Wife went out last night which left me lots of time to do some brewing! First batch I did was what was suppossed to be a blonde ale. I bought a brewers best brewing kit for $25 on a local classifieds ad and it included an extract blonde ale kit. Judging by receipts it was 5 years old!!! I figured what the hell, bought new yeast and set to brewing it, if anything I am out time and $4.50. I did a late addition of 1/2 the extract to try and make it a little lighter. No go. This is dark! So I plan to call it my dirty blonde Next I did the Graff recipe from Brandon on homebrewtalk.com Smells delicious and looks great in the carboy! easy and quick recipe. I was just getting ready to mix the wort and apple juice and one of the kids ended up sick and throwing up :cry: not good. So I let everything just sit covered and still in the ice bath. The extra time let me get the batch to 62 before I pitched, so that's a good thing! everything went off without a hitch, and I was done including cleanup in less than 5 hours and before the wife got home. I do think my next batch I will try the early morning route as it sounds more peaceful and by then it will hopefully be a cool crisp autumn morning. Drink up, its a long weekend!
What is the Graff recipe? For the old kit ingredients - let us know how it turns out. Sounds like the extract darkened as it aged. Could be oxidized?
Yeah darkened with age. It was LME in 2 thick vacuum packed bags so I don't think any oxidation. Graff recipe http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/graff-m ... er-117117/ and mine in brewers friend ( notes not added yet ) 4 lbs apple juice is really 4 gallons. Used treetop 100% juice. http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... 8/graff-v1 graff is in carboy
I'm betting on some "twang" from the five-year old extract. Not all the undesirable reactions are oxidation! In any case, I'm thinking of something similar for our Cajun Christmas party: Cousin Boudreau's Blackened Blonde Ale. SWAMBO has already designed "Lola's Dirty Blonde": http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... colate-ale Cousin Boudreau's follows: http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... d-pale-ale Comments welcome on Cousin Boudreau's....
Is Wyeast - American Ale 1056 the primary yeast (according to notes it says it is the sub, but also listed as the primary). I'd think a malty yeast would be the way to go? That hops combo should be interesting with the herbal note from the Willamette.
I'll take suggestions on the yeast - I want the pale ale dry and hoppy and am still playing with the recipe, particularly since I don't need it until December. I could take that idea to extremes and use WLP 090 to get a very neutral fermentation and layer the crystal and hops on top of it. I like the way the pale ale turns out with the American blend - it becomes a bittersweet beer that I think might go well for those who like their Cajun spicy. Actually the perfect beer might just be Vienna Lager - there's a reason Negra Modelo is popular in Mexico. Wife's away Wednesday night for her choir practice - beer geekery is definitely called for. Likely racking my Theobroma-inspired honkin' big cocoa, honey and annatto ale and throwing a large portion of ancho peppers into it. The evil man in me wants to leave in a few seeds, purely by accident, of course, and let some "burn" into the beer.... Thoughts?
I stand buy the WLP 090 for all pale ales, never had it fail me but it does put out odd flavors with warmer temps, keep it below 70 and better at 65 especially the first 3 days I don't use it for the quick fermenting that its known for but rather how forgiving it is, always eats everything never stalls and very hard to kill unlike 05
Okay, I see the problem: Original selection for the Pale Ale I based this on was WLP 060. I may switch back to this one as it produced excellent results in my previous pales.
horrible twang! doesn't smell good either. took a sample since it has been 10 days. only at 1.020 whole time has been little to no airlock activity. Thinking of dumping it out since I would rather use my bottles to make a batch more likely to be good. Thoughts?
If it tastes bad, you may be in trouble. This was from that 5 year old kit, no? The off flavor might be from the yeast. U-04 is notable for tasting bad. My money is on the oxidized extract, in which case, there is no fixing it. Interesting side note - what a pro brewery might do is make a batch specifically designed to mask the defects (to the extent possible) then blend the two and sell that to the public. This is yet another reason I love drinking my own brew, I know what is in it!
Yes from the old kit. It was US-05 yeast. I think that extract was just shot. Funny though it tasted fine before going into boil. Going to toss it, only cost me $4.50 to confirm for everyone even vacuum packed LME goes bad. lol Excited since it will open up the fermentor to do my PM Vanilla Cream Ale :lol:
I tasted again just to be sure....nasty. Though it was still a little hard to pour 5 gallons out!!!!!
Other option, if you have something that benefits from the flavors you have in this beer, blend it. My first 5-gallon pour was due to broken glass in the mash. Broke the end off the floating thermometer. So now I have no glass in contact with my beer unless it's a sample to be poured out anyway.
Howdy. I am an all grain brewer since last November. But, I did an extract brew with a known 15 year old amber malt extract (in a sealed food grade plastic container)! Absolutely the most horrible beer I have ever tasted, and I have tasted some. LME does not improve with age. Like you, I said what the hell.. never again old LME. Props on your enjoying the art. Cheers!
