Behind the ball...

Man, I've been behind on this blog.  I've brewed a couple times since my last post.  I think I've made the Drop Top Amber clone again (for my sister-in-laws wedding which I also performed; I know, I'm a modern Friar Tuck), a ten gallon of a Total Domination variation, and my Black Eye PA.  The recipes can be accessed by following the links as they were remakes of prior brews.

I have a couple new beers I'm working on.  One is going to be a hopped up IPA (so unlike me, huh?) with Summit, Citra, and Amarillo.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I'll post the recipe once I brew it.  The other one is going to be a Westveleteren XII clone.  That one I found online and I'll probably brew at Bean's Brewhouse.  He's got a crazy electric system with super good efficiency and better temp control.  I'll post that as well once I brew it.

Anyways, thanks for being patient and I'll be back in the saddle here shortly.

Alaska Amber Clone

Another day, another amber ale.  This was originally going to be for Old Dirty Randy and his roofing crew, but he brewed one up himself instead.  So now I'll have an amber again.  Fine by me.  I found the recipe somewhere online I think (it's been a while since I wrote it up).  Here's the details...

Recipe:
5.5 Gallons

Fermentables:
7.5 lb GW 2-Row Base
8 oz CaraPils
5 oz Crystal 90L
5 oz Crystal 120L
2 oz Special B
1 oz Roaster Barley

Anticipated OG: 1.042
Actual OG: 1.043
Anticipated FG: 1.012
Actual FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.3%

Hops:
2 oz Fuggles for 60m
1 oz Mt Hood for 5m

1 oz Mt Hood Dry Hop for 7 Days

34 IBU

Yeast:
Fermentis Safale 05

Notes:
Smooth brewing on this batch on Monday August 6th.  Brewed 2 batches that day.
Update 8/13/12: Racked to secondary and added 1oz of Mt Hood Dryhop.
Update 8/17/12: Kegged.  I'll do a taste update next week.
Update 8/27/12: Tastes great and it is less filling.  I'll try to do a side by side sometime soon.

Widmer Drop Top Amber Clone

It's been a while since I've done an amber and I've always like Drop Top, so why not brew one!  I found a recipe for this from a commercial home brew supply store online and I just copied their recipe and then ordered the goods from Brew Brothers.  Half as much money that way and they delivered!  Seriously, if you don't go to Brew Brothers and you live within an hour of Hillsboro, Oregon, you're wasting your money.  Plus their selection is crazy good.  Anyways, here's what I did...

Recipe:
5.5 Gallons

Grains:
8.25 lb GW 2-Row
.5 lb Crystal 10L
.5 lb Honey Malt
.5 lb Special B Malt

8oz Lactose (Milk Sugar) added at the start of the boil

Mash:
Strike: 3.66gallons at 170 degrees.
Sparge: 4.19 gallons at 170 degrees.

Anticipated OG: 1.051
Actual OG: 1.054
Final Gravity: 1.013
ABV: 5.4%

Hops:
.25oz CTZ for 60m
.5oz Magnum for 60m
1oz Northern Brewer for 10m

It was supposed to be Magnum for 1oz for a full hour, but I only had .5oz and didn't want to buy more that I wouldn't use right away.  Since I had so much CTZ, I figured for the bittering it would be close enough.

Yeast:
Safale 05.  This is my first time using this one.  Fermented fast even without a starter.

Notes:
Brewed back on June 22, but I forgot to post about it.  The mash/boil gave out less wort than I should have had, so I added about 3/4 a gallon of water after the boil.  This gave me the right gravity as well as enough wort.
Update 7/3/12: Racked to secondary and got the final gravity at 1.013.  Right on target.  The flavor is really close to Drop Top.  Probably a dead ringer.  If you want some Drop Top, then this will do the job nicely!  I'll update again after secondary and once it's on tap.

Opening Day Amber Ale

So this will hopefully be my last extract recipe as I'm hoping to get my mash tun built this weekend. I got the cooler mostly cleaned out, but still need to install the filtering pipe and ball joint. Anyways, this will resemble Fat Tire. I chose an amber instead of an IPA for opening day so that more people will enjoy the brew (I have a few people in my family that prefers lower-hop ales). Opening Day is only like a month and a half away, so this should finish conditioning right in time. Go Cubs Go! So here's the recipe that I'll bust out tomorrow:

Malt

6lb Light Extract

8oz Crystal 20L

8oz Crystal 40L

8oz Munich Malt

8oz Dextrine*

*should have been Biscuit Malt, but was not available so I'll try the Dextrine and see what happens.

Hops

.5 oz Nugget for 60min

.5 oz Nugget for 15min

.25 oz Nugget for 5min
Hops were donated by Poorhouse Brewing.  Thanks Randy!

(This seems like a small amount of hops, but I guess after the Steam Face I did last week, everything will seem like a small amount)

Yeast

Supposed to be Wyeast American Ale (1272), but I'm going to use a slurry of the Wyeast American Ale (1056) to save money.

I'll update after tomorrow when I'm done brewing.

Update 2/18/11: Brewing went smooth.  OG was 1.053.  It's pretty cloudy/gritty/grain filled but hopefully will settle during fermentation and secondary fermentation.  This is hopefully the last extract batch I'll do, supposing I'm able to get the wort chiller running during the next week.
Update 2/22/11: Racked to secondary.  Gravity was 1.014.  Great flavor.  Hops aren't what I hoped, but it is an amber and not an IPA like I prefer.  Should be a great one for Opening Day against Pittsburgh.  Also, I got a great slurry of yeast again that I'll re-use again for the next batch.
Update 2/24/11: Going to cold crash this later today and probably bottle early next week.  I want this one to turn out really clear since it's for opening day (a national holiday).
Update 3/2/11: Bottled 10 22's and 26 12's.  Now to just wait for opening day...
Update 4/1/11:  The Opening Day Amber was a hit.  This is a sweet, good flavored amber ale.  I would have like a little more hop flavor, but that's true of everything I guess!  I enjoyed a couple, despite the Cubs inability to win on Opening Day.  But at least baseball is back!

My Opening Day mug with my
Opening Day Amber inside.  Tasty.