The winter's Ale

In honour of me heading out last night and sampling lots of local microbrews and spirits (it was nice to get out, but seemed quite a bit smaller than past years), I thought I'd offer my recipe for a basic extract-based pale ale. I make this from time to time and really enjoy it.

The recipe assumes you've brewed before and doesn't lay out every step in detail.

Instructions:

• Bring 12 litres of tap water to a boil in a 5 gallon pot, then turn off the heat
• Add 7 lbs light liquid malt extract, and stir until fully dissolved
• Bring to a boil again - if it starts to boil over, reduce heat and add some cold water to the pot
• Set a timer for 60 minutes
• Add 1 oz Northdown hops in a hops bag
• At 10 minutes, add 1 oz East Kent Goldings hops in a hop bag
• At 5 minutes, add half a Whirlfloc tablet
• When the timer is done, use a sanitized spoon to retrieve and discard the hops bags
• Use a wort chiller or ice bath to get the temperature down to 19 degrees celcius
• Transfer the wort to a sanitized fermenter
• Top up with water until you're at 20-21 litres
• Stir with a sanitized spoon and take a gravity reading - you should be around 1.048
• Pitch 1 package of LalBrew Nottingham yeast
• Close up the fermenter, add the airlock, and store in a cool place (18-20 degrees celcius)
• After 3 weeks, add 1 oz Tettnanger hops in a hop bag to the fermenter
• After 4 weeks, bottle etc (I dissolve 4.8 oz corn sugar in 2c water before siphoning to get the desired carbonation level). Final gravity should be around 1.012, roughly ~4.7% ABV.

Makes 20-21 litres.

gemlog