Brisby's Blond Ale

Brisby? Mrs. Johnathan Brisby?

After a while, it gets boring naming your French and Belgian beers after types of mice, so I thought I'd name this one after one of my favorite mice in literature. This is a Belgian blond that is going to be brewed for the Brewer's Heritage Festival on June 11th and 12th in Forrest Park. Last year's ale went very quickly and so I hope this one will be just as popular.

Malt bill:

9.5 lb Briess Brewers 2-row Malt

0.5 lb Briess White Wheat Malt

0.5 lb DeWolf-Cosyns Aromatic

1 lb Cane sugar

Hops bill:

2.5 oz Styrian Golding (2.6% AA, Pellet) @ 60 min.

Yeast: WhiteLabs WLP530 Abbey Ale

Spiced with:

0.5 oz crushed coriander, 0 minutes

0.5 tsp Grains of paradise, 0 minutes

0.25 oz Curacao (sweet) orange peel, 0 minutes

0.25 oz Valencia (bitter) orange peel, 0 minutes

OG: 1.068

FG: 1.015

ABV: 7.2%

IBU: 23

SRM: 5

Aye Aye, Cap'n Cream Ale

We'll call this the first of my whimsical brews, even though it may never get made.

This is built off the same basic recipe as the Dirty Cow Farmhouse Ale, but using *defatted Cap'n Crunch for the flaked corn.

4 lbs. 2-row malt

4 lbs. pilsner malt

1.5 lbs. *defatted Original Cap'n Crunch

.5 Caramel 20L

.5 oz Northern Brewer ( 8.0% AA, Pellet) at 60 min.

.5 oz Saaz ( 4.0% AA, Whole) at 10 min.

WLP029 German Ale/Kolsch

This is a guess...

OG: 1.053

FG: 1.012

ABV: 5.5%

IBU: 22

SRM: 4

*Defatting the Cap'n Crunch is basically smashing it into little pieces and pressing it between paper towel. The Cap'n is loaded with coconut oil, which doesn't make for good beer.

Ingredients for Original Cap'n Crunch.

CORN FLOUR, SUGAR, OAT FLOUR, BROWN SUGAR, COCONUT OIL, SALT, NIACINAMIDE*, YELLOW 5, REDUCED IRON, ZINC OXIDE, YELLOW 6, THIAMIN MONONITRATE*, BHT (A PRESERVATIVE), PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE*, RIBOFLAVIN*, FOLIC ACID*.

*ONE OF THE B VITAMINS.

Ploughman's Ale

This ale is somewhere between a Kölsch and a Northern German Alt. It's slightly darker than a Kölsch, but not as dark as an alt. This is also a SMaSH beer meaning single-malt, single-hop.

I want this beer to be crisp and clean with a little more hop bite than the typical Kölsch.

On to the recipe.

Malt bill:

9 lb Briess Vienna Malt

Hops bill:

1 oz Tettnang(US) (5% AA, Pellet) @ 60 min.

1 oz Tettnang(US) (5% AA, Pellet) @ 15 min.

Yeast: WhiteLabs WLP029 German Ale/Kolsch

OG: 1.047

FG: 1.010

ABV: 4.8

IBU: 34

SRM: 6

Brewing the Stove Top

It was fun. Small scale brewing might just be my new thing. It'll certainly due in a pinch.

Here's a pictorial account of my process.

1. Heat up water to ~155

2. Crush the specialty grain with a meat tenderizer. (This leads to a pretty inconsistent crush, but I just need color and flavor.)

3. Add the crushed grain directly to the warmed water without using a grain bag. This is the similar to the difference between tea bags and loose leaf tea. The picture below shows the steeped grain liquid after full absorption of water in the grain.

4. After 20 minutes or so, I strained the weak wort into a larger kettle.

5. Once the wort was brought to boiling, I killed the heat and added my DME. I brought it back to boiling and added the first hops.

6. After a last minute addition of more hops, it was time to chill. Since this is such a small batch, it only takes the ice in the freezer to get it down.

7. Time to go into the jug fermenter. I used my handy strainer and funnel to get my chilled wort to its 2-week resting place.

The next time I do this, I'm going to account for more boil off. I didn't have this at a crazy boil, but between the grain and hops soaking up their share, I'm a little short.

Stove Top Best Bitter

Truth be told, I'm on a medical vacation...but I need to brew. Hmm...how about a 1 gallon batch done on the stove?

Malt bill:
1 lb Briess Pilsen DME
0.25 lb Briess Caramel 40L Malt

Hops bill:
0.3 oz Kent Golding (5.3% AA, Pellet) @ 60 min.

0.2 oz Kent Golding (5.3% AA, Pellet) @ 1 min.

Yeast: Muntons dry ale yeast

OG: 1.044

FG: 1.010

ABV: 4.5

IBU: 37

SRM: 14

Current hop inventory - March 10, 2010

Just for my sake, really.

Hop Name Total Oz.

Cascade 20.7

Celeia 4

Centennial 14.1

Chinook 1.25

Fuggles 4.8

Kent Goldings 4.35

Magnum 14.8

Northern Brewer 0.65

Saaz 0.55

Sterling 0.95

Strisselspalt 1

Styrian Goldings 4

Tettnanger 16.5

Top of the 3rd IPA

Yet another recipe in my quest to make an IPA that really knocks my sox off.

Name: Top of the 3rd IPA

Style: American IPA

OG: 1.062

FG: 1.016

Batch Size: 5 gallons US

Boil Size: 6.5 gallons US

Color: 7.91 SRM

IBU: 68.62 Tinseth

ABV %: 6.4 Volume

############### Fermentables ###############

American Two-Row 9.5 lb 84.4%

British Carastan 0.8 lb 6.7%

Munich Dark 0.7 lb 5%

Flaked Barley 0.5 lb 3.8%

############### Hops ###############

Magnum 1 oz 14% Boil 60

Cascade 0.75 oz 6% Boil 30

Amarillo 1 oz 9.5% Boil 20

Centennial 0.5 oz 10.5% Boil 10

Cascade 1 oz 6% Boil 1

Cascade 1 oz 6% Dry Hop