Begin Brewing!

From the first time I tried one at The Winking Lizard Tavern many years ago, I've been a fan of the English Dark Mild Ale style. It's a nice mix of roasty malt flavors without the heaviness of a porter or stout, which makes it easy to drink year-round. The recipe below is adapted from the Hey Man Dark Mild recipe by Nic Pestel of Missoula, MT.  Nic won a gold at the 2018 NHC in Portland, OR, with the original version.  This variant changes the original recipe in the following ways: Swapped Maris Otter for the original's Montana 2-row Pale Malt Swapped Munich DME for the original's Munich 10L Malt Replaced the original's Dextrin Malt with some Pilsner (since I had no Dextrin or similar on hand) Swapped Lallemand CBC-1 dry ale yeast for the original's Wyeast 2112 California Lager Yeast, mostly because I didn't want to deal with a lager and the CBC-1 should be fairly neutral yeast Adjusted IBUs based on my hops' Alpha Acid levels Changed the first hops add...

The American Homebrewer's Association web site lists a recipe for a " Corn Tripel " (a Belgian style Tripel Ale brewed with corn as part of the grist).  I decided to brew that beer today, tweaked a little for my system and preferences. Ingredients 8.25 pounds Belgian Pilsen malt 1.25 pounds Flaked Corn (Maize) 10 ounces Clear Candi Sugar Rocks 0.25 ounces Hallertau Magnum hops 11.6%AA (FWH) 0.50 ounces Styrian Goldings hops 1.3% AA (30 min.) 0.50 ounces Hallertau Mittelfruh hops 3.8% AA (15 min.) 0.50 tsp. Irish Moss (15 min.) 0.50 tsp. Yeast Nutrient (15 min.) 0.125 tsp. Brewtan B (mash) 0.25 tsp. Brewtan B (boil, 20 min.) 1 package Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity 5 gallons RO water, treated with: 1 gram Calcium Chloride 1 gram Table Salt 0.5 grams Epsom Salt 3 grams Gypsum 1 gram Magnesium Chloride 1 ml. Lactic Acid 88% solution Use 3.75 gallons for mash, 1.25 gallons for sparge Note: If I was brewing this again, I'd do 3.75 gallons mash, 1.75 sparge, for 5.5 tot...

The finished beer I've made only a few Saisons in the past.  In competition, they've not done all that well, I suppose because my taste in Saisons leans away from the overly dry, overly bitter end of the style toward something milder and more complex.  Today, I decided to review a bunch of winning Saison recipes and analyze what I thought made them winners... then build my own. I liked the mix of Pilsner, Wheat, and Vienna I found in a BYO Magazine recipe.  I'd gotten complaints that one of my Saison recipes lacked malt complexity.  Another recipe referenced using cane sugar and a high mash temp to balance out the dryness from the cane sugar with some unfermentable sugars.  I wanted to mix Saaz, Citra, and Mandarina, but didn't have any Saaz on hand.  Last, but not least, I wanted a hint of spice and fruit.  That's where the coriander and grains of paradise come in.  Hopefully this will all play well with the Saison yeast. Ingredients ...