Mad Mikes first homebrew

[mike]

8.2 lbs of Light Malt Extract
1 lbs Crystal Malt Grain (medium i think)
2oz. Czech Saaz Hops (pellets)
Nottingham Yeast

Yeast Preperation:
1/2 gallon wort (very watered down - 1/3 cup of malt extract) 1 packet Yeast. Pitched the yeast at 70 degree's in a milk jug left at room temperature for 24 hours. Nice half inch yeast cake on the bottom. Smelled malty and sweet.


Main Wort:
220 degree boil for 1:15 - added malt extract as soon as it started boiling and started timer. 15 minutes in took some of the wort and added to the grains (in grain bag) temp after adding grains was 180. Steeped for 30 minutes ending temp was 160. Removed grains and added to main wort. Removed from heat at 1 hour.

Hops:
33 minutes 1oz Saaz hops
45 minutes 1/2 oz Saaz hops
15 minutes 1/2 oz Saaz hops

Cooled in a bathtub full of ice, took me 15 minutes to get it down to 70 degree's.

Siphoned to glass carboy. Realized i didn't have anything to put in the airlock for bubbles. Used "The Great MacCauley" whiskey (i hope this doesn't affect taste in a bad way)

Poured yeast into glass carboy (both at 70 degree's) and aerated by shaking vigorously for 5 minutes.

Put glass carboy back in styrofoam case (there is a hole in the top so airlock sticks out a little) to keep sun out -- will leave it indoors till it picks up fermenting again (70 degree's) and then stick it outside in garage (hopefully this will keep it in the 50-65 degree range)

OG @ 70 degree's --- 1.062

hopefully by pitching a decent amount of yeast in the begginning i can get the final gravity down to 1.015-ish

will rack to bottling bucket (with lid) when fermentation is complete and let it sit for a day for any other yeast or trub to settle before bottling.

[mike]

edit

Hops:

33 1oz
45 1/2 oz
60 1/2 oz

[BeanoMan]

You done goood. And you wrote it down. Wish I did for my first. Sounds like a healthy baby beer. Can't wait to tast it. Don't for get to give your firstborn beer a name.

[mike]

Beet ya to it.

Mad Mikes Pale Ale

[mike]

just curious --- what do you men by "Baby Beer" i tryed lloking it up online --- but this is the closest I came to it.

1. Beer Baby

The explosive shit that erupts the morning after a long night of drinking.

"After last nights triple kegger I woke up only to run to the toilet and give birth to a nasty beer baby."

[mike]

how can you tell when it is done fermenting?

right now mine is putting out a bubble every 2 minutes. before it was 15 or more a minute,

[mike]

sweet.

Thanks very much. 48 hours at 70 degree's. (down to 1 bubble a minute) 12 hours at 40 degree's (1 bubble every 3 minutes)

Will rack to bottling bucket and let it sit for 12 hours before bottling.

[mike]

FG=1.020

5.4% ABV -- not bad -- pretty close to what I was shooting for


smooth clean taste with hoppy after taste. also tastes a little watered down (this might change after bottling if i odn't drink it all first).

Pretty light amber color. I think this one will turn out to be drinkable

[mike]

bottling is a pain in the ass.

27 - 22oz bottles.

low on flavor but drinkable -- will bring a few to meeting.
adjusted recipe for next time.

7 lbs light malt extract
2 lbs dark malt extract
1 lbs british light crystal
1 lbs american 2 row
1 oz fuggles hops
2 oz saaz hops

hopefully this will fix the flavor issues and maybe push it up to a healthy 6.1% ABV

[mike]

yup -- i made a mistake on bottling.

I boiled some water and disolved my priming sugar. I added my priming sugar and stirred it in. then i bottled and capped it all.

i had forgotten to let it settle again. i noticed this last night when i grabbed a bottle for sampling there was yeast that had settled down to the bottom.

It didn't seem carbonated at all. I am not sure how long it takes to carbonate, but i have read that 2 weeks is enough for carbonation and bottle conditioning.

does anyone have more insight on this?