Big Ben English Pale Ale

Decembers homebrew recipe is Midwest Big Ben Pale Ale, slightly modified due to an order error. Well as the saying goes make lemonade out of lemons. With homebrewing, we made better beer with different malts. since I was 1lbs short on some of my DME, i modified my recipe by adding an extra 1/2 lbs of grains to my steeping phase. The final result???? Only time will tell, the color looked perfect, now we just need to see if the added grains makes up some up for some of the maltiness that was missed from the extract. I expect to have some delicious results. I am also going to be dry hopping this recipe to vamp up the happy aroma of a PA.

2-1-14: The result is a fine tasting brew. A nice malty brew and a good but not too strong hoppy bite. Very well rounded.

Pumpkin Ale 2013

My October 2013 brew was a modified Midwest Supplies Pumpkin Ale recipe. I added 1oz of homegrown (yes, I grew some of my own hops this year) Galena hops to this recipe. 2 whole pumpkins went in (around 4.5 lbs worth), cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, a little bit of honey and a pinch of ginger. The final result is a nice warm seasonal spicey (not too spicey) brew, malty, a little bit sweet and not bitter.


May 2014 UPDATE- This brew is being submitted to the annual Samuel Adams Longshot homebrew contest.

Midwest Supplies is offering a free recipe kit

My go-to brewing ingredient supply house is offering a great deal. Check it out below. 

Free Beer?

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Enter promo code HEADSTART at checkout

to get a FREE Beer Recipe Kit with the purchase of

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July 2013 Homebrew recipe

I decided to try something completely different with this months recipe kit. I did have a bit of a delay because my tried and true Midwest Supplies completely botched up the shipping of my order, but that is a story for another day. I saw this kit that they were promoting that looked enticing and i am going to give it a shot. It's called Kiwi Crossing IPA. http://www.midwestsupplies.com/kiwi-crossing-ipa.html. All of the hops are imported from New Zealand. How many people out there have ever tried a brew with New Zealand hops in them? I know that I haven't so why not give it a shot at something different, that is what homebrewing is all about. Here is how they describe it:
Get a taste of the Kiwi homeland with this entirely New Zealand hopped IPA. Bold and exotic hop flavors of orange marmalade, tropical fruit, and light floral notes are balanced with a red-copper, malty backbone and a smooth bitterness. This recipe kit includes: 6 lb. Gold Liquid Malt Extract, 2 lb. Amber Dry Malt Extract, 4 oz. Crystal 50-60º, 4 oz. Crystal 80º, 2 oz. Chocolate Malt, 1 oz. New Zealand Super Alpha, 2 oz. New Zealand Motueka, 2 oz. New Zealand Pacifica pellet hops, yeast.
I currently have it in primary and it looked a bit dark/amber during the boil and transfer to primary. I will keep you posted on how it comes out. I just realized (while pasting the above recipe) that I made an oopsie while mixing up this batch. I put in 3 lbs. of amber LME instead of 2lbs of amber DME. Oh well too late now, i am sure it won't affect it negatively, it might have a slightly stronger ABV than anticipated and maybe a little darker. I will have to swap those 2lbs. of DME into my Big Ben Pale Ale recipe (spoiler alert) instead of the which will be brewed up in the next few months.

June 2013 Homebrew recipe

The June 2013 homebrew recipe is Rocky Pale Ale, by none other than Midwest Supplies. It is currently bottle conditioning so I can't tell you how it tastes, but I have high hopes. http://www.midwestsupplies.com/rocky-pale-ale.html

Their description is:
As if a certain West Coast beer were being brewed by you. Brew this up for a masterfully balanced malt and hop flavor experience with loads of caramel malt and accompanying floral/citrus hop flavor. This pale ale will not disappoint! Our ingredients for this recipe include 3 lb. Gold dry malt extract, 3.3 lb. Gold liquid malt extract, 1.5 lb. Caramel 60L, 6 oz. Dark Crystal, 1/2 oz. Magnum bittering hops, 1 oz. Ahtanum flavor hops, grain bag, priming sugar, and yeast.

It sounds good to me. I will let you know later how it turned out.

Embarrassed

Sorry to all of my followers and fans. I have been totally remiss in my updates. I can't believe that the last post I made was last April. I have brewed many delicious batches and if you are on my Purim Shaloch Manos route, you will be treated with some of the freshest brews I have. You can look forward to my Pumpkin Ale, the Kolsch Cologne, Not your Average Blonde rebrew or perhaps the Amarillo Pale Ale rebrew (kicked up another notch since last year).

I entered the annual Samuel Adams Longshot Homebrew contest again this year. I didn't win big that is really hard to do with the number of contestants they have. The professional judges reviews were all pretty good. They samples my Noble Trappist Ale (scored 36 out of 50) as well as my Amarillo Pale Ale (scored 30.5 out of 50). So while they are not ready for the mass brew houses, they are definitely good quality beers.

You can now watch my Youtube video showing an instructional video on homebrewing by yours truly. http://youtu.be/aaeWCLTT_3M