Results tagged “hops” from paulbeer

I had a very tasty IPA on draft a few days ago and it inspired me to brew one. Not following any particular recipe, I brewed what seems to be a pretty basic IPA. The recipe I put together is a partial mash:

• 6lbs Briess Light DME
• 1lb Victory malt crushed
• 1lb Crystal malt 40L crushed
• .5oz Chinook - 60 minutes
• .75oz Cascade - 40 minutes
• .75oz Cascade - 20 minutes
• .5oz Cascade 5 minutes
• 1/2 tsp Irish Moss last 15 minutes

I steeped the grains for 30 minutes at 152F and transferred the liquid to the brew kettle. I added the DME to the wort and when it started to boil I added the first round of hops.

There's been a lot of talk about Joe Strummer lately. Since I'm a fan of the Clash, I'm dedicating this entry to their late front man.

By order of the prophet, I decided to rack my pale ale in preparation for bottling. I was thinking about dry hopping this ale but I'm not sure if I want to. I have a small amount of hops on hand; Hallertau, Fuggles, Tetnang, and some bittering hops. I might use one of those, or I might just leave it as is.

Now over at the temple, the target gravity for this ale is 1.010 and that's where the beer is. I plan to bottle in the next couple of weeks.

The king called up his jet fighters because he was starting to worry about this batch. It was very active for the first couple of days, but then it seemed all activity in the airlock ceased. I did a gravity test and it was around 1.020ish. I stirred the beer a little and let it sit for another few days. I then did another test and it was at 1.012.

As soon as the shareef is out of my hair, (and as soon as it's ready to drink) I'll have a glass. I'm hoping for a good session beer and I think a nice medium body pale ale with a little over 5% ABV will do the trick. I've had several pales and some are very good, others are...eh. Some taste like vegetable stock was an ingredient. Can you say asparagus pale ale or maybe even Pea Juice Ale? I don't know about you, but I like my beer free of vegetables. The pales that are good are about 7 or 8 bucks a six pack. That’s a little pricey for an everyday beer.

Drop your bombs between the minarets and email me some suggestions at paul@paulbeer.com.

You know he really hates it.

With today being my last day of mini-vacation, I decided to brew a batch of beer. I took my amber ale recipe and made some modifications to it.

I swapped the pale LME for some light DME. I also skipped the step of adding the dark DME. My goal is to just try something different. I'm also hoping to brew something I can call my "every day" beer. I've been switching between Sam Adams, Flying Fish, Yuengling, Blue Moon, and my very own wheat ale.

The Sam Adams selection is nice but at 8 bucks a six pack, it's not really an every day beer. Flying Fish also isn't that bad. Their XPA (pale ale) ESB and their IPA are pretty good too but also a little too pricey for an every day beer. Yuengling and Blue Moon are good but not something I want every day.

The OG of this beer turned out to be 1.050. I let it sit at room temp for a while and the gravity stayed. Target FG should be around 1.010.

For hops, I chose to stink with East Kent Goldings and Fuggles. I added 2.5 ounces of EK Goldings and .75 ounces of Fuggles. I'm not sure I'm going to dry hop this beer. I may rack it to the secondary and bottle it in a few weeks.

Ugh...did I say bottle? I mean mini keg! We'll see when the time comes. I need to order some new minis.

Well that's all for tonight.

I've been working on creating an ale recipe that will hopefully taste like one of my very first ales. The problem with this is the first ale was a kit that is made with cans of hopped malt extract. The varieties of hops used are not listed and I have no idea what the malt mixture is, but I’m determined to recreate this beer.

I've been doing some research on hop varieties and what their characteristics are when added at various times of boil. Since the ale I’m trying to brew is not very bitter, I’m looking to use hops that are low in alpha acids and have a great aroma. I’ve decided to use mainly Kent Goldings with small amounts of Fuggles and Hallertau. I’ll use most of the Hallertau in the dry hopping process.

I paid my local homebrew supply store a visit this weekend to pickup the ingredients I need. Since there is a global hop shortage, the amount of hops I can purchase is limited. I picked up a couple of ounces of Hallertau and Kent Goldings along with some extract and Nottingham ale yeast. The recipe will call for about 5 ounces of hops total, but that’s ok because I have a secret stash. I started to order a couple ounces of miscellaneous hops whenever the need to refresh supplies came about. They are shipped in vacuum sealed packages and they are kept cool.

When’s brew day? Next Saturday! I’ll also be bottling the Belgian wheat that’s been sitting in one of my carboys for a few weeks.

That’s pretty much all I have for now. I’ll be back later this week.