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Honey, and strange hops

stoutmaker1 Comment

Well it’s National Homebrew Day, so let’s brew!

Nephew wanted to see how the brew process works so he dropped in to check it out. 

 I needed to make a beer for Memorial Day and a something with honey. So a very quick 3.5% honey bitter. Plus I got these free hops from Tenatious Badger. (More on these later.

Honey Burst – 5 gallons

  • 4.5 lb 2 row
  • .5 victory
  • 1 lb honey
  • 1oz Michigan Copper @10
  • 3/4 magnum @10
  • Nottingham 
  • Mashed at 155

This was the first brew in quite a while that I made outside. In fact this beer should be completely brewed, fermented, kegged and drank entirely in the garage.

Now these Michigan Copper hops. They are described as “fragrant floral and tropical fruit”  

If fragrant and floral means vomit and parmesan cheese, then I concur. I really had to force my self to put them in my beer. If would have had another 10% hop laying around, these would have been dumped. 

But once they got into the boil they smelled exactly like fresh cut lemon peel.

Both before and after smells aren’t really something I’m excited about having in my beer.. but we will see.

Oat

stoutmakerLeave a comment

First a quick update on the Golden ale made for the Wine Walk. The beer was a big hit.  We were billing it as a cream ale, but I would have called it a blonde ale. Light,  slightly malty with just the faintest of hops. As good of reception that this received, there is no doubt it will be brewed again. 

Moving on to this weekends brew. For our February club meeting we are brewing with oats. Oat malt,  flaked oats, oatmeal… Stuff like that. I figure there will be a few oatmeal stouts,  so I went the other way. A Pale Oatmeal mild. 

I was looking to get something light colored, but decent body,  and very low hopped to showcase the oatmeal. I came up with.. 

  • 4lbs maris otter
  • 1.5lbs oatmeal
  • 1/4 lbs 40L crystal
  • . 75oz Fuggles @60
  • Nottingham yeast
  • Mashed at 156

This beer hands down is the best smelling beer of the year. Even the kids came downstairs to see what I was making. But cloudy.. Wow.  Pretty sure this will never drop out by February. 

I took several pics but none of them captured how hazy this really is. I can’t wait to see how this one comes out.  

Next I have to try to replicate the heavily caramelized Ipa for an upcoming contest.

Golden ale 

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Today I brewed up a Golden Ale. A style I’ve never brewed before, but one that looks pretty basic feel to it.

The local homebrew shop is part of a December wine walk and  wants to have a few beers up for it. Only have about 4 weeks to get something up and kegged for it though, so this Golden ale fits the bill. 

Light easy drinking beer. I’d call it a British blonde ale maybe. Nothing complicated. Not over the top hoppy or malty. Balanced low gravity.

Now the only thing that may cause a hiccup is the clarity in this particular time frame  Maris Otter and the bit of wheat might leave a bit of a haze that won’t drop  in the two weeks or less it will have.

Will need a bit of bitterness to firm it up. But don’t want to get deep into the pale ale range. So keep a light hand on the late end hopping.

I chose the grain bill to give a more malty impression that would hold up with such a light mash temp. This style is known for it cleaner yeast, so went with Nottingham for its low, but still noticeable esters.

  • 5 lbs Maris Otter
  • 1.5 lbs Munich 
  • 1.5 lbs wheat malt
  • .5oz Amarillo @6o
  • .5oz cascade @60
  • .25oz Amarillo @15
  • .25oz Amarillo during whirlpool 
  • Mashed at 148 with a ramp to 152 at 15 minutes.
  • Nottingham yeast  

I did an extended hop stand during whirlpool. Like 25 minutes. Temp only dropped to 197, and really let the cone firm up and add you can see in the pic, the wort was very clear going into fermenter.