Friday, August 5, 2011

Instant Classic Ale

OK, not the best name, but given that I winged it when I got to the store, "instant" isn't such a bad description. My friend Bobby helped me brew this one.

My office had a Family Day cookout today, and the boss gave me permission to bring in a keg of homebrew. It took a lot of convincing, I can tell you. On the way to the brewing store, I realized that I hadn't picked out a recipe.

I have no idea if this is essentially the same as another recipe, but here's what I threw together:

3lbs light DME
3lbs amber DME
0.5lbs #80 crystal malt
0.25lbs chocolate malt
2oz Centennial leaf hops (boil)
1oz Willamette leaf hops (flavor)
Trappist ale yeast

The flavor hops went in for the last 10 minutes of the boil. Everything else is exactly as you'd expect.

I kegged it last night—it could have used another day or two to finish fermenting, but the result was good. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. The color's basically light-amber, definitely not a pale ale, but not a deep amber by any means. The Centennial hops are reasonably high alpha, so there was a nice hoppiness to it, but not overpowering. The Willamette gave it a very nice finish. All in all, a good classic ale.

If I make this again (and I well might), I'd probably give it more hops, and maybe throw in some aroma or finishing, just to give it an even crisper taste.