is calcium and carbonates and I would imagine it would be acidic.

dps · Feb 6, 2012

hope you did not get any yellow snow

artiums_enteri · Feb 7, 2012

Is the beer being brewed with the snow water going to be all grain or extract? If its extract I say full steam ahead. It will be nice knowing you're starting with water with no chlorine added. However, if it's going to be all grain I would be worried about a lack of nutrients in the water to provide yeast health. Since there is no water table to reframe for the snow, you don't know what you are starting with, and how to build your water. You really don't want to start adding zinc, phosphates, gypsum, and sodium blindly without knowing what base you are starting with.

Maybe the best bet is to do two extract batches using the same recipe and yeast, but brew one with the snow water and the other with your normal brewing water. Then you can do blind taste tests of each and see if you notice any differences. It might be a fun experiment if nothing else.

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battwave · Feb 8, 2012

Thanks guys, useful perspectives; hadn't considered the nutrient angle.

Looking at the volume the snow is reducing down to (considerably less), I may mash with treated tap water (knowing it's sterile) and use the snow water for boil and spargings. At least that way I'm only changing my water chemistry by 50% :?

I had an AG lager in-mind to make the most of the cold weather for fermenting.

battwave · Feb 8, 2012

dps said:
hope you did not get any yellow snow

Indeed, avoided the yellow stuff and the animal footprints

battwave · Feb 12, 2012

battwave said:
dps said:

hope you did not get any yellow snow

Click to expand...

Indeed, avoided the yellow stuff and the animal footprints

...but took this inspiration in naming the brew: Gelben Schnee Brau.

80L of snow gave 20L of water which was mixed with treated tap water and used in:

4950g Lager Malt
350g Munich
120g Carapils
30g Perle 7.3% at 60 mins
30g Saaz 4.4% at 30 mins
20g Saaz at 15 mins
20g Saaz at FO
Saflager S23

Thanks again for the suggestions guys, will report back.

Snow Harvest

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