Red Ale

4/9/2010

True Brew Red Ale

Start date: 4/3/2010                        keg date: 4/17/2010                        drink date: 5/1/2010

BG: 1.05               FG: 1.018                             ABV: 4.2%

Hop bittering units: 14

Ingredients

hopped light malt extract- 1 can

unhopped light malt extract- 1 can

Melanoidin malt grain

Hop pellets- 1 oz

Ale yeast- 1 pack

priming sugar- 5 oz

Process

·         boil water

·         steep grains for 30 minutes

·         boil malt

·         add hops and continue boiling

·         transfer to fermenter and ferment for 2 weeks

·         keg it

Comments

This was a standard brew process that we did outside for the first time the same day we kegged the double IPA.  This was also the first time we used Craig's heater.  It boiled faster and it was easier to control the boil.  We just need to get a regulator for safety reasons.  We fermented in a plastic fermenting bucket.  The fermenting has gone well so far.  We will keg in about a week. 

Kegging went well.  We've been having trouble with the siphoning of the beer out of the fermenting bucket and into the keg.  This time we used a turkey baster to suck the air out of the siphon tube.  This worked well enough to get the liquid to start flowing up out of the bucket and down into the keg.  We will drink in about 2 weeks.

The red ale was another relatively weak beer.  It tasted average, kind of flat.  Not that it wasn't carbonated enough, but it just didn't have a strong bite.  It was kind of a pale looking beer too, but I guess it was redder than any other beer we've made.  Until next time, thanks for stopping by.