Moose Drool Clone

Batch Size: 5.5 gal

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

10.5lbs Pale malt 2-row American
0.5lbs Crystal malt 80L

0.75lbs Crystal malt 60L

0.25lbs Pale Chocolate malt

0.125lbs Black Patent malt

1oz EK Goldings hops [5.7%] (60min)

1oz Liberty hops [5.2%] (30min)

1oz Willamette [4.8%] (15min)

1 vial English ale yeast (White Labs WLP002)

Oatmeal Stout

All grain kit from Midwest Supplies

Batch Size: 5.5 gal

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

9lbs Pale malt 2-row American
0.5lbs Rolled Oats

0.75lbs Chocolate malt

0.75lbs Roasted Barley

1oz Fuggle hops [6.0%] (60min)

1 vial Irish ale yeast (White Labs WLP004)

Flat Tire

All grain kit from Midwest Supplies

Batch Size: 5.5 gal

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

9lbs Pale malt 2-row American
0.5lbs Special B

0.5lbs Caramel malt 120L

0.5lbs Munich malt

1oz Northern Brewer hops [10.6%] (60min)

1oz Saaz hops [3.5%] (2min)

1 vial Belgian ale yeast (White Labs WLP550)

Ferocious IPA

All Grain kit from Midwest Supplies

Batch Size: 5.5 gal

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

11lbs Golden Promise
1lbs Munich malt 

0.25lbs Crystal malt 60L

1oz Warrior hops [16%] (60min)

1oz Amarillo hops [9.2%] + 1oz Simcoe [12.9%] divide in to equal parts (20min, 15min, 10min, 5min, 0min)

1oz Ahtunum hops [4.5%] dry hop
1oz Amarillo hops [9.2%] dry hop
1oz Simcoe hops [12.9%] dry hop

1 vial Dry English ale yeast (White Labs WLP007)

Squashbuckler

I love Fall. I love the colors, the crisp air, the food, and of course the beer. We harvested more than our fair share of pumpkins and squashes from our garden this year, and I have been trying to use them for things other than pie and soup, mmm bread. While flipping through my latest BeerAdvocate magazine (#57), I spotted a recipe for a pumpkin ale and knew that I had to make it. I tweaked the recipe a bit according to taste, and brewed this past, beautiful, fall weekend. 
Batch Size: 5.5 gal

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%


8lbs Pale malt 2-row American
2lbs Munich malt

1lbs Crystal malt 60L

1.5lbs Roasted Pumpkin

1.25lbs Roasted Butternut Squash

8 fl oz Molasses

1.25oz Tettnang hops [3.7%] (60min)
0.75oz Tettnang hops [3.7%] (20min)

1/4 tsp Cinnamon (5min)

1/4 tsp Ground Ginger (5min)

1/8 tsp Nutmeg (5min)

1/8 tsp Cloves (5min)
1 vial California ale yeast (White Labs WLP001)

I roasted the pumpkin and squash at 350F for 90 min the night before I brewed. On brew day, I did a single infusion mash with grains and squash at 153F for 60 min. I did a 60 min boil and added the molasses with 10 min left. The wort smelled amazing as it was chilling, just like a pumpkin pie. After the wort cooled, the original gravity was 1.050. I was too lazy to make a starter for the yeast, but they seem to be doing alright. If things go well, this should be ready to start drinking for Thanksgiving!

La Bella Luna Mead

I expanded my brewing horizons this past week with a crash course in making mead. This project had two goals; 1) get back to basics and the beginning, and 2) brew up something meaningful for my wedding. 
Ask a beer enthusiast what the first man-made alcohol was, and they will surely answer beer. Ask a mead enthusiast what the first alcohol consumed was, and the answer will be fermented honey. Currently, the archaeological evidence points to beer being older; however, it is widely accepted that consuming mead predated soil cultivation (a necessary evil for extensive beer brewing). Either way, mead is clearly an ancient beverage with histories throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia.
With mead's age, comes tradition. Probably the most cited tradition is giving mead to a newly wed couple. Throughout Europe, the term honeymoon derives from the practice of providing newly weds with enough honey wine to drink a cup daily for a month. Could this nectar of the gods be a more appropriate wedding libation? 
Even if we throw every other tradition out the window, I know that we have to have a mead toast at the wedding, and plenty to drink afterwards ;) So, I met up with a friend who brews traditional mead competitively, she gave me some pointers, and I was on my way.

Batch size: ~13 gal
30lbs Honey (from local apiary)*
10gal Spring Water
2 5oz packets Pasteur Champagne yeast (Red Star) 
        
Making mead is deceptively easy; all you need is honey, water, and yeast, but forget to sanitize one thing and you have 13 gallons of blegh. So, after extensive cleaning and sanitizing, I got to brewing. My 10gal brewpot could not handle this much fluid, so, I split it up into two batches; luckily mead is less time consuming than beer. For the first batch, I boiled 6gal of water, stirred in 18lbs honey, brought the whole thing back to a boil and boiled for about 15min. Then I chilled the must, split it evenly between my two primary fermenters and started on the next batch. There is a lot of debate as to whether or not you should boil the honey, so to account for this, on the next batch, I boiled 4gal water, turned off the burner, and stirred in 12lbs honey and did not boil it. This mixture was still pretty hot, so, I chilled it to about 80F and split it between the two fermenters. I pitched the rehydrated yeast and measured the SG (1.100). Less than 24 hrs later, both buckets are bubbling away, and things still smell delightful!
*A word to the wise- If you can, buy this much honey in bulk, it is significantly cheaper than buying 6 5lbs containers of honey.

       

Terrapin Rye Pale Ale Clone

A couple of years ago, Boyf and I were at a beer festival when we had our first taste of Terrapin's Rye Pale Ale, and it was love at first sip. Being from the NE, we come across this brew very rarely, so I decided to give brewing it a try. I brewed this a year ago as a partial mash, and it came it well. Now, I am stepping it up to all-grain. The recipe is based on a Brewing Network interview with Spike Buckowski of Terrapin from 5/18/08.
Batch Size: 5.5 gal

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

8.5lbs Pale malt 2-row German
1.2lbs Munich malt

1.5lbs Rye malt

0.5lbs Melanoidin malt

0.25lbs Honey malt

0.5oz Magnum hops [13.1%] (60min)
1oz Fuggle hops [4.0%] (30min)

0.25oz East Kent Golding hops [4.5%] (20min)
0.5oz East Kent Golding hops [4.5%] (10min)
0.75oz Cascade hops [8.0%] (0min)
1oz Amarillo hops [9.1%] (dry hop in secondary)
1 vial American ale yeast blend (White Labs WLP060)

I did a single infusion mash at 154F for 60 min. The specific gravity was spot on at 1.054. After 5 days in primary, the SG was down to 1.010, so I racked to secondary and added the amarillo. I'll be bottling this week and drinking it in a few; can't wait!