Jeff's Left Over IPA

I scored free beer!!!! Almost free.
I was over helping a Friend work on his basement and he gave me 2 all grain kits he never used. One was a Fat Tire Clone and the other a Tongue Splitter both from Northern Brewer.

Of course there was a ketch. These kits the grain was crushed and 10 months old. I was worried that the grain would not convert being so old but I would only be out propane before I knew so i decided to brew that on 11-23-08.

5 lbs. Dingemans Pils
2 lbs. Munich Malt
2 lbs. Dark Munich Malt
0.50 lbs. Victory Malt
0.50 lbs. Breiss Crystal 60
9lbs. US 2-Row
0.5 lbs. Dingemans Caramel Pils
0.5 lbs. Simpsons Caramalt 2oz

Hop Schedule
Columbus 60min
1oz Cascade 15min
1oz Cascade 10min
1oz Cascade 5min
1oz Cascade 0min

Final Analysis
OG 1.51 IBU 71

I got good conversion but I added 4 more lb of American 2 row for extra measure. I think it will be a good one.

Hard Lemonade and Mango Wheat Review.

The mango wheat beer never turned out like I had envisioned. It had little mango flavor or aroma. I have learned that a minimum of 2lbs of fruit per 5 gal is needed to pull off any fruit beer. It is still good as a wheat beer and nice to have that around for others who don't drink hoppy beers.

Hard Lemonade.

This turned out better than I had expected. Learned alot of lesson and will use those when I do this again. It is so cheap and to use the yeast just stilling in your primary makes so much sence. I should not have used the mango secondary, I think it gave some off flavors and made it a little merky. I ended up using some champne yeast to get the stuck fermentation going again and got the FG down to 1.014 from 1.030 when it was stuck. I did not take a OG so I don't know what the ABV is but it is high.

Accidental experiment turned into a nice drink. A friend mixed half hard lemonade with a light beer and told me how good it was. I since have been mixing it with my wheat beer and it is delicious.

Hard Leomonade

I wanted to try a hard lemonade and reuse my yeast cake from the wheat beer I just made. Searching around I found an easy recipe for a Mikes Hard Lemonade clone.

Started with 3 gallons of lemonade. (used 6 frozen lemonade)
6 cups sugar or 3 lbs.
I mixed this all a kettle on low heat cooled then transferred to a carboy and placed air lock.

Mango Wheat

I had wanted to do something with mango for awhile and came up with a mango wheat when i was at Trader Joe's this summer. I found 80z cans of sliced mango in sauce that i really wanted to try. My plan was to make an American Wheat beer and add the mango to the secondary fermenter.

I made the Amarillo Wheat beer below and took 5 gallons for the mango wheat. I added the mango after 1o days in primary and syphoned the beer over the mango. Well, I should have used more mango. No mango taste after 2 weeks in secondary. I sent my wife to the Asian store to look for more canned mango. She got me 3 more cans that I will try this week by adding them to the keg like dry hopping. I will let you know what happens

Amarillo Wheat

This was my first attempt at an American Wheat. I did this style because I wanted to make a mango beer and needed a style that was light with little hoppy aroma.

10Gal
Grain Bill
9 lbs. 2-Row Malt
9 lb. - Wheat Malt
2 lb. - Munich Malt 10L
Hop Schedule (18 IBU)
1 oz - Amarillo (60 Min.)
Yeast - Safale US-05

Mash/Sparge/Boil
Mash at 153° for 60 minutes
Batch Sparge
Boil for 60 minutes
Cool and ferment at 68°
Dry hop in keg with 1 0z of Amarillo

I split this off into two 5 gallon fermenters and will add the mango to one of them.

This was a little sweet for my taste but my wife likes it. I will increase the hops to tone down the sweetness.

Not bad and will be a good beer to have around for those wimpy drinkers.

Welcome to my blog

Well, I made the jump and started a blog to track my home brewing successes and failures. I started Home brewing in 2004 using extract and store bought kits. I took a break during 2006 and 2007 to focus on home improvement and family. 2008 I started out strong with extract kits from Northern Brewer and finallly made the jump into all grain this year.

My preferred style of beer is American Pale Ale heavily hopped with Cascades. I have taken a few different recipes and made some changes that I feel represent my perfect beer which now is my house beer. I call this beer Catnip Pale Ale.

Other styles I have tried are Coopers Pale Ale, Famous Irish Style Stout, True Brew IPA, Fat Tire Ale Clone, Honey Brown Ale, Bavarian Hefe Weizen, Belguim Wit bier, and an American Wheat.

What is a Toad Flake?

Toad Flake comes from my cat I had for 12 years. We named him Toad Flake because we like the name. He was a black farm cat that we brought in our house after all his siblings were gone. Toad was a lap cat and is very much missed.