Happy Holidays

I want to wish all of you out there a happy holiday — whichever one (or none) you observe.

This one is a little bittersweet for me. I had plans to fly to Denver to spend time with my family, but last week’s snowstorm put the kibosh on that rather effectively. Instead, I’m afforded time with my wife’s family, who have had a very rough year. Sometimes even when things don’t work out the way we want them to, other things that matter fall into place.

I’d intended to gift readers with reports from the various breweries in and around Weld County, Colorado, but instead I present you with a beer recipe I made using Brew Pal. Just a little 9 percenter to keep you warm over the next few cold months. Recipe is after the jump.

REMEMBER!

There’s a recipe formulation contest on. Winner gets a So Yeah Dood pint glass, and I’ll brew the winning recipe — and you can join me to direct the process if you live local to Baltimore.

Winter
Warm Up


Batch size 5 gallons
Boil size 6.1 gallons
Boil time 60
minutes
Grain weight 17.5 pounds
Efficiency 75%
Original gravity 1.096
Final gravity 1.028
Alcohol (by volume) 9.0%
Bitterness (IBU) 23
Color (SRM) 15.4
Yeast: Scottish Ale
7 liquid packs (or make a starter)
Wyeast
1728
Grains/Extracts/Sugars
17.5 pounds
2 Row
Base

37ppg, 1.5
12
pounds
68.6%
Honey Malt
30ppg,
20
2
pounds
11.4%
Melanoidin
37ppg,
20
2
pounds
11.4%
Liquid Sugar – Maple
syrup

32ppg, 35 (At boil)
1.5
pounds
8.6%
Hops
1.75 ounces
Northern Brewer
hops

9%, Pellet
1 ounce
Fuggles
hops

5%, Pellet
0.75 ounces
Additions
3 ounces
Toasted Maple chips
Flavor
1 ounce
Irish
moss

Fining
.25
ounce
Mash
60 minutes, 8.6 gallons
Strike
Target
152
5 gallons
165
60
minutes (+0)
Sparge
Target =
170
3.6 gallons
186
Boil
60 minutes, 6.1 gallons
Northern Brewer
hops

9%, Pellet
1 ounce
60 minutes (+0)
Irish
moss

Fining
1
ounce
15 minutes (+45)
Wort chiller 15 minutes (+45)
Fuggles
hops

5%, Pellet
0.5 ounces
10 minutes (+50)
Fuggles
hops

5%, Pellet
0.25 ounces
0 minutes (+60)
Ferment
21 days @ 55-75
7 days primary, 14 secondary
Toasted Maple chips
Flavor
1 ounce
14 days (+7)

You can achieve about the same result using extract by switching out the 2 Row for either 9 and a half pounds of Extra Light liquid malt extract or 8 pounds of Extra Light dry malt extract.

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2 Responses to “Happy Holidays”

  1. Mike says:

    I know this is unrelated, but I read using corn syrup instead of sugar to improve the taste… I’m new to brewing and I was just wondering what the difference in ratio between the two was? thanks for the help,

  2. Ryan says:

    Hi Mike.

    In general, brewers use corn syrup/sugar exclusively for bottling. Based on the fact that you would be using relatively little of either kind of sugar to carbonate or condition your beer, it shouldn’t have a particularly large effect on the flavor. If you were using either corn syrup or cane sugar as a primary fermentable, then there would be a pretty significant difference in flavor, but most beers and beer recipes don’t call for large additions of sugar.

    If you’re using a kit that suggests adding sugar to your beer, you might want to consider visiting a homebrew shop and switching out the sugar for some dried malt extract. You’ll still need to boil the DME before fermenting, but you should end up with a much tastier final product.

    Whichever route you go when bottling, make sure you sanitize everything your finished beer will come in contact with as best as you can. When in doubt about what could be wrong with a beer, the first and most common flavor problem factor people generally bring up is poor sanitation.

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