Just a blog to check in with folks at DailyKos that enjoy brewing and drinking craft beer.
Feel free to post your recipes or talk about why you got into homebrewing. There's always room for a friendly discussion among aspiring brewers/craft beer drinkers that happen to be kossacks.
Are you a homebrewer? What have you brewed recently?
For me, the last beer I brewed was a rye pale ale. It's a customized recipe, based on a solid extract pale ale recipe that I've used for 4 different batches, all very successful.
In fact, I'm going to post the recipe for kossacks that wish to brew it on their own. It's an extract recipe so you might need to adjust for all-grain if you know how:
Rye Pale Ale
Grain Bill:
Flaked rye 4oz
Carafoam 8oz
Belgian Biscuit 8oz
Rye 8oz
Extract:
Light malt extract (can be liquid or dried)
Hopping Schedule:
Amarillo 1oz 60 min
Cascade 1oz 10min
Cascade 1oz 1 min
Mashing schedule (for all-grain or partial mash)
Mash: 2.0 qts strike at 160F
Sparge: 1.0 qt at 170F
Extraction Efficiency: 76%
Boil: 2.5 gallons in the boil
Fermentation: Dry ale yeast or liquid yeast (your choice)
Now, before I bottled this last Saturday, I noticed a very sweet, spicy beer (non-carbonated) that seemed to be on target. The aroma is very floral, due to the Cascade hops.
I originally brewed this beer on 5/13/08 and it was in primary fermentation for 2 weeks and a carboy for nearly 3 weeks, due to time constraints.
Also, for kossacks that enjoy craft beers, I recommend checking out Allagash's line of bigger beers. There aren't enough big beers from VT so I'm recommending one of Maine's best.
Allagash Curieux, which I am drinking, is a 11% Tripel aged in bourbon barrels. Very delicious and there are subtle bourbon notes and alcohol heat, along with a taste that's reminiscent of cherries and raisins.
I also post at BeerAdvocate so check out that site if you're looking for more recommendations. I won't post the link because I don't know if it's ok to or not. However, look up my name there (same as here) if you want to see some of the beers I've reviewed.
Cheers and raise a beer to the weekend!
My next batch may be an IPA or Witbier/Double Witbier. I am not sure yet.