Panela
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Written by Dominic Driscoll, Production Manager.
I first met Natalia, the founder of Pura Panela, last summer at ‘Smodfest’ in Sheffield.
This was where I first heard about Panela, a natural, unrefined sugar cane juice that
is the sugar of choice in Colombia, as Dann from the Brewery of Saint Mars of the
Desert introduced us and mentioned that he had already used panela in a recipe.
I'll let Natalia explain better what Panela is:
It's not just sugar, it's Panela
Panela is Colombia’s traditional, handcrafted sugar, made by dehydrating natural
sugarcane juice through a completely rustic, artisanal process. No chemicals or
additives, just pure cane juice full of minerals and a delicious caramel-like flavour.
More than 350,000 families in Colombia make their living with their ‘trapiches’
producing panela. Pura Panela is proud to support this industry.
We work closely with an association of farmers in Huila, who come together to
produce high-quality Panela. By partnering with them, we help their community
thrive.
Find out more about Norbey and the farmers here: Meet Norbey!
The idea of using panela in a beer greatly intrigued me, as the use of sugar and
syrups in brewing is well established and has long been used as an alternative
source of extract, in place of a proportion of malted grains. While not applicable in
Germany due to the Rheinheitsgebot, some of the great Belgian beers such as
Duvel, Rochefort and Westmalle are practically defined by their sugar usage and
many of the great ales of England, such as Bathams, Harveys, Theakston and
Timothy Taylors use copious amounts of sugar to complement the great British
malted barley varieties in the brewhouse.
At Thornbridge, we often use dextrose in our West Coast IPAs to lighten the body
and improve drinkability, candi sugars for our Belgian ales and various invert sugar
blocks for our British-style beers. Sugars are a useful weapon for helping us alter
the body of a beer and add distinct colours, flavours and aromas to beer that would
otherwise be difficult.
Natalia and I continued the conversation and luckily, my colleagues at Thornbridge
also thought it was great idea. Eventually, we decided to make a strong dark beer
together that mimics some of the characters of ‘Café Campesino’. This translates to
‘farmer’s coffee’ in Spanish, the traditional Colombian way of taking coffee, where
the panela enhances the flavour of the coffee:
HOW TO BREW CAFÉ TINTO COLOMBIANO - TINTICO CAMPESINO
A 7% ABV porter recipe was developed by the brewing team, using a blend of
Munich, crystal and roasted malts such as chocolate and Simpsons’ T50. For hops,
we used a blend of English Goldings and Ernest, just enough to balance the brew.
Natalia sourced the coffee for us from Jaramillo Café, a family business from
Colombia, with the coffee hand-roasted in London. We picked the ‘strong’ roast, with
amazing flavours of caramel and chocolate. So, alongside 200kg of panela, which
went into the boil in the brewhouse, we also added 50kg of coarsely ground coffee,
freshly roasted and couriered straight up from London, added to the maturation
stage after fermentation.
Obviously, we’ve named the beer ‘Panela’. It’s a rich, complex porter with a
surprisingly light body with a rich coffee and liquorice flavour. There are beautiful
notes of dark chocolate, treacle toffee and hazelnuts from the panela, malt and
chocolate, all perfectly intertwined to give us a fabulous winter special. I really hope
you enjoy it and don’t forget to try Pura Panela and Jaramillo coffee for yourself!