Summer Ale #2

Well, I can't believe it has been over a year since I posted on this blog, sorry for the long drought

Anyway, I have made several batches since the last post and I am currently settling on what I call my Summer Ale. It has evolved from several other recipes and I am yet making one more change. I am doubling the amount of grain to see if I can get a little more ABV in the finished product.

So far this Summer Ale has received some nice reviews. A friend of mine gave a bottle to what he said was a beer connoisseur (yeah right, I bet he was a lush like my friend is..hehe) and here was his comment:

"Tasty Foamy Delightful. As I am not a big Ale fan this brew suits my taste buds just fine. It holds a Malty front with a spice running through the middle to end with a clean finish. Nicely done!"

Well, i'll take any comments like this any day. But he was right about "Foamy", it was to foamy. The problem came about by early bottling and not letting fermentation to complete. HENCE...Ta Ta Ta Taaaaaa Summer Ale #2!!!

In this batch I am going to introduce 2 changes:1) double the grain bill, as mentioned before and 2) introducing a secondary fermentation after about 3-4 days of primary. The goal is to raise the ABV and keep the head down a little. So..here is the recipe for the partial mash batch.

Ingredients:

7 lbs Light Malt extract

2 lbs Vicroty Malt

2 lbs Special Roast Malt

2 lbx Crystal 80L

1.5oz 8.3% Alpha Cascade hops (bittering 60 min)

0.5oz 8.3% Alpha Cascade hops (bittering 30 min)

0.5oz 4.7% Alpha Fuggle hops (flavor 15 min)

0.5oz 4.7% Alpha Fuggle hops (aroma 2 min)

1 tbl Water Salts

Irish Moss (30 min)

Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast

.33 cup corn sugar for priming

Process:

Steep crushed malt in 3 gallons water at 150F for 30 min

Remove grains from wart, add 1 pint (3.5lb) malt extract

Add water salts and bring to boil

Add Cascade Hops (bittering) for 60 min

Add Cascade Hops (bittering) and Irish Moss at 30 min

Add Fuggle Hops (flavoring) at 15 min

Add remainder of malt extract at 10 min

Add Fuggle (aroma) at 2 min

When finished boiling (at 60 min) strain hops, rapid cool wart to 100F and add wart to 2-2.5 gal cool water in sanitized fermenter. Top off with cool water to 5.2gal. Agitate wart and pitch yeast when wart temperature is 70F - 75F. Allow wart to cool and rest for a few hours before moving fermenter to permanent location. Ferment 3-4 days primary then rack into secondary sanitized fermenter for next 7 days. Prime with .33 cups corn sugar, bottle and age 2 weeks.

-dave