Target Gravity: 1.054
IBU: 32.4
BU/GU: 0.6

Grain Bill

8.0639 lbs American Pale Malt
2.298 lbs Brown Malt
0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
0.5 lbs Special B

Hops

2 oz Perle Leaf Hops ( 7.5 % ) @ 60 minutes

Yeast

US-50 SafAle

Schedule

Mash this beer at 151 for 90 minutes. Boil for 90 minutes. Ferment at optimal yeast temperature, approx 68F.

Grain Bill

12 lbs    2-row
0.5 lbs    Crystal  20L
The Mash

Single Infusion Mash  @ 151F

Hop Schedule
90 minute boil
1 oz Willamette @ 60 minutes.
Yeast
White Labs California Ale Yeast
 Notes:
Create a yeast start at least a day ahead of time or pitch two vials of yeast. Fement this beer at 67F; mine took about nine days to complete.  For such a simple grain bill, the fermentation temperature must be well controlled. Off flavors will not be hidden!

OG 1.050
IBU 50
Bu/Gu: 1.0

Grain Bill
.75 lbs Roasted Barely 300 L
.75 lbs Roasted Barley 650 L
1 lbs Chocolate Malt
7.6 lbs Pale 2-row
1 lbs Wheat Malt
.50 lbs Dextrine Malt
.75 lbs Crystal 6L

Mash
Single Infusion mash @ 152 with a R = 1.2. I had a hard time holding on the to temperature this time around. My mash actually dipped to 149F before the end of the mash. I had too little remaining capactiy in the tun to adjust. This will lead to a very fermentable, albeit lighter beer–I normally perfer my stouts pretty thick. I batch sparged and got about a 70% efficiency.
Hop Schedule ( 90 minute boil )
2.38 oz Amarillo @ 60 minutes.

I had a boilover at around T-50 minutes. This will likely affect the overall bitterness of this brew. I couldn’t guess how much hop matter was ejected during the boilover so I didn’t attempt to correct for it.

Yeast
1 pk Danstar Windsor English Ale yeast ( properly rehydrated )

Notes:

I had about 5-6 gal of wort after the boil @ 1.050 OG. This was the first brew that I have brewed that required a blowoff hose. I just used my syphon hose which is a little on the long side; it generates too much resistence when it gets gunked up with krausen. When the hose if full, the fermenter pressure really builds up; I can hear the fermenter whistling. I am going to have to keep a close eye on this one.

This a light-bodied cream ale ( ale-equivilent to light American lager ). A full description will be added after tasting. I am shooting for a crisp, clean finish with a light mouthfeel–something that is easy drinking. This beer should turn out like a big version of Rolling Rock. I have never brewed a beer that is this high in gravity or mashed at such a low temperature. I hope that the desired balance comes out. The color is very, very light, around 3-4 SRM.

In this beer, one of the key flavors is DMS. The boil length was reduced to allow for some DMS to remaining the wort. DMS has a half-life of 40 minutes.

Grain Bill

6 lbs Pale 2-row
6 lbs Pilsen ( 2-row) malt
1 lbs Flaked Corn ( maize )
1 lbs 2 oz Table Sugar

OG: 1.066 @ 70% efficiency

Mash: Multi-step

A multistep mash is required because a large portion of the grist is pilsen malt, a moderately modified malt. With a 5-gal capacity igloo-style cooler, multi-rest mashing can be a challenge. If I had more space, I would have conducted the first step with a greater water to grist ratio. After about 40 minutes, I had to draw off one quart of wort from the mash and heat it up to 190 degrees to adjust the mash temperature. I performed a batch sparge and collected seven gallons of wort in total. Be sure to exclude the table sugar from all of your mash calculations.

25 minutes @ 120F R = .8
90 minutes @ 149F ( for conversion ) R = 1.3
Hop Schedule: 75 minute Boil

1 oz Amarillo ( 7.6 AAU ) @ 70 minutes
1 oz Amarillo ( 7.6 AAU ) @ flameout

Yeast and Fermentation

I just used a pack of Munton’s Ale yeast that I rehydrated for 30 minutes before adding to the wort. Visible activity in the airlock was apparent in about three hours ( not bad for dry yeast!) I am going to ferment this as close to 65F as I can, which is some temperature around 70F–It’s in a cold water bath.

Additional Notes:

Due to the capacity of my brewpot, I had withhold about 2 gallons of the wort until after the hot break. The extra wort was added back in at 70 minutes.

Grain Bill
6 lbs     Marris Otter
1.5 lbs    American  2-row
0.25 lbs    Victory
.65 lbs    Crystal 40
.65 lbs    Crystal 60
.25 lbs    Chocolate Malt

90 minute boil

Hop Schedule
.5 oz    Magnum hops @ 60 minute
1 oz    Amarillo @ 15 minutes
1 oz   Amarillo @ 0 minutes

Yeast:
White Labs wlp001 California Ale Yeast.

 Mash Schedule:
Single Infusion Mash at 152F for 1 hour.
Mash Out at 170F for 15 minutes
Sparge for 1 hour.
 Notes:

I actually managed to sparge for a full hour and collected about 7 to 7.5 gal of wort.  I will boil 6.5 gallons of this to start and add the remainder after 30 minutes ( after some has boiled off and the immediate threat of boil over had passed.)  My mash method was a Continuous/Batch hybrid method.  I kept the wort level above the grain bed until I had collected about 5.5 gal of wort.   I then let it rest for about 15 minutes and then allowed the remained to drain.  Dont forget to vorlauf.

I am going to ferment this as cold as possible.  My home AC unit is on the fritz and room temperature during the day is around 80 degrees.  I will keep this in the bath tub and hopefully ferment this in the low 70s.

I am also pitching this on top of my previous batch, the Sim City IPA, so I will effectively have a HUGE starter.  If you are not pitching on top of a previous yeast cake, be sure to make a yeast starter.

Also, after this brew is done, I will have succesfully finished by 10th batch, 50 gallons in all. I know this is a small number for a number of you, but I don’t get to brew but once every two months or so.  I have been on an accelerated brew schedule lately in order to fill up the four kegs that I purchased, but after this one, I am back to brewing every two months. 

Grain Bill:

10 lbs 6 row malt
1 lbs Crystal 60
1 lbs Crystal 120
Hops :

.5 oz Magnum( 14.5%) 60 min
1 oz Galena ( 11%) 30 min
1 oz Cascade(5.1%) 5 min
Yeast:

White Labs WLP001 Califorina Ale Yeast.

Mash Schedule:

Single Infusion Mash at 154 F for one hour. Mash out at 169F for 10-15 minutes and then sparge.

Boil for 90 minutes.
Ferment at 170F until good and done.

Notes:

I tried to refine my batch-sparging technique a bit this round. I sparged slowly and kept refilling the Lauter Tun with hot ( 170F) water to keep the wort level above the grain bed. When I had collected nearly all of the wort, I let the train drain normally. This time around, I collected more wort than I can boil at a given time ( I have a 6.5 gal max capacity). After boiling the wort for 30 minutes, I added the extra wort to the boil. I didnt prepare a yeast start this time, but should have. I saw active fermentation about 20 hours into the primary. I had to put the fermenter into a bathtub with cool water to keep the temperature down. It ran higher than I would have liked but this yeast to supposed to ferment clean so we will see how it turns out.

If you want a real Sierra Nevada pale ale, I would suggest that you keep looking for another recipe.

Grain Bill:

6 lbs Wheat Malt
4 lbs Maris Otter
1 lbs Dextrine Malt
2 oz Black Patient

Hops:
1 oz Hallertauer Pellets
1 oz Saaz Pellets

Yeast:
London Dry Ale Yeast
Notes:

Mash this at 154F for one hour. Stir up the mash every 15 minutes. Mash out at 170F for 20 minutes to improve the extraction of the sugars. I chose to batch sparge this. My efficiency was around 65-70; not so great.

Target BU/GU: 0.35
OG: 1.053
I made the mistake of waiting to calculate my hop schedule until after I had already purchased my ingredients. In order to achieve my desired bitternes, I had add all 2 oz of hops at 90 minutes. Oh Well. Furthermore, I seriously doubt that any miracle could actually make this beer red. It looks pretty brown to me. Oh Well, again. I will try again for a red one some other time.

I chose to pitch this wort on the yeast cake of the previous batch; I would have chosen a different yeast otherwise. I had activity in the airlock within three hours.

Grain Bill

8 lbs 2-row Pale Malt
1 lbs Munich Malt
.5 lbs Cara-pilz Dextrine malt
1 lbs Crystal 60L Malt*

Hops

1 oz Centennial ( 9.3% )
1 oz Cascade ( 6.0 % )
Yeast

1.5 oz Windsor Dry Ale Yeast or Liquid London Ale Yeast
(Prepare a yeast starter)
Schedule ( 90 minute boil )
0.50 oz Centennial — 60 minutes
0.25 oz Centennial — 30 minutes
0.25 oz Centennial — 15 minutes
1 tsp Irish Moss ( optional )
0.50 oz Cascade — 10 minutes
0.50 oz Cascade — 5 minutes

Notes

Target Initial gravity: 1.042
Target Final gravity: 1.011
IBUs: 25

* Selecting a crystal malt with a higher lovenbond measure will result in a beer with a darker, more saturated red color.
You could even add some roasted barley to the mix to get a nice red color.

I was shooting for a BU:GU ratio of 0.5. I didn’t want this one to be too bitter; hopefully, it wont be too sweet either.

Grain Bill:
7 lbs Pale 2-row
1 lbs Biscut malt
1 lbs Vienna malt
0.5 lb Crystal Malt ( 20 L )
.25 Chocolate Malt (335 L)

Hops:
1 oz Nugget (11%) Bitterning
1 oz Willamette Flavor

Yeast:
WLP013 London Ale Yeast.

Mash Schedule:
Single-Temperature infusion at 154 F. Shoot for 2 quart / lbs grist ratio. I had to settle for 1.5; I just didn’t have the room in my tun.
Preheat the mash tun. At 1.5 Grist ratio, use 15 quarts at 163 degrees. Or for 2.0 Grist, use 19.5 quarts at 160 degrees.
To get 6.5 gals for the boil, I had to drain and then batch sparged twice. The second sparge was a little cloudy and I ended up with fine bits of grain in my boil. Be sure to vorlauf ( recycle ) until the runnings are clear.

Hop Schedule ( 90 minute boil ):
1 oz Nugget (11%) 70 minutes
1 oz Willamette 20 minutes

Gravity:
O.G : 1.049 @ 5.25 gal

Fermentation:
Ferment at 68F for two weeks.
Notes:
This was my first All-grain batch. I took a gravity reading of the mash runoff and discovered that my my mash efficiency was a low. To compensate, I added one pound of dry light malt extract. I nailed the O.G. at 5.25 gals .

I bought a new 7.5 gallon stainless steal pot for this brew. It barely fits in my sink–if I would have picked up a 10 gallon pot, I would have had to buy the emersion chiller this time too (maybe in a couple of brews).

This was my first time boiling over propane. I enjoyed being able to use the term “flame out” when discussing my process. I am using a Bayou Classic Banjo burner that puts out an impressive 210,000 BTUs. It was very cold and the propane was running a little rich so I never came close to that output, though.
Notes on Yeast Starter:
Made a starter in one pint of water with 1/2 cup of LME (dry) with London Ale yeast. I prepared the starter 30 hours in advance. After 24 hours, only weak fermentation was visible, so I used an electric blanket to increase the temperature to 75F; the activity improved.

1.5 parts Light Rum
1 part Golden Tequila
0.5 part Fresh Lime Juice
0.5 part Simple Sugar

Shake all of the ingredients over ice and pour into a chilled martini glass. In this version, tequila suplements the traditional light rum component and adds a lot of good flavor. I suppose that you could think of this as a cross between a daiquri and a margarita. Give is a try, or two. I haven’t seen this recipe in print before, so let me know how you like it. For the original recipe,  replace the one part of tequila with one part light rum.