Easy Beer Recipe

Freezing my butt of here because the temperature has dipped down in the 30's. I hate cold weather, with one exception. It's a good time to make beer. So, I thought I would dust off one of my very first recipes and post it for you to enjoy. It is called Double Ale and it gets its name from the fact that the grain to water ratio is 2:1. This will generally make a beer in the 4.5 to 5% alchohol range.

Double Ale

Ingredients:

3 1/2 lbs Amber Malt Extract
8 oz Crystal Malt Grain
4 oz Pale Malt Grain
4 oz Oat Grain (I used Old Fashioned Oats)
1 oz Cascade Hops
1 oz Fuggle Hops
1/2 Teaspoon Irish Moss
1 packet Muntons Ale Yeast
3/8 cup Corn Sugar (priming)


Date Brewed: March 21, 2001

Original Gravity: 1.049

Procedures:

1. Steep Grains for 1/2 hour
2. Strain grains and add to brew pot along with 1 gallon water
3. Add Malt Extract and allow to boil
4. When wort begins to boil, add 1/2 of the Hops and boil for 1 hour
5. After 1 hour, remove hops and add the other 1/2 of hops, boil for 1/2 hour
6. Last 15 minutes of boil, add Irish Moss
7. After chilling, pour into primary fermenter and add water to the 3 gallon mark
8. Pitch yeast

Will make about 2.5 gallons bottled or about a case of 12 oz bottles. Also, I like to pitch the yeast around "blood temperature" or 98 degrees. Last couple of years, I have been doing an open fermentation for the first 12 hours. I use a large grain bag tied over the top. I also do a dry hopping by adding additional hops at this stage.