Thursday, August 4, 2011

Recipe, day two

Looking over yesterday's recipe, I see the chocolate malt was forgotten. So, to the grain bill will be added 1 pound of 350 SRM malt. Due to time constraints on Saturday, the all grain has been moved to an extract. The bill changes to 7 lbs of pale extract.

I downloaded the Mac version of BeerSmith 2.0. The interface has improved quite a bit, but it does still feel klunky. No matter, into all the ingredients go. This recipe could get to 6% ABV. I'm not sure I like the low value, but I'll live with it. At least through this version.

Finalize tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Starting to formulate new recipe

A have a request from a friend of mine for a mild dark beer. Something like a porter, but different. She likes chocolate and coffee flavors. A black ale sounds interesting as well. Not a fan of stouts and not too sure about the dark fruit flavors imparted by a Belgian yeast.

The wheels started turning a bit. How about borrowing several things. The idea being started is a mild porter using debittered dark malts, dark crystal and some chocolate. Wanting some malt over hops, adding some aroma malt sounds good. Hop profile should be clean as well: Cascade and Northern Brewer.

Here's a more fleshed out bill:

8 lbs pale malt
2.5 lbs debittered malt 300-320L
1 lbs Crystal malt 70L
1 lbs aroma malt
1 oz Norther Brewer (70 min)
1 oz Cascade (20 min)
1 oz Cascade (heat off)
2 tsp Irish Moss (15 min)
1 oz Cascade in secondary (may 2 oz if aroma not good enough)
WLP 001

Mashing at 160 F for 40 min. Mash out at 170. Sparge with 160 F to 6 gallons. Boiling for 70 min. Cool and pitch. 7-10 days in primary. 7 days in secondary.

Yes, this is just a rough outline. Haven't done the math yet. It will be interesting to see where my head has taken me so far.