Saturday, March 17, 2012

Steam Beer

So I made a Steam Beer (aka California Common) last weekend. 

3 Lbs. Munton's light dry extract
3 Lbs. Munton's extra light dry extract
2 Lbs. whole grain crystal malt (milled)

  • I put the whole grain in cheesecloth, and added it to the water. 
  • Held at 150-160 degrees for 15-20 minutes (took about an hour to reach temp)
  • Brought to boil, removed grain
  • Added dry extracts
  • 1 hour, 15 min. boil
  • Added 1/2 oz. Northern hops 30 min from end for bittering
  • Another 1/2 oz. Northerns added 10 min. from end of boil
  • 1/2 oz. Cascade hops 5 min. from end of boil
  • 1/2 oz. Cascade dry hop added to fermenter after cooling
Racked to secondary fermenter after six days.
Yeast is still very active.
Planning to leave in secondary for 2 weeks, then bottle.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Belated Brewing Follow Up

The first batch in the turkey fryer went quite well. Stimmel helped me bottle about a case and a half of imperial pints. It was very mild, and I estimate that it had about a 4% alcohol content. It was intended to be a bitter, but I feel that the hop character was not as prominent as I had hoped. It tasted more like a mild American amber. Regardless, it has been consumed. Time for a new batch!