MoreBeer Light Ale

Soooo, guess what kiddies. The equipment came with a Light Ale kit. I didn't plan on that. But when life give you lemons, make some lemonade, then ferment it, and drink it. Now, I also have a kit for a brown ale so I figure I'll make the light ale and only make a half batch. Then use some of the remaining malt extract (remember we only used half for making the beer) to make a yeast starter for the brown ale.

The ingredients that came in the kit include the following:
1. 6lbs Light Malt Extract
2. 8oz Crystal 15L steeping grains
3. 0.5 oz Cascade hops
4. 1oz Cascade hops
5. Whirlfloc
6. 4oz Corn Sugar
7. Nottingham Ale yeast (dry)

According to MoreBeer instructions we can expect:
1. OG = 1.038-1.042
2. SRM = 7.3
3. IBU's = 12-16
4. ABV = 3.8%

MoreBeer recommends fermentation temp of 68F.

Results (thus far):
Gallons brewed: 2.5
Yeast: Nottingham Ale (dry) - strain XX...XX02
Temp of wort at pitching yeast: 70F
Lag time: <12 hours
Fermentation temp: 72F

The brew date was 2-25-2011 and the brewers were Kevin Koch and myself.

The brew was done on a Friday evening after work. It was meant to be stormy and cold. We even had a bet as to whether it would snow the next day. All weather reports pointed to that it would snow. I bet Kevin it would not. I won. I win pizza. That's a good bet. Everyone wins.

Kevin arrives a little after 5pm with some of that Alaskan beer that I don't like too much. I don't care. I drank it anyways. We begin by cleaning the equipment we intended to use for the day. The pot, fermenter, bucket, spoon, etc., etc. We cleaned it in the kitchen sink using some OxiClean generic knock off. Then we filled the bucket with 2.5 gallons of tap water and put .5 oz of starsan in there. No we have a sanitization bucket. I also put some in a spray bottle. I then put everything that will touch the beer that can fit, into the bucket. This includes our sample taker plastic thingy, our air lock, big ass spoon, thermometer, steeping bags, etc.

Then we moved it out the garage. At this point I had moved the vehicles out giving us the place to ourselves. We got the propane burner out and assembled the legs to it and connected it to the propane tank. There are so many freaking safety features on these things that if there is not enough gas, too much, too much of an increase too quickly, etc. the thing kills the flame. Annoying. Good I guess though.

We then put our big ass pot on the stove and emptied some spring water into it. We were shooting for about 3-3.5 gallons. I have no idea how close we got. I'd say pretty close.

Then we put the Crystal malt into a steeping bag and but it in the pot. We turned the gas on waited until we got to 170F as per the instructions. I used a thermometer to check the temp that sits in the santization bucket when actually being used. I think with a 5 gallon brew it takes about 30mins to get up to 170F. But with 3 gallons it took more like 20 mins. So, after we reached 170, I killed the heat and let it steep another 1o mins. After 30 mins total we removed the steeping bag and fired the burner up. At this point Kevin and I each took a pinch of the grains and tried it. It was good. Smelled good. Tasted good. A slight hint of sweetness. The color of the brew now is a light brown.

While we were wait for the brew to boil I put the bag of Malt Extract in the tub next to the washer and filled it with hot water to make it easier to pour. When we reached a boil I turned the gas off and cut an opening with scissors that had been sitting in the sanitization bucket. Kevin poured the malt extract in while I stirred with a spoon to keep the malt extract from burning on the bottom of the pot. We eyeball it so about half of the Malt Extract is in the pot and save the other half for the yeast starter we will make later. We also tasted the Malt Extract and I noticed it was very sweet. Almost a candy taste to it. Very similar to the HMEs from Mr. Beer but tasted much much better.

Kevin an I waited for the hot break which eventually came and boiled up enough, even with 3 gallons, that I cut the heat at one point. But then the proteins settled and all was well. Kevin was amazed there is only one hot break and that after that the odds of a boil over are slim. He seemed to be unable to wrap his mind around that. Anyhow, now was time to add our hops. We opened the 0.5oz Cascade pellet hops vacuum bag with sterilized scissors from the bucket and tried to add half of them to a steeping bag and then put them into the brew. This means we are 60 mins away from cutting the heat. We both tried a hop pellet. WOW! It was bitterly flavorful, intense, strong, and a little citrusy.

Now we drank Alaskan beer and sat around the stove. Since we had the garage door open to let propane fumes escape it was a little cold. All the while we are doing our best to maintain a nice rolling boil in the pot. Five minutes before the end of the brewing, we add the Whirlfloc which I believe is a clarifying agent. MoreBeer documentation says it is a product made from seaweed. Makes me wonder if it is related to Irish Moss.

One minute to go in the boil and we add the 1oz Cascade pellet hops from vacuum bag which we again open with sterilized scissors from the bucket and tried to add half to the same steeping bag as the other hops.

After a total of 60 minutes we cut the heat. There seems to be too little wort in the pot to use the copper wort chiller so we take the pot inside the house and give it an ice bath in the sink. I use the ice from the freezer in the house. I added some salt to the bath in an attempt to lower the temp. I also made sure to cover the pot as much as I could (obviously I couldn't cover it when taking the temperature). I was careful to be sure that every time the thermometer hit the wort it was sterilized. At one point it became obvious that the ice bath needed more ice and Kevin went out to get some. He returned. We added more ice. In the end I think it took around 20mins to cool to 70F.

While the wort was cooling I got out the Erlenmeyer flask and referenced the "How to Brew" book by Palmer to rehydrate the dry yeast. After sterilizing the flask with the spray bottle I put a cup of water into the flask and heated on the stove top to 100F and added the yeast. By the time the wort was cooled the yeast had been hydrating for about 20 mins. It looked soggy bread on the bottom of the flask. It smelled yeasty. Good yeasty. Not the sour smell I've gotten from other yeasts.

After spraying sanitization fluid in the Mr. Beer fermenter we got the funnel from the sanitization bucket and poured the cool wort in. It was a good vigorous pour. Lots of bubbles everywhere. We then took a gravity reading and got 1.045. A little high. Not bad. I expected it to be little high since we used all the Crystal malt instead of half. We then pitched the yeast, made a yeast starter for the next beer (I'll discuss this more in the next post), cleaned up, and called it a night. We finished around 10pm.

One thing I did not do was compute the IBUs. I think I will do that sometime soon. Also, I think I'd like to add some gypsum to harden up the spring water a little. Other than that it seemed to go well.