#20: Truly Triple-Hopped Lite Beer

Decided I'd take a crack at my "lawnmower" beer. Went really simple, with no grain steep (primarily b/c I didn't have any on hand). When I went to the LHBS, they had the Munton's American Style Light Beer HME on clearance for cheaper than LME, so I used that as the base. Used the standard Munton's yeast that came with that.

As for hops, I kept the hop bitterness levels pretty low for me, hitting 28 IBU per QBrew (I bumped the boil time of the hops around in QBrew related to the Munton's kit until it hit the estimate on the can). That's a bit high for American Light style I would say, but of course, the kit itself was higher than American Light style (18-25 IBU stated on the can). I hadn't used Argentine Cascade or Liberty before, but after reading I thought they would compliment all right. Argentine Cascade have "a very mellow and sweet character that reminds us of lemon grass, with herbal, peppery, and spicy undertones," while Liberty "are noble in their aroma and flavor profile; mild, pleasant, with some spiciness." Interesting... I guess we'll see how they play together... That is the most interesting part of this hobby for me.

The HME that was supposed to be 6 gallon, so I decided to stay somewhat true to that and split 5ish gallons between 2 Mr.B kegs (2.4 each), and the remainder went into my 1 gallon cube fermenter.

As I was trying to stay somewhat in style, I was targeting the Miller Lite ABV of 4.2%. QBrew says that's what I'm targeting, and the OG met what QBrew stated, so all is good on that front. Color should be pretty good as well (3 per QBrew).

Actually Triple-Hopped Lite Beer
------------------------
Style: Lite American Lager
Batch: 5.50 galExtract

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.043 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 28 IBU
Recipe Color: 3° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.011
Alcohol by Volume: 4.2%
Alcohol by Weight: 3.3%

Ingredients
-----------
Briess LME - Pilsen Light 3.30 lb, Extract, Extract
Muntons Premium HME - American Style Light
3.30 lb, Extract, Extract

Cascade (Argentine) 0.25 oz, Pellet, 20 minutes
Liberty 0.25 oz, Pellet, 20 minutes
Liberty 0.25 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes
Muntons Premium HME - American Style Light
1.00 oz, Pellet, 30 minutes
Cascade (Argentine) 0.25 oz, Pellet, dryhop

Muntons Ale yeast 1.00 unit, Yeast,

#19: Amarillo Pale Ale

Water supplies are starting to level off here in the rural areas, so I figured it was time to get the last fermenter in action. Pipeline didn't miss a beat...

Wanted to go for something in the spirit of Yazoo's Pale Ale (formerly known as Amarillo Pale Ale). Something in the APA style instead of my usual hop bombs, but still with some hop bite. The odd DME combo was basically clearing out some odds and ends.

Amarillo Pale Ale
-----------------
Style: American Pale Ale
Batch: 2.40 galExtract

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.056 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 36 IBU
Recipe Color: 11° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.014
Alcohol by Volume: 5.4%
Alcohol by Weight: 4.3%

Ingredients
-----------
Biscuit malt 0.50 lb, Grain, Steeped
Muntons DME - Amber 1.00 lb, Extract, Extract
Muntons DME - Light 1.50 lb, Extract, Extract
Briess DME - Golden Light 0.30 lb, Extract, Extract

Amarillo 0.13 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Perle 0.13 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Cascade 0.13 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Amarillo 0.13 oz, Pellet, 20 minutes
Perle 0.13 oz, Pellet, 20 minutes
Cascade 0.13 oz, Pellet, 20 minutes
Amarillo 0.13 oz, Pellet, 10 minutes
Perle 0.13 oz, Pellet, 10 minutes
Cascade 0.13 oz, Pellet, 10 minutes
Amarillo 0.13 oz, Pellet, dryhop
Perle 0.13 oz, Pellet, dryhop
Cascade 0.13 oz, Pellet, dryhop

US-05 Ale yeast 1.00 unit, other

#17: Fat Belgian Amber Ale

I found that an old friend had gotten a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas, and had thus far done one straight up Mr. Beer extract brew. Knowing that he is a huge fan of Fat Tire, and liking the thought of having someone just around the corner doing this as well, I tempted him with the Fat Belgian (Fat Tire clone) extract kit from Rebel.

Here's the general ingredients for a 5 gallon (that we will be splitting between two Mr. B kegs), based on BYO's recipe which is based on discussions and hints from New Belgian's brewmaster...

3.3 lbs. light LME
2 lbs. light DME 

0.50 lb. crystal 20

0.50 lb. crystal 40
0.50 lb. carapils malt
0.50 lb. Munich malt
0.50 lb. biscuit malt
0.50 lb. chocolate malt

Hops:
3 AAUs Willamette pellet hops (0.66 oz. at 4.5% alpha acid) - 60 min
1.33 AAUs Fuggle pellet hops (0.8 oz. at 4% alpha acid) - 10 min
2 AAUs Fuggle pellet hops (0.8 oz. at 4% alpha acid) - 3 min

1 tsp. Irish moss
Wyeast 1056

NOTE:  This brewday was done just at the start of the Nashville Flood of 2010.  By the time we were done, things were looking pretty dicey outside.  Just a wild day...