Directions:
Mash at 66°C (151°F) for 60 minutes. Boil 60 minutes, adding hops, coriander, and anise seed as indicated. Chill to 18°C (65°F) and ferment to completion.
This recipe is featured in the HBA article “Searching for Rembrandt’s Lost Beer” in the November/December 2022 Zymurgy magazine. Author Roel Mulder takes readers on a journey to uncover what Rembrandt was drinking in his piece The Prodigal Son.
From the article: A nice three-grain 17th-century Dutch “sweet beer” recorded by Melchior Mels from Dordrecht, that just may resemble what Rembrandt was drinking in his painting The Prodigal Son in the Tavern. The secret addition of coriander and anise seeds was apparently well-kept from the brewery workers This is an adaptation of the original recipe. The 5.0% ABV version elaborated by the members of CRAFT, the Dutch trade association for independent brewers, has an original gravity of 1.057 (14°P). Their ratio for both coriander and anise is 300 grams each for 1,500 liters of beer.