Leger's Luscious Amber (Scratch copy)

LEGER'S LUCIOUS PORTER
brewed by Kris Leger

The is a recipe adapted from a 5 gallon batch recipe from the Brew Your Own publication "30 Great Beer Styles" by Jamil Zainasheff. The style is the BJCP style 19 A, American Amber Ale.

This batch requires an initial 3.00 gallons of water, from your local source. A 1/2 Campden tablet (to remove chlorine) needs to added as the water is filling your pot, along with the addition of 0.25 oz of gypsum and 0.5 oz Calcium Chloride (Jim Boudreaux will provide the water salts and the Campden tablet, carefully measured out.

Add the water salts (and stir thoroughly), then add the malt extract as the pot is heating up, making sure you are stirring until all the extract is mixed in.

Add the steeing grains now (in nylon small bags, (provided by Jim Boudreaux). Allow water temperature to heat up to 170° F. THEN SHUT OFF HEAT AND REMOVE POT FROM THE BURNER. Allow the grain bags to sit in the liquid in the pot for 15 minutes.

After the 15 minute steep, REMOVE THE GRAINS FROM THE POT, Add the boiling hops (0.25 oz.) provided in the mesh bag. NOW, put the pot back on the heat, and while stirring every so often, it will ramp up to a boil. When temperature reaches the boil, maintain a full boil, but a moderate one.

When wort has been boiling for 30 min, add the 0.25 oz of Cascade hops (Hop Addition 1).

At 10 minutes before the end of the boil, add the 0.5 oz of Citra hops hop addition 2).

A 25% reduction in volume is expected to occur with the one hour boil. This is why 3 gallons is the initial volume of water.

A 5 gallon pot is ideal, stainless steel is best. There will be plenty of room in the pot to prevent boil-overs when using the 5 gallon pot.

Best way to chill is to put entire pot into a large pail of water and ice, WITH THE POT COVERED.

After the one-hour boil, chill the wort. Continue the process of getting the wort into the sanitized Mr. Beer fermenter. Don't completely fill the vessel, leave some head space.

HYDRATING THE YEAST
(Do this while the wort is chilling)

Take the yeast packet out of the fridge either the night before or the morning of the brew day to let the temperature of the yeast packet rise to room temperature.

Put one cup of bottled water (not cold water, it should be at room temperature) to a glass measuring cup. Sprinkle the yeast on top, cover with SANITIZED aluminum foil and leave for 15 minutes.

Return and stir the yeast with a SANITIZED spoon. Re-cover and let the slurry sit for another 15 minutes. Yeast is now ready to pitch! Remember to swirl vessel to get yeast into suspension before pitching to the wort.

When wort is safely in fermenter, transfer the entire contents of yeast and water from the glass measuring cup to the sanitized Mr. Beer fermentor.