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

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!

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%

Here is my most recent attempt at an IPA.  I got a hold of some Centennial and some Columbus hops, which I had never tried.  I couldn’t get enough to base my IPA entirely on those hops. So you’ll see in the recipe that I use a little high alpha Nugget to get my base bittering, and I introduce a little Cascade hops in the hop schedule as well.  I used some cascade to help reinforce that traditional citrus-driven American hop profile in the brew.

You may think it strange as well that my malt base is dominated by German Pils.  The reason for that is because I was making a Kolsch at the same time and wanted to make one big mash for the two beers.  More on that in a seperate post!

Here’s the recipe:

American IPA
14-B American IPA

Size: 5.5 gal
Efficiency: 70%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Original Gravity: 1.061 (1.056 - 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.010 - 1.018)
Color: 13.3 (6.0 - 15.0)
Bitterness: 54.75 (40.0 - 60.0)

Ingredients:
11 lbs German 2-row Pils
1.0 lbs German Light Munich
1.0 lbs 2-Row Carapils® Malt
0.5 lbs Crystal Malt 120°L
0.33 oz Nugget (12.7%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
0.66 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
0.5 oz Columbus (13%) - added during boil, boiled 20 min
0.5 oz Centennial (9%) - added during boil, boiled 20 min
0.5 oz Columbus (13%) - added during boil, boiled 2 min
0.5 oz Centennial (9%) - added during boil, boiled 2 min
0.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 2 min
1 ea White Labs WLP001 California Ale
1 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min

Mash at 152F 90minutes
 

Here is one of my upcoming brews that I have planned.
A nice crisp Kölsch in time for the change of seasons into spring.

Kölsch

Batch Size: 5.5 gal
Efficiency: 70.0%

Original Gravity: 1.048
Terminal Gravity: 1.010
Color: 3.8 SRM
Alcohol: 4.98%
Bitterness: 26.23

Ingredients:
9.5 lbs German 2-row Pils
0.5 lbs Munich 10L Malt
0.5 lbs 2-Row Carapils Malt
1.5 oz Tettnanger (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
0.25 oz Tettnanger (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
2.0 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
1.0 vial White Labs WLP029 German Ale/Kölsch

Mash temp- 150F

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.29

All right. I think I gotta brew a batch for the Sam Adams Comp. I came up with this American Pale Ale recipe:

4 lbs. 4 oz. American 2-row
2 oz. American Caramel 60°L
4 oz. American Victory
3 oz. Honey Malt
3 oz. Special B Malt
3.5 lbs. Dry Extra Light Extract
.5 oz. Cluster (Pellets, 5.50 %AA) boiled 60 min.
.5 oz. Glacier (Plugs, 7.0 %AA) boiled 60 min.
.5 oz. Glacier (Plugs, 7.0 %AA) boiled 30 min.
.5 oz. Glacier (Plugs, 7.0 %AA) boiled 15 min.
.5 oz. Glacier (Plugs, 7.0 %AA) boiled 1 min.
Yeast: White Labs WLP051 California Ale V Yeast

Original Gravity: 1.054
Terminal Gravity: 1.012
Color: 8.51 °SRM
Bitterness: 37.5 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 5.50%

If you look closely at the ingredients list, you will see that I have profiled many of them in recent posts. I may need to alter some of the ingredients if I can’t get them.

I will be following a partial mash procedure for this recipe. Here is my brew log for this beer:

American Pale Ale Preparations

Checking On The Hops

Checking On The Grains

APA Brew Day