Pale Ale or Porter
| Home Brewing Recipes Baker Street Ales Associate Brewer Arny Lands |
| Beer Nexus the crossroads of the beer world |
Before starting this recipe, be sure to consult my article on Belgian Triple Made Easy for tips on sanitizing equipment, blow off valves, liquid yeast,fermenting, bottling and more. That info should become your routine procedure. You can use this recipe to make a good pale ale, or by adding chocolate roasted barley a good porter. Feel free to add more hops, or use different hops as to your taste. Put on a good Cd or your IPod, Crack open a brew (home brew preferred), and lets start brewing beer !!!!!!!! Remember to allow your yeast time to become active per instructions on the label. Ingredients: two 3.5 lb cans light malt extract, 8oz crushed Crystal Malt, 8 oz crushed Victory Malt, (for porter 8 oz chocolate roasted barley) 3 and 1/2 (or more) oz Cascade Hops, One tube of Wyeast Labs California Ale Yeast (or English ale yeast) ---------------------- 1) After sanitizing your equipment and filling three gallons water into your fermenter you will want to start by bringing two gallons of water to 165-170 degrees. While the water is heating move on to step 2. 2) Put 8 oz crushed Crystal Malt and 8 oz crushed Victory Malt into a grain bag an add to the water as it rises to 165-170. If you want to make a porter, add a grain bag with 8 oz chocolate roasted barley also at this time. Nowadays you may find chocolate roasted wheat or rye available, so if you want to experiment have fun. 3) When the water reaches 165-170 stir it up, turn off the heat, put a lid on it and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes. Try not to let it cool below 160. 4) Now remove the grain bags. Allow them to drip into the brew kettle a bit, but never squeeze the bags. You don't want the grain dust getting into the wort, that would result in off flavors. 5) Now turn on the heat and bring it up to a good boil. While this is going on you will want to open two 3.5 lb cans of light malt extract. (Be sure they are unhopped !) A good trick is to place the opened cans into a tray of hot water to soften up the extract. When the water boils stir it up good and add the cans of malt extract. Stir it up a lot, so it doesn't settle on the bottom and burn. 6) Ok now that the malt extract is dissolved comes my favorite part of brewing.... adding the hops. Let's start by adding 2 1/2 oz cascade hops. Stir them in, and keep an eye on it so as not to allow over boiling !! If it looks like it will over boil quickly remove the pot from the stove and stir it up. When it settles down you can put it back on the stove. Boil these hops for a good 45 minutes. 7) Now add another ounce or more of Cascade hops, and boil for twenty minutes. 8) Cool the brew kettle quickly (see Belgium Triple article for advice). You can follow the triple recipe procedure from here on. 9) TIP- If you have a grain bag that fits over your funnel, you can use it as a filter for the wort as you pour it into the fermenter. 10) When all is cool you can add your yeast. 11) Ferment, Prime, Bottle, Age, Drink. Many people will say that using canned malt is cheating, or that you are not really making your beer if you use a can of someone else's malt. I disagree. If you come up with the recipe: what hops to use, when to add them, what yeast to use, what added specialty grains to add and more. Then clearly you are making your beer, by your recipe ,to suit your tastes. Anyway, All-Grain brewing is a lot of fun, and more challenging, but for a small batch of five-six gallons there is nothing wrong with using dry malts or canned malts. If you're going to go on to all grain brewing, you will want to make 10-15 gallon batches. Next month I'll give advice on where to find ingredients and equipment. The month after I'll give some advice on all-grain brewing at home. Until then I'm heading to The Tap Room, Somerset Hills Hotel for a few pints. It sounds like a lot of work, but really it's not too hard. And it pays off with a good beer !!! Whenever you brew, read the whole recipe at least twice before you start to make sure you don't get surprised along the way by a step in the procedure you are not ready for. Good Luck and Happy Brewing! Arny Lands |
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