Weather got cold and we got about 8 inches of snow yesterday so it was the perfect time to brew a batch. This recipe started out before as an attempt at a red ale but since I had never done one it ended up as more of a golden ale.... I now have a better recipe for a red ale but this more golden ale tastes great so I decided to brew it again.
I am doing partial mash recipes right now. I would like to step up to an all grain electric setup soon but right now I may have to wait just a bit longer. So I stick with doing a partial mash, brewing in a 5 gallon kettle and then adding two gallons of water right before I pitch the yeast in primary. The system I use works well and the beers come out great. I used 4 gallons of Eldorado Canyon water in this batch along with some filtered tap water.
I started out just before 9 AM and ended right about 5 PM. The way I do things takes quite some time but the results are there. Brought one gallon of water up to 168 degrees and then mashed in 3 pounds of Maris Otter along with one quarter pound of oats. 1/4 tsp. of pH buffer was added as well. The mash temperature is kept at right around 155 degrees. A 90 minute mash was done to extract maximum flavor since this is a partial mash recipe. I checked for conversion with iodine at the 60 minute mark and it was converted at that point.
After that I sparge into my brew kettle using a large wire mesh sieve covered in a nylon bag. The shower is created using a mug and a spoon. The water is poured from the mug onto the spoon creating a nice shower over the grain bed. Very low tech but effective. Probably sparged with about 1.75 gallons of water.
More water is added and then the temperature is raised up to 150 degrees. At that point I tie a nylon bag with the specialty grains onto a large spoon so that the bag hangs into the water (which is now actually wort). The grains I used were 1/4 pound of Carafoam, 1/4 pound of Melanoidin, 1/4 pound of Caraamber, 1/4 pound of Carared, 1 ounce of Special B and 1 ounce of Special Roast. Let those grains steep for 40 minutes. The 1/4 pound of Carafoam was an addition this time. That along with the 1/4 pound of oats. Both were not in the recipe last time around. I even threw in a bit of brown sugar when I got it close to boiling for the "Why not" factor. My recipes are always in flux and sometimes I just do whatever I feel is right in the moment.
After that I added more water and then got the temperature up to 170 degrees at which point I added in the 3.3 pounds of Muntons Light extract and one pound of Briess light DME. Now it is off to the boil.
Hop schedule was as follows:
1/2 oz. Amarillo (10.3%) for 60 minutes
1/2 0z. Tradition (7%) for 30 minutes
1/2 oz. Glacier (4.9%) for 15 minutes
1/2 oz. Srisselspalt (1.4%) for 2 minutes
Cooled in the bathtub full of cold water for one hour. Two gallons of Eldorado Canyon water added to top up to the proper line on the carboy. Pitched one 10 gram pack of Bulldog B4 English Ale Yeast. Temperature in the apartment right now is about 68 degrees and there is some good activity already this morning. Will go to secondary in 3 to 4 days, once primary crashes.
Topic: Might as well post up the recipe for a golden amber ale.... (Read 771 times)
