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Zuul Drool Brown Ale

January 1, 2011 2

This time around, I wanted to try a brown ale. During my research, I’ve discovered there are several styles of brown ale. The one I decided on was a nutty brown ale brewed traditionally in Northern England. Looking through my books, I settled on Nutcastle Brown Ale from Brewing Classic Styles.

One of my favorite brown ales is Moose Drool from Big Sky Brewery. And there’s nothing better than watching Ghost Busters with a pint of of this fine brown ale. So I decided to pay homage to both Moose Drool and to Ghost Busters by calling this Zuul Drool. Not only does it sound cool, it also rhymes!

When I went to the homebrew store, they were pretty much out of yeast, so we substituted the London Ale with Nottingham. I also wasn’t interested in buying canned English Pale Ale LME, so I went with some bulk Briess Pilsen which is about half the cost. The Kent Goldings had a higher Alpha Acid, so I cut back on the bittering addition a bit to compensate. I didn’t use any conversions, just guessed.

I’ve been having trouble with too much sediment getting into the bottle. When pouring a brew, I have floating chunks of protein and yeast. Normally, I just dump the wort into the fermenter. This time, I wanted to see if I can leave as much of it I can in the brewpot. I decided I’d swirl the wort and let it rest. This should concentrate the sediment to the center of the pot. Then I would siphon off the wort into the fermenter. Unfortunately, there is so much cold break and I would lose 1/4 of the wort. Frustrated, I poured the wort back into the brewpot and decided I’d strain it instead. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any cheesecloth. So I layered on coffee filters (everything sanitized) onto the strainer. That worked….kinda. The filters probably got clogged up and the wort didn’t drain. Eventually, I said to hell with it and poured everything into the fermenter. Up to this point, I’ve only done a single stage fermentation. So I bought a secondary fermenter and will rack it over in hopes of clarifying it that way.

I hope I didn’t contaminate this batch with all the fussing I was doing with the wort. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

BeerTools Pro Color Graphic

Zuul Drool
11-C Northern English Brown Ale
Extract w/ Steeping Grains
Batch #4
Size: 5.0 gal
Calories: 178.03 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.054 (1.040 – 1.052)
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Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.008 – 1.014)
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Color: 16.26 (12.0 – 22.0)
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Alcohol: 5.26% (4.2% – 5.4%)
|======================#=========|

Bitterness: 26.8 (20.0 – 30.0)
|==================#=============|

Ingredients:

  • 6.5 lb CBW® Pilsen Light Liquid (Malt Extract)
  • .75 lb Special Roast Malt
  • .5 lb Victory® Malt
  • .5 lb Crystal Malt 40°L
  • .25 lb Pale Chocolate Malt
  • 1 oz East Kent Goldings (6.5%) – added during boil, boiled 60 min
  • .5 oz East Kent Goldings (6.5%) – added during boil, boiled 5 min
  • 1.0 ea Danstar 3767 Nottingham yeast

Process:

Steep specialty grains in 3 gallons of water for 30 min at 150 degrees. Add 1/2 LME and bring to boil. When reaching a rolling boil, add 1oz hops for 60 minutes. Add last half of LME to boil at 15 minutes. Add .5 oz hops for last 5 minutes. Cool wort and transfer to primary. Add water to top off to 5 gal. Pitch re-hydrated yeast. Ferment 57-70 degrees.

Notes:

  • Recipe based on Nutcastle Brown Ale from Brewing Classic Styles.
  • 1.10.2011 – Racked to secondary. Gravity at 1.018. Tasted really nice. Some sweetness, a nice nutty flavor and low hop. I think this will turn out really well.
  • 1.24.2011 – Bottled with 1/2 c of corn sugar. I wanted a lower carbonation. FG is still at 1.018. The target was 1.012. ABV 4.8%. Seems a bit sweet. I’m interested in seeing what it tastes like when fully carbonated and cold.
  • 2.4.2011 – Tried it for the first time. The beer was basically flat. It didn’t carbonate very well at all. I think it had a really good flavor, but the lack of carbonation was so off-putting, its hard to tell. Since I had a really slow fermentation, I wonder if it wasn’t fully bottle conditioned. Either that, or the yeast health isn’t the best. It could also be the fact I under-primed it. Anyway, I decided to move 1 six pack to a warmer room (it was bottle conditioning at about 64 F). This should speed up the bottle-conditioning, I’d hope. I also took a 1 liter bottle (screw cap) and dropped in two Coopers Carbonation Drops and screwed the cap back on. I’ll try the 1 liter and see if the extra sugar fixes the problem. I’ll also try one of the other bottles from the 6 pack and see if moving to a warmer place makes a difference.
Category: Home Brewing

Cheap Bastard Pale Ale

November 27, 2010 0

After brewing my Honey Steam, I was really craving a good ol’ American Pale Ale. I looked at several recipes, but finally settled on Liberty Pale Ale from How To Brew. From reading the forums, it sounded like it was a well liked recipe. So I went ahead and photocopied the recipe and headed to my local homebrew shop. Usually, my homebrew supplier is at the ready to swap out ingredients. But after looking over the recipe, he grabbed my stuff without any changes. I must be on the right track. I can’t wait to try it out!

I named this beer Cheap Bastard because I was a bit short on money. The ingredients only cost me $26.50. This breaks down to about 53¢ per bottle. Who said good beer has to be expensive?

BeerTools Pro Color Graphic

Cheap Bastard Pale Ale
10-A American Pale Ale
Type: Extract w/ Steeping Grains
Batch: 3
Size: 5.0 gal
Calories: 158.86 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.048 (1.045 – 1.060)
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Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 – 1.015)
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Color: 8.93 (5.0 – 14.0)
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Alcohol: 4.7% (4.5% – 6.2%)
|=========#======================|

Bitterness: 37.9 (30.0 – 45.0)
|================#===============|

Ingredients:

  • 3.25 lb CBW® Pilsen Light Liquid (Malt Extract)
  • .5 lb Crystal Malt 60°L
  • 3.25 lb CBW® Pilsen Light Liquid (Malt Extract)
  • .5 oz Northern Brewer (8.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60 min
  • .5 oz Cascade (7.3%) – added during boil, boiled 30 min
  • 1 oz Cascade (7.3%) – added during boil, boiled 15 min
  • .5 oz Cascade (7.3%) – added dry to primary fermenter
  • 1.0 ea WYeast 1056 American Ale
  • 1 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 15 min

Schedule:

Steeped the Crystal at 150 degrees in 2 gallons of water for 30 minutes, then pulled the bag. Added 3.25 lbs LME and brought to boil. Followed hop schedule. Add whirlfloc at 15 minutes. At knockout, add 3.25 LME and sit for 10 min.. Cooled wort and topped to 5 gallons. Pitched yeast.

Fermented in single vessel for 27 days at 68°.

Primed with 3/4 cup corn sugar and bottled on 12/24/2010.

Notes:

  • Recipe based on Liberty Pale Ale from How To Brew.
  • 1/1/11 – Cracked the first bottle after only 7 days conditioning. Oh, wow. That is a tasty beer. Can’t wait to see how it ages.
  • 2/5/2011 – Beer has a pretty harsh bitter at first. Maybe a bit more than I’d like. But after the first beer, you really get into it. I’d like to bump up the aroma and flavor hops, though. The body is quite nice.
Category: Home Brewing

Honey Steam

October 30, 2010 1

While browsing BYO Magazine’s recipes on their website, this Honey Steamer beer really caught my eye. I really like Blue Moon’s Honey Moon Summer Ale. So I figured I can’t go wrong with this. Plus, it would be a crowd pleaser. Especially among non-beer drinkers.

When I went to the homebrew store, the guy there pretty much swapped out my hops from what the original recipe called for. He basically said that steam beers pretty much always use Northern Brewer hops. I took his advice along with my ingredients and some locally produced honey.

BeerTools Pro Color Graphic

Honey Steam
7-B California Common Beer
Type: Extract w/ Steeping Grain
Batch: 2
Size: 5.0 gal
Calories: 227.27 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.068 (1.048 – 1.054)
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Terminal Gravity: 1.017 (1.011 – 1.014)
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Color: 6.97 (10.0 – 14.0)
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Alcohol: 6.72% (4.5% – 5.5%)
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Bitterness: 40.5 (30.0 – 45.0)
|===================#============|

Ingredients:

  • 6.5 lb CBW® Pilsen Light Liquid (Malt Extract)
  • .5 lb Crystal Malt 40°L
  • 2.5 lb Honey
  • 1.0 oz Northern Brewer (8.0%) – added during boil, boiled 55 min
  • 1.0 oz Northern Brewer (8.0%) – added during boil, boiled 10 min
  • 1.0 ea WYeast 2112 California Lager
  • 1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 10 min

Process:

Steep crystal malt in 2 gallons of cold water. Slowly bring to 170 degrees (about 20 min) and remove grain. Added honey and extract and bring to boil. Add 1oz at 55 minutes. Added hops and whirlfloc at 10 minutes. Cool wort and bring to 5 gallons. Pitch yeast. Ferment for 4 weeks at 61 degrees. Primed batch with 6oz of honey.

Notes:

Based on Honey Steamer recipe from BYO.

  • 12/11/10 – Strong honey flavor. Sweet with light hop finish. Next time I’ll reduce honey by .5 lbs. Nice flavor, but can’t drink too many.
  • 12/31/2010 – Honey flavor lightened, however still obvious. Very nice flavor and much easier to drink. Will definitely brew again with .5lbs reduce of honey.
  • 2/5/2011 – This brew is really at its prime right now. At first, the beer was too sweet. As it aged a bit, there was hot alcohol flavors, which detracted from the beer. Now it seems like its right on target. Very tasty drink.
Category: Home Brewing