Brewed Slowly: #3 Red Ale
On to the next beer.
Last Sunday, I brewed a Red Ale kit that was given to me as a Christmas present this year. I’ve put off posting about it most of this week. And for no good reason, really. But now I’ve found myself in front of the computer with my notes in hand, so here it is.
The software:
12 oz. specialty grains (I have no idea what grains were included–this kit is secretive)
7 lbs Briess golden light extract (liquid)
1 oz. Amarillo hops
amarillo hop pellets and my hand
1 oz. Ahtanum hops
Nottingham Dry yeast
I brewed this beer by myself, but I followed the same process as we always have. First, I brought 1.5 gallons of water up to 150 F. Then I steeped the mystery/specialty grains at (or around) 150 F for half an hour.
it doesn't look red, but it'll be red
After I took out the grains (they then went into the compost cause we’re green), I brought the liquid up to a boil and added the 7 lbs of extract and the 1 oz. of Amarillo hops.
Then I waited, stirred, waited, stirred, waited, ad nauseam for an hour.
After it had boiled for an hour, I took it off the heat and added the 1 oz. of Ahtanum hops. Then I put the pot in my icebath of sorts. (Lately, my ice baths are me putting the pot of wort into a sink full of cold water and some ice packs. This is not the most efficient way to cool the wort, nor is it the way I’d recommend doing so. I have yet to get/make a wort chiller, so until I do, this is how my wort does its thing.) When the temp. reached about 115 F, I poured the cool wort into the fermentor and added enough water to top it off at 5 gallons (I also put at least a gallon of water in the freezer about an hour prior so that some of the water is really cold and will drop the wort temp. down to a nice 90-95 F).
This kit came with Danstar dry yeast, so all I had to do was rip that bad boy open and dump it in the fermentor. Also, I made sure that I aerated the wort by stirring it up while it cooled and making splashes when I poured it in the fermentor. Yeasts need O2 to live y’all.
The OG was 1.052 before fermentation.
–
Since I’ve waited so long to post this entry, I’ve actually already bottled the beer. Today I was busy with bottling this beer and cooking up the next batch of beer. Which you’ll have to wait to find out about. Suspense–ooh.
red ale ready to get bottled
The final gravity was 1.014, so the final alcohol content came out to 3.99 ABV.
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