Bombay Red Ale

After a very hectic May and the last of the school year, I'm finally brewing again. This time it's a red ale--malty and hoppy. Red ales are not exactly a recognized beer style, but nonetheless you'll find many a brewpub and craft brewery on the West coast with a great beer by that title. They are normally malty like an amber ale, but have as much (or more) hop flavor and aroma as a pale ale. Here's my current version.

Bombay Red

5 gallons

6 lbs. Alexander's Pale LME

1 lb. Munich Malt

1 lb. British Crystal Malt 75L

2 oz. Pale Chocolate Malt

3/4 oz. Columbus hops (14.5% AA) boiled for 20 minutes

1/2 oz. Cascade hops (6.5% AA) boiled for 15 minutes

1/2 oz. Cascade hops (6.5% AA) boiled for 1 minutes

1/2 oz. Columbus hops (14.5% AA) boiled for 1 minutes

1 oz. Cascade hops (6.5% AA) steeped for 30 minutes during chilling.

Fermented with a packet of Safale S-05 Dry Yeast

OG: 1.047

FG: 1.01?

SRM: 14 (Reddish Orange)

ABV: ~5%

IBU: 32

Old Ale

Tonight I brewed an Old Ale. The predecessor of brown ale, old ale is a dark and malty style of ale that was brewed commonly centuries ago in England. It was also known as Stock ale, because it was brewed at high potency and allowed to condition for longer periods of time, either at the brewery or in the cellars of public houses themselves. In fact, as they aged they grew in value enough that barrels of old ale were sold as commodities, to be laid down in a cellar and resold when the value had increased. Old ales were also served in a bit of a different way than we tend to serve beer now; they would be blended on the spot with a portion of fresh, lightly alcoholic beer called Mild. You could get your ale mixed 50/50, or with a higher percentage of Old ale if you had the duchies to shell out.

This is my first attempt at the style, so I've asked around and gotten a lot of differing opinions on what the recipe should look like. In the end, I've decided to try a new malt, brown malt, and fill in the rest of the ingredients by choosing rich malts that I love. There's also a bit of flaked oats added to make it a little "creamy." It's all finished and tucked away in the fermentation freezer, so let's hear it for the yeast! Chomp up that sugar, guys!

Old Salty Dog

English Old Ale

5 gallons

10 lbs. Maris Otter Pale Malt

1 lb. Brown Malt

12 oz. British Crystal Malt 75L

10 oz. Light Dry Malt Extract

8 oz. British Crystal Malt 120L

8 oz. Belgian Biscuit Malt

4 oz. Flaked Oats

1/2 oz. Fuggles hops (3% AA) boiled for 60 minutes

1.5 oz. Challenger hops (5.9% AA) boiled for 60 minute.

Fermented with 2 packets of Safale S-05 Dry Yeast

OG: 1.062

FG: 1.01?

SRM: 20 (Brown)

ABV: 6.1%

IBU: 34

BJCP Brewing Guidelines for Old Ale

Daddy's Little Helper - Dangerous Cream Ale

Saturday we celebrated two of our great friends (and a third in utero) by hosting a baby shower in our backyard. There was a bunch of delicious food and we had a blast. For the occasion I brewed a Cream Ale that got, admittedly, a bit out of hand.

Cream ale is one of the few indigenous American styles of beer. A bit of a mix, it's the result of ale yeast being used to ferment a light golden beer that's made with barley malt and a rather high percentage of adjunct such as corn or rice. Hop presence is very low in aroma and flavor, but it does have a bit more hop bite than what you would expect from a light beer. The result is light in body and color, moderate in alcoholic strength, and very easy to drink. No huge flavors bog you down, so it's good for a hot day.

Now, my particular cream ale was meant to be all those things mentioned above, but something went wrong in process! I brewed as normal, but through a combination of generous malt extract packagers, and boiling off a bit more water than I'd calculated, the starting gravity was 1.070! That means there was enough sugar in solution to produce a beer over 7.5% alcohol by volume...big time! Once the beer finished fermenting and was kegged, my buddy Brian and I decided to do some preliminary tests. Through experimentation (drinking), we confirmed that, while light in body and easy to drink, this beer was POTENT.

Thus was born the beer called Tyson's Punch Out, a tribute to the Dad-to-be (Tyson), and a marginally clever play on the title of the classic Nintendo boxing game from 1987.

Tyson's Punch Out

American Cream Ale

5 gallons

6 lbs. Alexander's Pale LME (probably more like 8 lbs.)

1 lb. Dry Rice Extract

1/2 lb. Cane Sugar

1/2 oz. Columbus hops (14.2% AA) boiled for 40 minutes

1 oz. Saaz hops (3.5% AA) boiled for 1 minute.

Fermented with 1 packet of Nottingham Dry Yeast

OG: 1.070

FG: 1.010

SRM: 5 (yellow)

ABV: ~8%

Monkey Knife Fight

Monkey Knife Fight - 5 Gallons

1# Crystal Malt 120° L

3/4# Biscuit Malt

1/2# Black Roasted Barley

5# Light Dry Malt Extract

1.25 oz. Challenger (Pellets, 7.1 %AA) boiled 45 min.

.75 oz. Challenger (Pellets, 7.1 %AA) boiled 1 min.

Yeast: Safale US-05

Original Gravity 1.049 Terminal Gravity 1.012

Color 25.28 °SRM Bitterness 27 IBU

Alcohol (%volume) 4.9

This is the classic MKF formulation, brewed many times and always delicious. This brew really comes off well with light carbonation and a slightly higher serving temperature (~48-52F).

Easiest Hefeweizen in the World

Dang, I love simplicity. This is the easiest recipe I've ever used, and it's the best hefeweizen I've ever tasted. It can truly be called a close clone for Franziskaner or Paulaner. Hefeweizen, for those of you who are not beer geeks, is a type of ale made from a mix of malted barley and wheat. It's naturally hazy due to the wheat and the special strain of yeast used. Originating in Bavaria, it's been around for hundreds of years because it rocks.

I've brewed hef many times, and it's been good, don't get me wrong. But this is just too good and too easy not to share. The main ingredient is Thomas Coopers Brewmaster Selection Wheat Beer Hopped Malt Concentrate, 3.75-Pound Can
Behold:

To prepare, simply dissolve the Briess Wheat Dry Malt Extract 3lbs
in a gallon of boiling water, then add the wheat beer kit and stir until well mixed. Top up to 5.5 gallons with cold water and pitch a nice starter of White Labs 300 - Hefeweizen yeast. Make no mistake, the yeast is the clincher. If you use something else you'll get something else. Word. If you use this yeast you'll get a fruity, bready, delicious Bavarian-style Hef.

P.S. If you are a homebrewer whose self-esteem is based on making beer absolutely from scratch, this recipes not for you. It utilizes a beer kit and you'll be ready to pitch the yeast in about 10 minutes. If you're a homebrewer who wants to drink tasty hefeweizen and don't give a freak what people think, come give me a high-five. Then make this beer.

Ent Draught

I first brewed this pale ale about a year ago, formulating the recipe based on some IPA recipes I had seen around the internets. Something about the combination of hops and ratios of grains scored a hit, and now I'm brewing it for the fourth time. The ale pours very light in color, with a slight biscuity-sweet malt flavor providing the background for a powerful punch of resiny, floral hop flavor and aroma.

Named after the powerful draught that Treebeard has brewed in the depths of the forest from the waters of the mountain springs on Methedras, you can sip this and see if you grow any taller!

Ent Draught - 5 gallons

10# British Pale Malt

1/2# Crystal 10L

1# Munich Malt

1/2# Wheat Malt

.5 oz Columbus (14.2%) for 40 min

.5 oz Centennial (9.9%) for 10 min

.5 oz Columbus (14.2%) for 10 min

1 oz Centennial (9.9%) for 1 min

.5 oz Columbus (14.2%) for 1 min

dry hop 7 days in a secondary with .5 oz Centennial and .5 oz Columbus

Safale S-05 dry yeast

OG: 1.060

FG: 1.012

SRM: 7

IBU: 41