This post is less of a “How To” and more of a rant/epiphany, which is coming from a discussion I had with Mike and thoughts I have had about this subject over the past few weeks.

When I started brewing, I thought it would be fun to brew with things like Molasses and Brown Sugar…because I like the taste of both those ingredients.  They taste great in cookies and other baked goods; they should taste great in beers too.

What I didn’t initially understand was that all the sweetness in the sugars would be fermented away, leaving only flavors of the sugar cane processing. 

I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I do not like beers brewed with brown sugar.  I’ve made brown ales and Old Peculiar clones and they have a cidery, winey flavor…and not in a good way.

Molasses has had the same effect on the beers that I have brewed. 

I have had good experience with maple syrup, but the maple porter recipe I came up with needs some modifications. 

I think the next sugar to try will be honey.  I have had great beers brewed with honey.

There must be a correlation between sugars with a large amount of unfermentatbles and weird flavors. 

What is Lawnmower Beer?
Well it’s not really a recognized style of beer, but more a moniker for the type of beers that are light, crisp and have a mild flavor. There are many different styles that already fit the bill. However many people associate a simple malt bill with some adjunct sugars to dry out the finished product.

Now you might be thinking about the big nationally recognized brewers, but it is possible to brew something just as satisfying at home. More importantly, as an ale!!!

The approach I like to take with lawnmower beers is to keep the flavors clean and simple. Using a good neutral ale yeast makes for and easy ferment, and a quicker turnaround time than if you tried to brew up a lager. I like using American Ale yeast for this. I especially like to use a repitched slurry of fermentis US-05 from a previous beer. Even though this is a dry yeast, it seems to perform unbelievably well on a second pitch. If you can’t plan a brew session when you have this yeast ready, then either make a starter with some White Labs WLP001, or go ahead and pitch two packages of the US-05 (after proper rehydration of course).

Here is another quick and easy light summer beer recipe to continue our trend as summer rounds the bend. Enjoy!

LAWNMOWER BEER

5 Gallon Batch
OG 1045-1050

6.6 lbs light malt extract (2 cans)
1 lb Rice Syrup Solids
1 oz Styrian Goldings (5%AA)- 60 minute boil
American Ale Yeast of choice (I prefer US-05)

Focus on keeping your fermentation under 70F and above 65F. Break out the old “swamp cooler” and that should help you manage your temps.

These summer beer recipes are short and sweet. I’d rather spend my time enjoying good beer on a hot summer day, than brewing it.

Another recipe for our Summer Beer series comes to us from Allagash Brewing in Portland, Maine.

I really love the light and citrusy flavor of this beer.  A good friend on the Brewing Knowledge Base forum (BKB for short) gave me this clone recipe for Allagash White. (Thanks again to ”Dartgod”)

Allagash White is one of the greatest everyday drinking beers available.  Living in New England, I am fortunate to have access to a ready supply of this beer.  However, I am going to try my hand at brewing this one very soon.  I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do.

Allagash White Clone

16-A Witbier

Size: 6.5 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Original Gravity: 1.045 (1.044 - 1.052)
Terminal Gravity: 1.011 (1.008 - 1.012)
Color: 3.3 (2.0 - 4.0)
Alcohol: 4.37% (4.5% - 5.5%)
Bitterness: 21.76 (10.0 - 20.0)

Ingredients:
6.75 lbs Pilsner Malt
4.25 lbs German Wheat Malt Light
0.98 oz Tettnanger (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
0.32 oz Saaz (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
0.32 oz Saaz (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1 min
0.3 oz Coriander crushed - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
0.3 oz Ginger (fresh) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
0.3 oz Bitter Curacao/Bitter Orange (Peel) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
1.0 ea White Labs WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale
-OR-
1.0 ea White Labs WLP410 Belgian Wit II Ale

Mash in at 152F
Ferment at 65F
Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.29

Inevitably when we dream of great summer beers we start to think of FRUIT BEERS!

A good lawnmower beer is a great beer to have on a hot day after working in the yard or playing with the dog.  However, when the temperature climbs a little touch of fruit in a well made crisp beer can really slake the thirst… and keep you coming back for more.

Getting fruit into your beer can come in three general ways: Raw fruit purchased fresh, fruit flavored extracts, or prepackaged fruit products.  Each one has its pros and cons.

Raw Fruit:
If you are fortunate to live in an area with a unique source of fruit in ample supply there can be great pride taken in making your own beer with local produce.  Depending on location you can often get raw fruit at the peak of freshness for maximum impact on the beer.  The down side to natural raw fruit is that from a beer stand point it is dirty.  If you want to keep wild yeasts and bacteria out of your precious brew this can be a challenge with raw fruit.  Secondly, the fruit likely needs to be processed in some way, such as a food processor or other mechanical mashing, to release its goodness into the beer.

Fruit Extracts:
The largest advantage that extracts have is the extremely low likely hood of a microbial contamination. These things are often made as alcohol based extractions of fruit flavors and they are easily filtered free of microbes.  Second to that is the ease of use.  You can easily control the amount of flavor you get by adding a little at a time to a keg or bottling bucket.  Just add an ounce at a time, stir and taste.  When its just right you are done.  The disadvantage with extracts is that many people complain they tend to taste like….extracts.  Something is just missing from the flavor profile that you can only get with fresh fruit.

Prepackaged Fruit Products:
Namely I am referring here to fruit purees.  With these products you get the advantage of whole fruit fully processed to expose the fruity characters and you get cutting edge packaging and handling technology.  Many fruit purees are flash pasteurized so the microbial contamination issue is eliminated.  The only minor disadvantage is how much to add.  You’ll need to add a puree in a secondary fermentor like you would raw fruit and let it ferment out to prevent overly carbonated beers at bottling time.

Overall, I think that Fruit Purees are the way to go.  You get pre-processed fruit that is sterile and packaged at its peak of freshness.

A common variety is the Oregon Fruit Products brand.  I have seen these a many a homebrew shop.  So give them a try next time you are looking for a fruit addition.  I know the next Strawberry Wheat I make, I am going to try it out.

Brew On!

Summer is on the way and its time to start thinking about your favorite thirst quencher.
In the summer, wheat beers are probably one of the most popular brews to start with.  This recipe is about as easy as it gets.  The beauty of doing a good wheat is that quality results lie in your process, not so much in your recipe.

All the experts agree that fermenting your Weizen at 62F to 65F degrees gives you the best ratio of banana to clove and keeps a lot of the harsher phenols and alcohols under control.  Be sure to pitch a large enough and healthy starter with this one.  Don’t skimp on the aeration or oxygenation as well.

Here is my basic wheat to get you started:

EASY SUMMER WHEAT
Batch size: 5 gallons
O.G.: 1.049
IBUs: 12-14

6.6lbs LME Wheat extract
0.85 oz Tettnager hop pellets (4.5%AA), 60 minute addition
WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale yeast

Boil the hops with the extract for 60 minutes.  Chill quickly to pitching temps and add yeast starter.  This beer should ferment out rather quickly and be ready for the bottle within 10-12 days if your yeast was fresh.

You can go from brewing to drinking with this one in about 3 weeks. 

For variation, you can steep in some light crystal malts, or some American Victory malt if you want a more complex malt character.  I’d suggest you stick with the base recipe, at least for a first pass to see how the flavors evolve.  The key difference in this beer brewer to brewer will be the brand of Wheat LME you purchase, they all have different color ratings, and different wheat to base malt ratios.  So maybe some experimentation will be needed with different brands if the beer isn’t exactly what you are looking for.

Remember that even though the recipe is simple, be vigilant with your fermentation process to get the right flavor profile.

Brew on!

Just got this email from some guy named Samuel Adams:

Hello Homebrewers,

Your entries in the 2008 Samuel Adams American Homebrew Contest® - LongShot have been pouring into the drop locations. Unfortunately the entry window closes today (May 1st).

Please do not fret if your status on the website still reads as "pending". Our good friends at Beer, Beer, & More Beer in California, Two Brother's Brewing in Chicago, and the Samuel Adams Brewery in Boston are hard at work opening the boxes, sorting the entries, and logging them into the system.

We're hoping to have all entries logged over the next few days but his process may take a week or so due to the volume of entries. Once your entry is processed into the system, you will receive an automatic email notifying you of your status.

Please know that your beers will be handled and stored with the same quality of care that you put into brewing them. First round judging events will take place throughout the month of May and into early June. You will receive your score sheets a few weeks after that.

We're looking forward to tasting your beer! Good luck and happy homebrewing!

My brews are in and the status has changed from “Pending” to “Received” for both.

Brew On!

Summer’s (almost?) here and the time is right…for brewing in the street….or at least outside. Ok, that was just awful. Warm temperatures mean BBQs and beers for thirst quenching. We have a whole bunch of recipes queued up for the upcoming days of summer. I am starting it off with a summer ale recipe.

Ingredients:

5.5 lbs Dry Extra Light Malt Extract
0.5 lbs Cara-Pils Malt
0.25 lbs Wheat Malt
0.25 lbs Munich Malt
0.5 oz of Chinook Hops pellets (boiled at 60 mins)
0.5 oz of Sterling Hops pellets (boiled at 15 mins)
0.5 oz of Sterling Hops pellets (boiled at 5 mins)
1.0 oz lemon zest (boiled at 5 mins)
0.25 oz to 0.5 oz ginger root (boiled at 5 mins)
Yeast: White Labs WLP008 East Coast Ale Yeast

Step by Step:

Steep Munich, Wheat, and Cara-Pils malt in 2 gallons of 150F water for 45 minutes. Add to boil with Malt Extract and Chinook hops. Add first addition of Sterling hops at 15 mins. Add lemon zest, ginger root (I would grate it first), and second addition of Sterling hops.

Cool wort to 70F, pitch yeast, and ferment for two weeks, maintaining 70F temp.

OG: 1.053
FG: 1.012
Color: 4.13 SRM
Bitterness: 35.1 IBU
Alcohol (% by volume): 5.4%