I was thinking of making up some “fruited” wheats in the next go around of the mash tun.

I love trying to maximize my return in the brewhouse for the amount of work I put in, also while learning something in the process of each style I brew.  To that end, I think I am going to brew up a large batch of wheat style beer and split it into several fermenters for fruit additions in secondary.  Something along the line of an American Wheat (50/50 barley/wheat) with a simple hopping schedule.  This time though I think I want to use traditional American ale yeast like WLP001 or US-05.  I’ve never brewed a wheat beer without the contributing flavors of wheat yeasts, so now is the time to learn what wheat tastes like on its own (see, that’s the learning part!).

With my current setup, I think I can mash in a batch and collect about 14 gallons of wort, boil it down to about 12.5 gallons, then split it into three 4 gallon batches.  I’ll ferment them all with the same yeast strain.  Once done I plan to secondary two of them with fruit (strawberry and blueberry) and the third I leave plain for comparison as a base beer.  I am anxious to try the fruit purees I had talked about in an earlier post.

I realized too that blending the finished beers from the bottle might be interesting too. Like a 50/50 strawberry/blueberry mix.

I’ve got to go plan the ingredient list, but hopefully I can fire these brews off soon.
I’ll post the recipe and hopefully some pics of the process.

Cheers!

Light and crisp; American Cream Ale is a great light, no-frills beer to make for the summer. Done right, it will rival all the American Lagers your swill drinking friends drink and you’ll be making yourself on the cheap. The best part of American Cream Ale is that it is an ale!!!! You don’t need to lager or cold ferment which takes a dedicated fridge to do it right.

Fire up the brew kettles and give this Cream Ale a shot. I modified the recipe from Jamil’s “Brewing Classic Styles” to use Nobel Saaz hops. I wanted it to have a little more of that European lager like quality to confuse my light beer drinking friends and family (Oh you know who you are). The key to brewing a great cream ale is the neutral qualities of American Ale yeast. I use US-05 dry yeast from Fermentis, but I used it from a slurry off a previous beer. I love that yeast as a second pitch yeast. It is so clean. Much cleaner than I have ever gotten out of a White Labs WLP001 from a starter. (though I am sure that repitching WLP001 if you have it would be just as clean). Focus on a good pitch of super healthy yeast and your Cream ale will be so clean and crisp, you’ll probably brew it several times a year just to slake your thirst.

Mike’s All-grain American Cream Ale Recipe

BJCP Style 6A

Size: 6.0 gal
Efficiency: 70.0%
Attenuation: 80.0%
Original Gravity: 1.052
Terminal Gravity: 1.010
Color: 3.3
Alcohol: 5.5%
Bitterness: 17.85

Ingredients:
5 lbs Pilsner Malt
5 lbs 2-Row Brewers Malt
1 lbs Corn Flaked (Maize)
1 lbs White Table Sugar (Sucrose)
0.85 oz Saaz (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
0.5 oz Saaz (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 2 min
2 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1 ea Fermentis US-05
Mash In -152 °F

John’s Partial Mash Cream Ale Recipe

4 lbs. American 2-row Pale
0.25 lbs. American Caramel 10°L
3 lbs. Dry Extra Light Extract
0.50 lbs. Flaked Corn
0.5 oz. Cluster Pellets boiled 60 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade Pellets boiled 15 min.
WYeast 1056 American Ale

Check out the cream ale brewing notes on this partial mash recipe.

The gang attended the American Craft Beer Fest and enjoyed what we expect to be the first annual great, East Coast brew festival. It was held at Seaport World Trade Center in Boston, MA.

Here are some photos:

There were many great beers to be sampled at the American Craft Beer Fest, held by the great guys at BeerAdvocate. There were approximately 75 breweries representing coast to coast brews. I go to as many fests as I can and this one was one of the best. Here are my key highlights:

1. Pre-entry line was a bit odd at first, but once we were in it made total sense. They had ID checkers and “braceleteers” working from the front of the line to the back of the line while we waited. This made getting into the fest very quick once they opened the doors.
2. The first thing I noticed once we were in the convention center was a blast of cold air from the AC units. That was a very nice surprise, they seemed to have gotten the jump in the climate control, because all night long the air was warm but not annoyingly so. Other fests that I have been to indoors usually end up being a sweat-lodge by the time its over.
3. The center floor was carpeted. This was a total surprise. It really was nice on the feet and back after a while. Really helped to quiet things down some too I am sure. I’m glad I do not have to wash those carpets, but surprisingly I didn’t see too many beer stains in the carpet so maybe spillage was kept to a minimum.
4. The organizers had several “port-o-lets” to keep beer recycling time to a minimum. I am sure that “port-o-lets” are not everyone’s favorites, but it made life so easy and quick. I think it was a good set up.

The only real detractor was the food! The convention center in-house vendor must have exclusive rights to the food station by contract. Otherwise, I would have expected the normal top notch eats from Sunset Grille which is usually at the BA fests. (AND NO SUGAR HAUS WAFFLES!!!!)

Anyhow, who cares about that stuff…what about the beer?!? Well, I tried close to 20 different brews (not even 10% of the total, very sad). I actually kept score (sort of) and tabulated a list of the beers I had below. Surprisingly the best beers of the show for me were three sour beers. Two from the local Cambridge Brewing Company and one from Dogfish Head. These three beers were just great. Or at least the greatest beers of the bunch. Is there a sour beer in my future brewing??? Maybe. Last Summer I had a great Berliner Weisse at Boston Beer Works and I have thought about it ever since. I’ll have to do a little more research into the methods of souring a beer and see what I’d like to try out.

Here is my tally sheet of the beers I tried. I list the brewery, the beer name and a score based out of 5. I view a three as drinkable but not something I would seek out commercially. Granted a 2.0oz pour isn’t really a great way to get to know a beer. But I think my little score sheet has some nice trends to it. (I seem to have given the next best rankings to the few rye beers I tried).

I’d be interesting in comparing notes if anyone else was at the fest.

We love social networks and we just joined another one: 

The ALEuminati

It is the not so secret society of better beer drinkers.

Because of social networks like these, we might be able to drink beer with other people than just the regular ol’ gang. 

Not saying anything’s wrong with the good old gang…just saying anything that can bring more people closer can’t be a bad thing. 

With Mike constantly refining his Oatmeal Stout recipe, he came to a conclusion about Roasted Barley.  He feels that this ingredient should be the main contributor of the dark color and roasty flavor to his beer and that he should eliminate Black Patent Malt from his recipe.  

Note that I wrote “ingredient” and not malt…since Roasted Barley is not malt.  It’s unmalted barley and does not have enzymes that are in malt that convert starch to sugar.  It is roasted until it turns the targeted color…which I think is right before it turns to ash.

Flavor: Roasty (natch), Intensely bitter, coffee notes, dry

Color: I have seen a range of 300 to 660 (!) Lovibond.  I think I will stick with a tighter range of 350 - 400 L

Body: I don’t think it modifies a beer’s body in a significant way.

Use: Stouts, primarily dry stouts.  Used in small amounts, it will add complexity to porters, nut brown ale, and other dark beers.

I reread Mike’s post on brewing fruit beers and I dreamt up this all grain blueberry ale recipe that balances sweet (from the malt), spicy (from the hops), and tart (from the berries) flavors into one beer. You’ll need a secondary fermenter for this recipe.

Ingredients:

8 lbs. American 2-row
0.25 lbs. Honey Malt
0.75 lbs. German Vienna Malt
0.50 oz. Perle (Pellets, 8.25 %AA) boiled 60 min.
0.50 oz. Saaz (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 15 min.
2.5 lbs Oregon Fruit Puree - Blueberry
Yeast: White Labs WLP051 California Ale V

Instructions:

Mash grain at 150 degrees for 1 hour. Boil for 60 minutes and ferment at 68 degrees for 2 weeks. Add fruit puree to secondary fermenter and rack beer on top of it. Let beer condition for 1 week. Bottle or rack to a keg for another 2 weeks of conditioning.

Original Gravity: 1.047
Final Gravity: 1.010
Color: 4.69 °SRM
Bitterness: 21.5 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 4.8 %

I have had my eye on Magnum hops since I brewed my APA.  That beer was an experiment in Glacier hops, which made a pleasant, balanced beer.  After tasting it, my thoughts turned to finding a good bittering hop to use for another APA trial.  After conducting research on Magnum hops, I think I might have found it.

Origin: Originally Germany.  From the sources I read, the Magnum hop variety was bred at the Hop Research Center at Huell in Germany.  I think what we American homebrewers will find are US grown Magnum hops, which sometimes get the Yakima Magnum moniker.  It is derived from Galena, although there were some opposing views (Hallertau was also mentioned as a parent hop)

Aroma: Most sources had no real comments about this hop variety’s aroma, so I am thinking it has a nice, nobel aroma.  Pleasant, not pungent.

Alpha Acid: Between 12 and 14%

Typical Usage: That high alpha acid and lack of a strong aroma makes Magnum a great bittering hop.

Beer Styles: I would say good for Pales and IPAs.  Because of its heritage, and clean bittering power, it probably work for German lagers.