Saturday, December 31, 2005

India Pale Ale Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 4 pounds, Munton and Fison light DME
  • 4 pounds, Geordie amber DME
  • 1 pound, crushed Crystal Malt
  • 1-1/2 ounces, Cascade leaf hops (boil 60 minutes)
  • 1-1/2 ounces, Cascade leaf hops (finishing)
  • 1 teaspoon, Irish Moss
  • Wyeast #1056 Chico Ale Yeast (1 quart starter made 2 days prior)

Procedure:

Add the crystal malt to cold water and apply heat. Simmer for 15 minutes or so then sparge into boiling kettle. Add DME, top up kettle and bring to boil. When boil starts, add boiling hops and boil for 60 minutes. 10 minutes before end of boil add 1 teaspoon of Irish Moss. When boil is complete, remove heat, add finishing hops and immediately begin chilling wort. Strain wort into fermenter and pitch yeast starter. Primary fermentation took about 4 days. After about a week bottle and let set for another 2 weeks.
 

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Friday, December 30, 2005

British Bitter Beer Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 5 to 6 pounds, Alexander's pale malt extract
  • 1/2 pound, crystal malt, crushed
  • 10 ounces, dextrose (optional)
  • 1-1/4 ounces, Cascade hops (boil)
  • 1/4 ounce, Cascade hops (finish)
  • Munton & Fison ale yeast
  • corn sugar for priming

Procedure:

Steep crystal malt and sparge twice. Add extract and dextrose and bring to boil. Add Cascade hops and boil 60 minutes. In last few minutes add remaining 1/4 ounce of Cascade (or dry hop, if desired). Chill and pitch yeast. Technorati Tags : , ,
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Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Revamped Website

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Ben's Wine Making Tips took on a new look this evening.  The original website looked like a third grader designed it and I felt it was time for a huge upgrade.  I started experimenting with Cascading Style Sheets and felt that they made a better looking website.  I also made my own navigation buttons with Adobe Photoshop.
 
The new site works in IE6, Avant and Firefox.  For some reason, in IE6 and Avant the navigation buttons are in a square instead of a straight line.  Probably because IE6 and Avant are really not geared up for CSS designed websites.  The revamped site is much more prettier in Firefox.
 
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Sunday, December 04, 2005

Golden Pale Ale Recipe

A ProMash Recipe - Golden Pale Ale

This is one of my latest brewing sessions and it was an all-grain one.  I have also found that using Alexander's Light Syrup works great for a yellow colored beer.  The report was generated by Pro-Mash software.

 

Golden Pale Ale

A ProMash Recipe Report



BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
06-A American Pale Ales, American Pale Ale

Min OG: 1.045 Max OG: 1.056   
Min IBU: 20 Max IBU: 40   
Min Clr: 4 Max Clr: 11  Color in SRM, Lovibond


Recipe Specifics
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 2.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 10.50      
Anticipated OG: 1.058 Plato: 14.39
Anticipated SRM: 8.9        
Anticipated IBU: 38.2      
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75  %   
Wort Boil Time: 60  Minutes   


Formulas Used
Brewhouse Efficiency and Predicted Gravity based on Method #1, Potential Used.
Final Gravity Calculation Based on Points.
Hard Value of Sucrose applied. Value for recipe: 46.2100 ppppg
% Yield Type used in Gravity Prediction: Fine Grind Dry Basis.

Color Formula Used: Morey
Hop IBU Formula Used: Rager

Additional Utilization Used For Plug Hops: 2 %
Additional Utilization Used For Pellet Hops: 10 %


Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
81.0 8.50 lbs.  Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.038 3
9.5 1.00 lbs.  Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt    1.033 2
9.5 1.00 lbs.  Crystal 40L America 1.034 40

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
1.00 oz.  Columbus Pellet 12.80 38.2 45 min
1.00 oz.  Fuggle Pellet 4.40 0.0 Dry Hop


Yeast






Generated with ProMash Brewing Software

 

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Saturday, December 03, 2005

Speciality Malts

Of course all malt begins with grains, so let’s talk a little about them. There are 2 basic ways to use grain in your beer making process. First, you can use all grain to brew. This process will take you about 6-8 hours and involves quite a few more steps then brewing with liquid or dry malt. We are going to limit ourselves to taking about the second way of using grains and that is as a specialty grain.

Specialty grains add flavor and color to your extract beer. These grains are usually crushed and then steeped. You can use a grain crusher if you have one, or put the grains in a baggy and crush them with a rolling pin. The main idea is to break the husk so that the water can get to the inside of the kernel.

There are quite a few different specialty grains, but let’s just talk the most common.The basic grain that is used as a base for beers is called Pale Malt. Usually the color of this grain is almost white and when used gives beer its yellow color. When making beer from extracts, this grain is rarely used as a speciality grain.

Going up the color scale, you will find what is called Crystal or Caramel Malt. These grains will add an amber color to a light extract along with caramel flavor. It will give your beer more body, stability and head retention. 20L, 40 L and 60L are the more common listings for this grain. The 20L refers to the color spectrum on the Lovibond scale. The higher the number the darker the color and the more sweet the caramel flavoring. I generally use a 40L Caramel Malt but I have also used 120L for brewing a sweeter tasting beer.

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Chocolate Malt has a Lovibond rating of around 300—350 and will look dark brown in color. Primarily used in Brown Ales, Porters , Dark Lagers and Stouts this will give your beer a dry, chocolatey flavor.

Black Patent Malt color is 500 deg L +/- 25. Flavor can be slight to smokey. Black malt can be used in both ales and lagers to add a touch of color in light beers or to add a dark rich color in porters and stouts. Black malt can impart color and, when used in large quantities, an almost acrid flavor characteristic of stouts and porters. To slightly increase color in light beers; try adding 1/2-1 oz per 5 gallon batch. In darker beers, try 5 oz's per 5 gallons of beer. For porters and stouts; 1-10% of the total grist may be black malt.

Dextrine or Carapils malt's color is 1.5. Adds body (mouth feel); head retention, foam stability without effecting the color of the finished beer. Can be used with or without other specialty grains. Use 5-20% of grist for light colored beers and 2-10% in dark beers to obtain the above desired effects. So using speciality grains to your extract beers will give you more control over how you brew your beer and to what color and taste that you want to achieve.

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Friday, December 02, 2005

Types of Malt


That wonderful beverage called beer, starts with just four basic ingredients. Malt, water, yeast and hops. Let’s first talk about malt. Malt comes from barley kernels that are partially germinated and then roasted. The longer the roasting, the darker the color. The best malt is made from 2 row barley.

Malt can be purchased by either liquid or dry. Liquid malt (malt extract) or malt syrup as it is sometimes called comes in a variety of containers. The most common is the 3 1/2 pound cans, but 3 1/2 pound plastic bags and 5 gallon containers can also be purchased. When I first started brewing I used the 3 1/2 pound cans because they where easy to store and easy to use. I recommend that you use the cans for your first several batches.

Liquid malt basically comes in 3 different styles. Light is used for making beer that is yellow in color, Amber is used for making tan colored beers and Dark is used for making black colored beers. You also have the choice of getting your malt hopped or unhopped. Personally, I use the unhopped variety, but if you want to speed the brewing process up, then use the hopped variety.

Dry malt extract or DME as it is called is basically malt extract that has the liquid evaporated out of it. Three pounds of dry malt is about the same as 4 pounds of liquid extract. I prefer the dry malt over the canned because it is easier to measure when you are trying to duplicate another recipe.Dry malt also comes in the basic 3 colors, so if you get a light variety, then you should be able to brew a yellow colored beer.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Simple Beer Techniques

Went downstairs to the basement today and re-discovered an "ancient artifact" of my early beer brewing days. The rootbeer barreled, spigoted, Mr. Beer brewing vessel. Geesh, I haven't used that thing for about 4 years, and that was to make rootbeer soda, but it did bring back the memories of those first attempts at homebrewing.

I received this piece of equipment as a 2000 Christmas present. Something that I had wanted for several years but never got around to buy one. I did try making beer in the early 80's but that was one major disaster. Much easier at the time to just go buy a case of beer (around 5 bucks) then it was to make.Well, anyways, I opened that present and began to read the instructions. Boy, was this going to be easy. Add some water, the canned ingredients, some yeast and voila, beer. That first batch turned out to be drinkable, but was no where near the level of a good beer.

So, I scrounged around bookstores and library to find so books about homebrewing. The best one that I found was "Hombrewing For Dummies." Real simple book and easy to read. Has all kinds of tips on improving my beer along with the tons of basic information.

So, I went back to using Mr. Beer for about 6 months, but with better results. The beauty of using Mr. Beer is that you make small batches, so you get a lot of practice. I usually advise anyone that is starting out to go this route but I also tell them to buy cans of liquid malt extract along with hops and some specialty grains.

A good website for anyone just getting their feet wet is How To Brew . Check it out, it is really informative.