Begin Brewing!

Photo of the bourbon-oaked version Unlike a lot of craft brew fans, I'm not terribly fond of hop-forward styles. I'd much rather have a Belgian Trappist ale or a good German lager than an IPA, American Pale Ale, or "Imperial" something-or-other. One of the beer styles I really enjoy is the Scottish Ale, though until today I hadn't brewed one. I began by searching out a recipe that had won an award at the national level. Then, I considered that recipe in terms of my own tastes and the ingredients I had on hand. For example, I had only an ounce of East Kent Goldings (EKG) hops pellets on hand. This wasn't enough to bitter the beer, so I investigated other hops varieties that are suited to Scottish Ales and went with Magnum hops for bittering. I would use the EKG for flavor and aroma so that the beer would remain true to style. I also wanted some Cara-Pils in there for a nice head. Here's how that brewing session went... Ingredients 9 pounds

A bottle and glass of the finished beer In September 2015, I read an article in BYO magazine about the Australian Sparkling Ale style , which included a recipe for the beer. The main characteristics of the style are the use of Australian hops, particularly Pride of Ringwood hops, a more dry flavor, and lots of carbonation. Update 06/04/2017:  This beer took second place in its category at the Ohio State Fair's 2017 Homebrewing Competition.  It was one of five beers I took to the fair and the first time I've competed in any brewing competition, so seeing the beer do so well is very exciting and makes me feel better about the effort I've put into improving my brewing process and learning about brewing. At the Barley's Homebrewing competition the next day, it didn't fare quite as well, getting scores of 30 and 34 out of 50.  At the Ohio State Fair, it received an official score of 36 and individual scores of 35 and 37. The Recipe 3.5 pounds of Bohemian Pil

A little over a year ago, I brewed a variant of the " Dixie Cup Boardwalk Belgian Quadrupel " that appeared in a 2007 issue of BYO magazine. It turned out to be one of the tastiest beers I'd ever brewed , and I think I have no more than a bottle left... and that's only because I jealously protected it to ensure it would still be around when I brewed it again. In my post-mortem notes for that batch, I said I wanted to do the following in version 2.0: Use temperature control to minimize the "burn" from the high alcohol, keeping the beer at or below 72F during the early stages of fermentation (and ramping up the temp later to encourage the formation of esters). Correct my sparge water calculations so that I hit the target volume and gravity. Use two full pounds of D-90 syrup (I had a partially used container last time that I had thought was a full pound but wasn't). Note: After considering all the adjuncts in this recipe I decided against this.