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.

Unnamed Beer #1

Yes, it's been awhile. Marco and I brewed back in October, but didn't get around to trying it until yesterday. Why the delay? This batch was intended for a block party that never materialized. I decided to wing it on the recipe, with the expectation that the finished product would be consumed outdoors in fairly cool weather. That meant I wanted something with a robust flavor, so that when cold it would still have a noticeable taste. Here's the recipe:

3lbs amber DME
3lbs dark DME
1oz Centennial hops (boil)
0.5oz Sterling hops (boil)
1oz Sterling hops (flavor)
0.5oz Sterling hops (aroma)
Trappist ale yeast

Hops were whole-leaf. The flavor hops were added with 5 minutes left to the boil, aroma hops at one minute.

The beer's good, but I think it could be better. That's why I'm not naming it yet. Something seems to be missing. It's not terribly highly hopped, but I don't think it needs more (not that it'd hurt — the more hops the merrier). The Trappist yeast might be a bit too smooth; an English ale yeast might give it more of a bite. I think some grain would also help, perhaps half a pound of dark or chocolate malt and a quarter to half a pound of a medium to dark crystal.

Leap Beer

(Marco Cavagna and Mike Marsh, based on "Sparrow Hawk Porter")

My niece's birthday is February 29, so we had a big party for her yesterday evening. In honor of the occasion, we made a special batch of homebrew to keep the adults relaxed while a score of little kids ran around having fun. What I wanted, beer-wise, was a good February seasonal with a bit of a kick. It being Winter, we started with a nice dark porter. The "leap" part would come from the addition of dried chiles.

Unlike our previous recipes, this one is based on modifications to an existing recipe, "Sparrow Hawk Porter" (p.201). Consequently, we'll only list the modifications we made.

Beginning with the malt, we opted for amber (out of the choice between amber and light). For both types of extract, we used equivalent measures of DME, rather than syrup.

The aroma hops were as listed, though for the boil we substituted 2oz. of whole-leaf Golding. The higher quantity more-or-less compensates for the lower alpha acidity compared with the called-for Northern Brewer hops.

We used an Edinburgh ale yeast, since my brother-in-law's ancestry traces back to Scotland (and he's a fan of Scotch Ales).

The final modification was the dried chile peppers. Surprisingly, these were difficult to find. We ended up using dried California chiles, with which I'd never worked before. We added two of them (whole) at the start of the boil. During the course of the boil they split open, and some of the skin peeled off and rolled up into little tubes. There was also a distinct red tint to the blow-off.

The final result went over well at the party, though I still have a bit under half a keg left. The chiles had a much milder effect than I'd expected — future brewings will need a hotter chile, or just more pepper. While the keg was sufficiently pressurized, the beer wasn't as carbonated as it should have been. It's back under pressure now, and it should be interesting to compare the flavors of the relatively flat and fully carbonated versions.

Apple Pie Imperial Stout

(Marco Cavagna, Christine Garnett, and Mike Marsh)

This beer is a sort of "work in progress." The idea was to have a strong, dark, malty beer with notes of apples and cinnamon, as a Winter seasonal. It hasn't worked out quite as we'd hoped, as of the pre-Thanksgiving tasting, but we'll be reporting on the progress as the batch ages. Note that this, as well as the Snapping Ginger Ale, are experiments. Some work better than others, but all are learning experiences.

9 lbs. amber DME
0.5 lbs. chocolate malt
0.5 lbs. roasted barley
1 lb. tart apples (cored, peeled, and chopped) — we used 6 Fujis
2 cinnamon sticks (boil)
5 cinnamon sticks (priming)
English ale yeast

Do the usual 30 minute steep of the grain between 150 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Strain and fill the pot to 2 gallons or more. Add the malt extract and 2 sticks of cinnamon, bring to a boil, and boil for an hour. Turn off the heat and let the wort cool to 180 degrees. Steep the apples between 150 and 180 degrees for 20 minutes. Strain out the apples and cinnamon, sparge and cool, and pitch when the wort is cool enough.

When fermentation is complete, boil 5 cinnamon sticks with the priming sugar for 10 minutes. Add the solution (with cinnamon) to the young beer (the alcohol will pull out a few more flavors). Bottle condition for at least two months.

There was a little (well under a pint) left after filling 17 1-liter bottles, so we tasted the primed young beer. Obviously, the priming sugar made it a little sweet, and it was room-temperature and flat. That being said, we could feel the cinnamon more than taste it, as a bit of tingling on the tongue and a bit of warmth. Because we used tart apples and no hops, rather than the bitterness to which we're accustomed, the beer was a bit sour. Based on this initial impression, we'd go with a less-tart apple next time.

The first tasting, at about 50 days in bottle, was better than the primed beer, but still disappointing. Without hops there's no head retention. The tartness is still present, and tends to overwhelm the other flavors (the cinnamon is basically undetectable). I'd describe the flavor as hard cider and weak coffee. Marco and I split a 1-liter bottle, but we ended up pouring out about half of it. We'll try it again in another month or two, but we don't expect it to ever taste the way we wanted. Cider takes awhile to develop its flavor, and this (inadvertently) is closer to cider than beer in character. The next time we'd use at least a little hops, and go with fewer of a sweeter variety of apple.

The second tasting, at 195 days in bottle, was considerably different. The sour flavors are essentially gone, leaving the cider and coffee flavors to dominate. While it would never be my regular beer, I found it quite drinkable, and consumed nearly the full 1-liter bottle myself. Marco still doesn't like it, but he seems not to like hard cider. The beer was at cellar temperature; another tasting with the beer chilled will be necessary.

Less than a week later (4/18), I chilled a couple of bottles and brought one out with me for my standard nice-weather sitting-on-porch-drinking-homebrew. The malt flavors were pretty thoroughly muted, leaving just the apple tartness. As the beer warmed, the coffee notes returned. I shared a bit with an intrepid neighbor, after warning him that it wasn't what we'd hoped for in terms of flavor, and he at least said he liked it. Apparently I'm not alone in considering this beer drinkable.

Brewed: 9/8/07
Racked: 9/22/07
Bottled: 9/30/07
First Tasting: 11/19/07
Second Tasting: 4/12/08

Snapping Ginger Ale

(Marco Cavagna and Mike Marsh)

This recipe is inspired by Carribean ginger beer, which is a non-alcoholic beverage with a very strong ginger bite. We've made an alcoholic version of this, which is based on a classic English pale ale with the hop bitterness greatly reduced. The resulting beer is light and crisp, perfect for a hot summer day.

6 lbs. extra light DME
0.5 lbs. #80 crystal malt
1 oz. Kent Golding hops (boil)
1 oz. Saaz hops (finish)
1-1.25 lb. fresh ginger
English ale yeast

Wash the ginger and trim off any bad spots, then shred in the food processor. There's no need to peel the ginger.

Steep the crystal malt for 30 minutes in a gallon to a gallon-and-a-half of water between 150 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Strain the spent grains and add the malt extract, boiling hops, and ginger. Bring to a boil and boil for an hour, adding the finishing hops for the last 10 minutes.

Strain, sparge, cool, and pitch the yeast when the temperature falls below 75 degrees. Since the ginger should dominate the flavor, this doesn't need a long bottle conditioning, and is an excellent candidate for kegging.

This first batch was good, surprisingly so for a very experimental recipe. I thought it could use more ginger (another half pound, at least), and Marco thought it could use more hops. I suspect that the amount of time for which we're boiling the ginger is muting the flavor substantially. The same amount of ginger for a much shorter time, such as the last 10 to 20 minutes of the boil, might result in a stronger flavor. In any case, this will be a fun recipe to play with in future batches.

Vicariously Pale

(Marco Cavagna and Mike Marsh)

6 pounds light DME
1/2 pound #40 crystal malt
2 oz. fuggles hops (boil)
1 oz. kent golding hops (finish)
british ale yeast

Steep crystal malt in about 1 gallon of filtered water for 30 minutes at 150-160 degrees Fahrenheit. Add DME and fuggles hops and boil for 1 hour. Add kent golding hops for last 5 minutes of the boil. Sparge and pitch yeast when temperature reaches 75 degrees.

This invention of ours took a surprisingly short time to finish bubbling, and after bottle conditioning for 2 weeks we were able to give it a try. Our initial impression was that it could use a bit more hops, both in the boil and the finish. It improved substantially after another 2 weeks in the bottle, but we still plan to use more hops for the next time we try this one. Overall, we think this was a pretty solid effort.

Incidentally, the name, "vicariously" refers to 2 weekends ago, when I was on call and couldn't drink. I brought some of this ale over to Mike's and watched him drink it while we brewed Rocky III (more on Rocky III later).

Insane Pale Ale

(Pete Keleher and Mike Marsh)

9 lbs. light DME
1.5 lbs. #40 crystal malt
0.5 lbs. biscuit/chocolate malt
3 oz. Chinook hops (boil)
1 oz. Chinook hops (finish)
1 oz. Kent Golding hops (finish)
Trappist ale yeast

The method is what you'd expect: Steep the crushed crystal and chocolate malts in 2 gallons of water for 30 minutes at a temperature between 150 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Add the dry malt extract and boiling hops and boil for an hour. Add the finishing hops for the final 5 minutes of the boil. Strain, sparge, fill to 5 gallons, and cool to pitching temperature. The Trappist ale yeast will tolerate the higher alcohol concentration produced by the 1211 lbs of malt and malt extract.

The color might not generally be described as "pale," but this was definitely inspired by the India pale ale style. Think of the darker color of this pale ale as just part of the "insanity" of Insane Pale Ale.

This one's still aging, so we can't really speak to the final result. From what was left over when bottling, which was of course flat, this is going to be a good batch. My attempt to measure the starting specific gravity was an obvious failure (1.042 measured, with a large concentration of fermentable sugars), so we really have no idea how strong this will be. I'm certain that it will get the job done, which along with a pleasant taste is all I personally ask of beer.

UPDATE 4/18: I mis-read the receipt from the store. The quantity of hops was incorrect. It has been fixed. Also added recipe attribution.