It has been a while since I have come forth with thoughts on a brewing day. Rich recently mentioned his first brew day with me, which I affectionately named Rich’s Bitch. Since one of my New Year’s resolutions is to brew more and talk about it here, here we go!
Whenever I decide to brew a new style of beer, I do my homework. I check out BJCP guidelines and then scour the web for recipes. I decided that I needed some type of brown ale in repertoire. After reading the style guidelines for an American Brown Ale, I knew it was my type of beer: lots of hops.
After a week or so of screwing around, I settled on the following recipe:
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: S-05 (was lazy)
Yeast Starter: none
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.50
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.014 (estimate)
IBU: 48.8
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 21 @70*F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7 @70*F dry hopped
Grain Bill:
10.0# 2-Row
0.5# Crystal 60L
0.5# Crystal 40L
0.5# Wheat Malt
0.5# Chocolate Malt
0.25# Cara-Pils
0.25# Victory
Mash 152*F for 60 minutes.
Hop Bill:
0.75oz Warrior (15.0%) @ 60 min
1.00oz Amarillo (8.5%) @ 20 min
1.00oz Amarillo (8.5%) @ 0 min
2.00oz Amarillo (8.5%) dry hop for seven days
Looking at the recipe I think I might have too many different grains, especially with the Wheat, Cara-Pils, and Victory combination. Based on what I wanted to achieve, I think there is some over lap. Once I bottle, I will know for sure.
The brew day went smooth. I was joined at various times by Chuck and Dave, sharing some home brew with each made the time pass quite quickly. The beer was busy fermenting this morning. I should be trying this one out in about a month. Enjoy!
Useless Fact: The Mexican fishing spider attaches itself to a small leaf, floats across a pond as if on a raft, and from this vantage point hunts its prey, large tadpoles and small fish.
