#12 American Brown Ale

So my system is almost all replaced since my last couple brews. I built a new mash tun capable of doing moderate gravity beers through 6gal batches if I please. I'm sticking with 3gal batches for a while. 1gal just isn't enough to really get an idea of how a beer turned out, and still have some left over to enjoy. And by my next brew, I'll be brewing on a propane burner on the deck... just waiting on my buddy to lend me some tanks :)

I have an American Brown Ale starting its journey today. I'm going to be doing smaller beers for a while here just so I can really tweak my process and perfect parts I'm not happy with. I'm giving myself a 6% ABV limit until I kick out several consecutive (relatively) flawless batches. And I'm going to abstain from excessive hopping. Just trying to stay away from things that will cover up the flaws.

Batch Size: 3.00 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
Est Original Gravity: 1.058 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.61 %
Bitterness: 29.0 IBU
Est Color: 20.9 SRM

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.21 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 82.63 %
0.43 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 5.78 %
0.31 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 4.14 %
0.31 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.14 %
0.25 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 3.31 %

7gm Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 20.1 IBU
7gm Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (15 min) Hops 6.1 IBU
5gm Cascade [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 2.8 IBU
7gm Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -

#11 Summer Ale

Brewing for the second day in a row. Main reason being that I just stepped up a few pieces of equipment to be able to brew 3 gallon batches. So now I'll actually have enough to drink when I'm done! Brewing 1 gal is great for experimentation, but once you have some recipes you want on hand to have for dinner, you never have enough. I also would like a few extra bottles to share with friends for feedback.

So today I'm brewing a summer ale for Amber. It's basically a blond ale, but it will have a bit more flavor and mouthfeel than a blond. After fermentation, I plan on bottling 2gal, then racking the remaining 1gal off to one of my small 1gal fermenter jugs with some fruit, most likely raspberries or cherries, to sit for another week. I want to see how this recipe works as a base for girly, fruity beers. Blonds are definitely not my favorite style... but brewing these smaller, lighter flavor beers will make me a better brewer. It's certainly more challenging to brew lighter, more transparent beers.

(I substituted extract for my pale malt. I still need to build a bigger mash tun to hold enough grains for 3gal batches.)

3gal batch
Est Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.38 %
Bitterness: 24.3 IBU
Est Color: 5.1 SRM

Amount Item Type % or IBU
24.00 oz Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 33.33 %
30.00 oz Munich Malt (6.0 SRM) Grain 41.67 %
9.00 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 12.50 %
9.00 oz Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 12.50 %

Hops
0.13 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 12.1 IBU
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (30 min) Hops 12.2 IBU

White Labs 001 California Ale Yeast

10 American Pale Ale II

Well, my last batch of pale ale got infected and dumped out. I know exactly when where in how it happened, so I'm doing everything in my power to not make that stupid mistake again. So today, I re-do the pale ale... Though I did change the recipe enough that it could well be considered an entirely different beer.

My changes came entirely from the hop bill. I've been really wanting to try this somewhat new, and hardly used method of waiting until the last part of the boil to add all of the hops. The longer you boil the hops, the more bittering you get from them, but adding them towards the end of the boil gives you more aroma and flavor from them. This method will take more hops to get the bittering I need, but I think it will be worth it. So my first hop addition will be at 20mins, then adding in 5min increments from then on out. Should be interesting to see how a beer without hops for the entire first half of the boil turns out.

Est Original Gravity: 1.053 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.08 %


Amount Item Type % or IBU
30.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 75.95 %
4.00 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 10.13 %
3.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 7.59 %
2.50 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 6.33 %

Hops
0.07 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (20 min) Hops 7.7 IBU
0.07 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (15 min) Hops 6.3 IBU
0.07 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (15 min) Hops 8.2 IBU
0.07 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (10 min) Hops 6.0 IBU
0.07 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (10 min) Hops 4.6 IBU
0.07 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (5 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
0.07 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.3 IBU
0.13 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (1 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
0.13 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (1 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -

White Labs 001 California Ale Yeast