BeerBorg

As I mentioned in another thread, I have 5 pounds of Munich sitting around, which is not a bad thing, but it's something I want to use ASAP.

I got good suggestions, from a Dead Guy Clone (with recipe) to an altbier (and altbiers are good).

But I'm lazy. So I threw some ingredients into QBrew, and came up with something that resembles an American Amber Ale. Maybe. If you squint. In the dark with the light behind it. I dunno. It's gonna be beer, and I want to fill the pipeline up.

So I got a 2.5 gallon batch as follows:

American 2-Row - 1.25 pounds (I have 1/4 pound left over from some other recipe, and I can buy a pound at the LHBS)
Munich - 4 pounds (This leaves me with 1 pound left over, but vacuum sealing it will keep it fresh for some future batch)
Crystal 10L - .25 pounds

Northern Brewer - 0.5 oz - 60 minutes
Northern Brewer - 0.25 oz - 22 minutes
Northern Brewer - 0.25 oz - 7 minutes
Northern Brewer - 0.25 oz - 0 minutes

I've got some dry ale yeast that I hold in reserve. Or I could pick something out at the LHBS, because I'd need to go shopping before I brew this anyway.

So next weekend, I'll do a small BIAB and brew this up. Short brew time, short conditioning time. That's what I'm about at this point.

Sounds like a nice brew! That much Munich will leave a real nice malty backbone for the hops.

I caught the "short conditioning time" portion and remember a recent conversation at a pub with a guy who is a regular member of the huge and local homebrew club (never joined but am thinking about it). He told me that a very large portion of the members only ferment 2 weeks, bottle and condition 2 weeks and many of the beers he sampled, tasted great.
When I told him I ferment 3 weeks he asked why and I explained it works for me and that a great majority of my beers are pretty big beers and he told me to just try 2 weeks and see if I can notice a difference.
I just may do that.

So, how's that for a hijack?
Your recipe is simply and will be simply wonderful. I'll drink to that.

I'm sure shorter fermentation time won't hurt anything. It's just that I've got 2 LBKs and one fiver, so a 3-week rotation works for me. But bottling a smaller batch after two weeks isn't a big deal.

Also, as far as this recipe goes, I think it'll be a good beer for late fall/early winter.

I went through my hops supply to see if I could use something different (and also use up some of the current stock). After some digging around, and some research, I decided to use Nugget for the bittering boil, and German Tradition for the flavor/aroma/dry hop. Malt sweetness and flowery/slightly spicy sounds like a good combination for a late fall/winter Amber, no?

Sounds like a good combination to me. I used Nugget for the bittering hop a while ago and thought it worked well.

Just ordered some Nugget from Farmhouse today, never used it before (or don't recall) but see it's being used in many beers I like. I think it would be a nice match from what I've read of it.

Yeah, since I'm not trying to clone a beer or even strictly follow a style, it's a pretty wide-open field. All I want to get out of this batch is a good, drinkable, cold-weather beer, preferably with a strong malt presence. In any case, it's gonna be beer, and I don't feel like any drama or sweating out what the result is gonna be. A relatively undistinguished beer is still beer, after all.

Beer-lord wrote:I caught the "short conditioning time" portion and remember a recent conversation at a pub with a guy who is a regular member of the huge and local homebrew club (never joined but am thinking about it). He told me that a very large portion of the members only ferment 2 weeks, bottle and condition 2 weeks and many of the beers he sampled, tasted great.
When I told him I ferment 3 weeks he asked why and I explained it works for me and that a great majority of my beers are pretty big beers and he told me to just try 2 weeks and see if I can notice a difference.
I just may do that.

So, how's that for a hijack?
Your recipe is simply and will be simply wonderful. I'll drink to that.

I'll see your thread hijack. With MrB HMEs, I never found them ready with less than four weeks in the bottle. And my biggest brew, an 8% abv English Ale, took at least two months. But Centennial Blonde (AG) and an extract clone of Great South Bay Blonde Ambition both fermented in two weeks or less. They were also ready to drink after two weeks in the bottle. The first bottle of GSBBA was bottled only six days, refrigerated for five. No off flavors.
To be back on thread, Dave, I don't have enough experience to analyze your recipe. But My two SMaShes are both good, and the GSBBA is just light LME, hops, and apricot extract. Obey the Hat!

Okay, just finished cleaning up after brewing this. Pretty successful brew day, I'd say. No major glitches, anyway, and the important things turned out good, such as final volume (looks like I hit 2.5 gallons right on the screws!), OG (1.058, which is only slightly lower than QBrew's 1.061, and it ain't nuthin' to lose sleep over), nice color, albeit somewhat cloudy, but my BIABs tend to look that way; it'll probably clear up during fermentation/conditioning, and if it doesn't who gives a rip? I have a good feeling about this.

Now I have to think about what I want to do next week. Another 2.5 gallon batch, but I really don't want to use any malt grain. Specialty grains, yeah, but I'm gonna do DME. Not even sure what style might be nice, which would help me throw something together. I should check the hops supply and see what would be suitable for what I've already squirreled away.

It's nice to have the experience to be confident that I can throw a bunch of ingredients together and come up with something pretty darn good. And right now, that's all I want. I'll take on some challenges once the pipeline is filled, but right now, I just need to be making beer.