#28: Chirp! Red Ale

It's football time! My (and David Letterman's) beloved Fighting Football Fighting Cardinals, they of the perfect regular season and BCS run two years ago, and the disastrous fall from grace (and embarrassing 2-10 record) last year (after darn near everyone of importance graduated, got injured, bolted for the NFL, or bolted for bigger conferences in the case of the coaching staff) are ready to take the field on Thursday. Thus, I'm about a week or two behind on my tailgate beer. I'll be making my appearance at the 'Scheu in mid September, so this beer may be a touch young, but I think it'll be OK.

Why Chirp!? Of course because the 3rd down defensive stand chant of the Nest is the intimidating Chirp!

What better to make to drink when celebrating the red and black? Why... a red ale, of course... Note that this is loosely based on a Killian's clone recipe I found, so it's not a traditional Irish red but closer to the thinner Americanized version. A partial mash with the corn and grains, but otherwise pretty standard.

This'll be bottled exclusively into plastic 16oz bottles. Gotta observe the proper tailgate rules... 

Chrip! Red Ale
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Style: Generic Ale
Batch: 2.40 galExtract

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.056 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 20 IBU
Recipe Color: 17° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.014
Alcohol by Volume: 5.6 %
Alcohol by Weight: 4.5 %

Ingredients
-----------
Briess DME - Golden Light 0.50 lb, Extract, Extract
Briess LME - Pilsen Light 3.30 lb, Extract, Extract
CaraMunich 0.50 lb, Grain, Mashed
Crystal 120L 0.50 lb, Grain, Mashed
Flaked Corn 0.50 lb, Adjunct, Mashed

Kent Goldings (U.K.) 0.50 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Kent Goldings (U.K.) 0.25 oz, Pellet, 15 minutes

s-04 dry yeast 1.00 unit, Other,
Whirfloc 0.50 unit, Fining, 15 min

NOTE:  This beer ended up being a very tasty unintentional sour.  Not sure what happened, but I got the right kind of bugs into it.  Wish I could recreate it....

#27: Amarillo Wheat Ale

Used up a final can of Mr. B extract in this wheat beer.  Took BYO's Gumballhead recipe and modded it to account for the HME.  Came out quite good, though I underdid the wheat.  I plan to do this one again...

Amarillo Wheat Ale

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Brewer: swenocha

Style: Weizen/Weissbier

Batch: 2.40 galExtract

Characteristics

---------------

Recipe Gravity: 1.050 OG

Recipe Bitterness: 27 IBU

Recipe Color: 10° SRM

Estimated FG: 1.012

Alcohol by Volume: 4.8%

Alcohol by Weight: 3.8%

Ingredients

-----------

CaraVienne 0.50 lb, Grain, Steeped

Briess DME - Golden Light 0.70 lb, Extract, Extract

Briess LME - Bavarian Wheat 1.00 lb, Extract, Extract

MrB. Whispering Wheat Weizenbier1.21 lb, Extract, Extract

Amarillo 0.12 oz, Pellet, 30 minutes

Amarillo 0.12 oz, Pellet, 15 minutes

Amarillo 0.25 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes

MrB. Whispering Wheat Weizenbier1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes

Amarillo 0.50 oz, Pellet, 1 minutes

Amarillo 1.00 oz, Pellet, 0 minutes

#24: IPA6

Wanted to get something in the last fermenter today, and after some debate, I decided to find out if I properly harvested the Torpedo IPA yeast from my last IPA. I've been on an English Ale kick of late, so this may be the last IPA for a while, as I have several English ales spec'd out and am anxious to get going on them.

I had some chinook, which is a hop that I haven't used yet but was really interested in using. It is described as "medium, spicy, piney, distinctive grapefruit." Sounds right up my alley. Everything else is a scrap of leftover items from previous brews, including an extra can of ADIPA and a bag o' Booster.

No grains on hand today, so straight to the DME/hop boil, making it a pretty quick brew evening.

Here's the recipe:

IPA6
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Style: American IPA
Batch: 2.40 galExtract

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.056 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 71 IBU
Recipe Color: 10° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.014
Alcohol by Volume: 5.4%
Alcohol by Weight: 4.3%

Ingredients
-----------
Briess LME - Golden Light 1.50 lb, Extract, Extract
MrB. American Devil IPA 1.21 lb, Extract, Extract
MrB. Booster 0.81 lb, Sugar, Other

Chinook 0.33 oz, Pellet, 30 minutes
Simcoe 0.10 oz, Pellet, 30 minutes
Chinook 0.33 oz, Pellet, 20 minutes
Simcoe 0.15 oz, Pellet, 20 minutes
Chinook 0.33 oz, Pellet, 10 minutes
MrB. American Devil IPA 1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes

Torpedo IPA yeast 1.00 unit, Yeast

#21: Next IPA

I had a wonderful IPA yeast on hand from one of our board mates, and conveniently the IPA pipeline is almost dried up, so here's the result of the itch to get something in the fermenter: in-progress name of next IPA.

Got some hops I haven't played with before (Pacific Jade and Simcoe), so I did some modifications on the CloneBrew Green Flash West Coast IPA recipe, changing it up to use some leftover DME from previous brews (which will make mine more amber than the original recipe), and subbing in the Pacific Jade for Columbus (which I didn't have on hand).

Next IPA
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\Style: Imperial IPA
Batch: 2.40 galPartial Mash

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.072 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 94 IBU
Recipe Color: 12° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.018
Alcohol by Volume: 7.0%
Alcohol by Weight: 5.5%

Ingredients
-----------
Biscuit (Belgian) 0.25 lb, Grain, Steeped
CaraPils 0.25 lb, Grain, Steeped
Crystal 20L 0.25 lb, Grain, Steeped

Amber DME 2.00 lb, Extract, Extract
Muntons DME - Light 1.50 lb, Extract, Extract

Pacific Jade 0.33 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Simcoe 0.50 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
Centennial 0.25 oz, Pellet, 15 minutes
Simcoe 0.25 oz, Pellet, 15 minutes
Cascade 0.25 oz, Pellet, 1 minutes
Centennial 0.25 oz, Pellet, 1 minutes
Cascade 0.25 oz, Pellet, dryhop
Centennial 0.25 oz, Pellet, dryhop

Irish Moss 1.00 unit, Fining, 
Maltodextrin 1.00 unit, Other, 
Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA 1.00 unit, Yeast,

Notes
-----
Recipe Notes:
steep grains for 30 minutes at 155. 
add malt extracts and boil the schedule.
Cool, pitch, etc. as per normal

#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...