It's not even 2008 and the race for the next President is on. Personally, I don't like any of the candidates from either the Democrats or the Republicans. So I've decided to support Noah Body for 2008. Reason why? Because of this great scotch ale recipe. Strong and bold, just like any President should be.

Actually, this recipe is from "The Homebrewer's Recipe Guide" page 110. I just thought it would be great to mix a little politics with beer. Just like during the Revolutionary War days. So grab a tankard and check this recipe out.

10 pounds light malt extract
1 pound crystal malt 40L
2 ounces chocolate malt
1 cup light brown sugar
2 ounces Williamette hops
1/2 teaspoon gypsum
1 teaspoon Irish moss
1 package yeast (Scottish ale is preferred)
3/4 cup corn sugar

Steep crushed crystal and choclate malts at 155 degrees for 30 minutes

Remove spent grains and add the malt extract, brown sugar, gypsum and hops

Boil for 1 hour addint the Irish Moss during the last 10 minutes

Cool wort and pitch yeast

Ferment for 10 to 14 days and then transfer to secondary fermenter for 7 to 10 days

Bottle using the corn sugar and age for about 2 weeks

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Tech Tags: Beer, Homebrewing, Scotch, Ale, Democrats, Republicans, Hillary, Clinton, Obama, McCain

Picked this recipe from Brew Your Own, the homebrewer's magazine

 

Wee Heavy

 

Wee heavies are malty/sweet big ales, but don’t smell fruity as most big ales do. You need to use a yeast strain that won’t overattenuate the beer, pitch a large yeast starter and hold the fermentation temperature lower than with most ales. A Golden Promise malt for your base malt is a good choice.

Groundskeeper Willie’s Wee Heavy
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.100 FG = 1.030
IBU = 22 SRM = 14+ ABV = 9.0%

Ingredients
12.75 lbs. (5.8 kg) Alexander’s Pale liquid malt extract
3.0 lbs. (9.1 kg) Simpson’s Golden Promise malt
3.0 oz. (85 g) crystal malt (60 °L)
0.75 oz. (21 g) roasted barley (300 °L)
6 AAU First Gold hops (60 min)
(0.8 oz./23 g of 7.5% alpha acids)
1 tsp. Irish moss (15 mins)
1/4 tsp yeast nutrient (15 mins)
Wyeast 1728 (Scottish Ale) or White
Labs WLP028 (Edinburgh Ale)
yeast (4 qt./~4 L yeast starter)
0.75 cups corn sugar (for priming)

Step by Step
Steep crushed grains for 45 minutes at 158 °F (70 °C) in 1.2 gallons (4.6 L) of water. Add water to “grain tea” to make 3 gallons (11 L) of wort. Add about 5 lbs. (2.3 kg) of malt extract to wort and bring to a boil. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops at beginning of the boil. Add Irish moss and yeast nutrients with 15 minutes left in boil. Add remainder of liquid malt extract at end of boil and let steep 15 minutes before cooling. Ferment at 62 °F (17 °C).

All-grain option:
Replace malt extract and base grains with 20 lbs. (9.1 kg) Simpson’s Golden Promise malt. Mash at 158 °F (70 °C). Collect about 10 gallons of wort and boil to reduce to 5 gallons (19 L), as long as 5 hours.

 

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Technorati Tags : Beer, Homebrewing

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I stopped into our local brewpub (Marzoni's) for a few beers and some fine grub. They make six beers that are the everyday beers and usually have 2 different ones on tap. During October, you can have an Octoberfest beer, Spring time was a Sassion, etc. Currently, they have a Scotch Ale and an Imperial Stout on tap. I tried the Scotch Ale and for those of you that do not like a lot of hops, then this beer is one to make. You can taste the malt in a Scotch Ale and is a nice drinking beer. My wife even liked it and she is not a beer drinker. So this week's recipe is a Scotch Ale.

This recipe has a variety of procedures that may be new to some beginners. Give it a try and see how well you do.

Read This Week's Recipe



Or, If you want to try an easier recipe, here is one to try.

Ingredients:

• 6.6 lb Ireks munich light LME
• 2.0 lb Ireks munich malt (10L ?)
• 0.5 lb M&F crystal malt (60L)
• 0.5 lb Ireks crystal malt (20L)
• 3.0 oz M&F chocolate malt (350L)
• 4.0 oz white wheat malt (2L)
• 2.0 oz Hugh Baird peat smoked malt (2L)
• 1.0 oz East Kent Goldings (whole, 60 min boil)
• 1.0 oz Fuggles (whole, 15 min boil)
• 1 tsp Irish moss (rehydrated, 15 min boil)
• Wyeast 1338 (european ale, 1 qt starter)
• 4.5 oz corn sugar (primimg)

Procedure:

- mashed all the grains in 4 qts of 156F water for 1 hr
- sparged with 4 qts of 170F water
- SG of runnings: 1.036 in ~7 qts
- added LME, made volume up to 3 gal, boiled for 1 hr
- chilled with immersion chiller, aerated, made volume up to 5 gal, aerated some more, pitched 1 qt starter
- fermented at 65 - 68F
To do the mash on my stove, I just heat up the mash water to ~165F (in my kettle) then drop in the grain bag containing the crushed grains. Stir real well, let it sit for a minute, then check the temp. If its to low (which it will be) either add small amounts of boiling water (1 cup at a time, stir, let it sit for a minute, then check the temp) or add heat with the stove burner on medium heat while gently stirring constantly. After you hit the mash temp, cover it up and let it sit for 1 hour. At the end of the 1 hour, I lift the grain bag just above the surface of the wort and sparge by pouring the sparge water over the grains gently with a measuring cup.
As you can see, my mash setup/technique is pretty simple and doesn't require a lot of extra equipment. I'm not trying to get the max possible extraction from the grains, only the flavor/body that was missing before I started doing these partial mashes .

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Technorati Tags : Beer, Homebrewing, Scotch, Ale