Saturday, May 3, 2014

Home Brew - Red Ale

It has been far too long since I made a batch of home brew, so tonight I opted to try making a red ale.  Hopefully it will be a smooth beer good for summer drinking.  I also made it outside using the side burner on my new BBQ.  However, because it is about zero outside, it did not reach a rolling boil.  I had to cover the wort for a good part of the boil just to keep it boiling.  I hope this doesn't lead to any off flavours.  This batch was also a bit of a witches brew where I tried to use what I had on hand.

Steep at 150 for 30 minutes:

1 pound crystal 60 malt
.5 pound chocolate malt

Bring to boil (about 2 gallons water).  Add:

3.3 pounds Amber LME

After 30 minutes boiling, added:

.5 oz whole hops from Michelle's folks (Cascade?) ("Novak" hops)

After 50 minutes boiling added:

.5 oz "Novak" hops

I added another 3.3 pounds of Light LME at knockout

fill to 5.5 gallons.  Pitch Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale