Easy Ordinary Bitter

Sometimes you sit down for your evening brew and notice that your crate of full bottles has somehow turned into a crate mostly of empty bottles. You realize that even with careful rationing, you may only make it about 2 weeks, maybe 2 and a half, before you don't have any evening brews anymore.

In these situations, swift, decisive action will carry the day. you can't always afford a full 6-8 hour brew schedule and a month of fermentation. So it's useful to have an easy extract recipe on hand that's simple, consistent, and will top up your stores.

So this is my very basic adaptation of Papazian's "Palace Bitter" recipe. The use of extract eliminates the time-consuming mash step as well as the full-volume boil--which also saves time during the cooling step because you can add the hot wort to cold water and greatly reduce chill times. Here's how the recipe goes:

Easy Ordinary Bitter

Grain/Extract Bill:
5 pounds Munton's Amber Dry Malt Extract
1/2 pound 40 Lovibond Crystal Malt (for steeping)

Mash Schedule:
Bring 3 gallons of water to approximately 150 degrees F. Steep 1/2 pound of 40L Crystal malt for about a half hour. (To avoid having to strain, you can use a steeping bag. Just make sure to squeeze out all the malty goodness when you remove it.)

Hop Schedule:
1 oz Cluster Pellets (7.4% Alpha Acid) 60 minutes
1/2 oz Nelson Sauvin (14.6% Alpha Acid) at flameout, before chilling

Yeast:
1 package US-05 dry American ale yeast combined with 1 package S-04 dry English ale yeast, rehydrated.

Fermented for one week in primary, then bottled with 3/4 cup of corn sugar for natural carbonation.

Original Gravity: 1.0489
Final Gravity: 1.011
Approximate ABV; 5%
IBU: 26.5

Review:
This beer is orangey-pale in color with a nice, rocky head. It smells yeasty with a hint of something that reminds me of honeydew.  It is quenching and light-bodied, with a touch of oatmeal sweetness grounded in sturdy hop bitterness. It's an easy beer to make and to drink...good for drinking with food or for the removing of edges.

Amber Ale

This week, I'm presenting the recipe and review for one of my very own beers. If you happen to be into the ancient and wonderful art of zymurgy, then feel free to give the recipe a go. Let me know how it turns out.

Amber Ale

Batch size: 5 gallons

Grain bill:
5 pounds Pale Malt
5 pounds Vienna Malt
2 pounds Victory Malt
2 pounds Malted Wheat

Mash Schedule: 90 minute, single-infusion mash at a temperature of 152°F with a mash ratio of 1 quart of water per pound of grain.

Hop Schedule:
1 oz Cristal Pellet Hops (10% Alpha Acid) 90 minutes.
1/2 oz Falconer's Flight pellets (5% Alpha Acid) 90 minutes
1/2 oz Falconer's Flight pellets (5% Alpha Acid) steeped for 10 minutes at flame-out, before chilling.

Yeast:
1 package US-05 dry American ale yeast combined with 1 package S-04 dry English ale yeast, rehydrated.

Fermented for one week in primary, then transferred to a secondary fermenter and conditioned for two weeks before bottling with 3/4 cup of corn sugar for natural carbonation.

Original Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity: 1.0128
Approximate ABV; 6%
IBU: 51.7

Review:
This beer looks like: a nice, somewhat murky (on account of the wheat) amber color. Exhibits a fairly dense, white head with decent retention.

...smells like: pine needles, with a little bit of pineapple and a hint of yeasty funk from the English ale yeast.

...tastes like: a mild hop bitterness with a bit of a grassy character at first, but smooths out into a nice malty character with a crisp mouthfeel.

...is ultimately like: a beer that's good and drinkable, just how I like it.

Odell IPA

I've been meaning for a while now to shamelessly rip off Randroid's awesome beer reviews. I find them quite interesting, being as I like beer more than most other beverages, and there are so many beers out there to try. So today I'm going to kick off what I hope will become a regular tribute to the genre with the Odell IPA.

From Odell's website:

"We took the traditional IPA, originally shipped from England to India in the 1700′s, and made it bolder and more flavorful – American Style. We’ve added new varieties of highly aromatic American hops to create a distinctive bitterness profile and an incredible hop character. 7.0%Alc. by Vol     60IBUs"

This beer looks like: a lovely orange gold color with a rocky, thick, white head.

...smells like: the first part of how a melon smells combined centaur-style with the second part of what a freshly opened orange smells like. So smells like a melange of melorange.

...tastes like: bitter citrus peal at first, like a dry, lemony taste. The malt flavor is crisp and clean with a medium body that makes this beer really satisfying. It finishes with a pleasant, mild bitterness.

...is ultimately like: a very balanced beer, especially for an American-style IPA. The hops are very judiciously blended here with bright bitterness and flavor and an enlivening aroma. A little trecherous, though, because the easy-drinking flavor belies the rather stiff 7% ABV. All in all, it's a killer quaff.

Got any favorites of your own? Crack one open and comment below.