The recipe for next Sunday.

September 28th is brewing day!  It should be a good day -- I'm off from work (as far as I know), it'll be the beginning of Autumn, and I've got a couple of friends coming over to brew.

The plan I've got for the ale I'm making:

Dissolve 6# of DME in 2 gal water and bring to a boil for 45 min.

Steep 1# crushed crystal, 30 min, bring to boil

Add Super Styrians, 1 oz, with 45 min left to go in boil

Willamettes, 1 oz, 20 min left

Centennials, 1 oz, 10 min left

Now here's where it gets interesting -- I'm thinking about adding, with 3-5 min remaining in the boil, 3 cups of maple syrup and a little honey.  That'll get strained into the carboy which has 3 gal of cold water.

I think this'll work.  I need to do more fine-tuning between now and next Sunday.

Adding to the recipe.

Went out on Saturday afternoon and picked up an ounce of Centennial hop pellets, as well as a pound of Crushed Crystal malt.  I'll have a more specific version of my recipe later this week, once I get the chance to sit down and calculate everything out.

We sampled the rest of my "sample bottles" of the first batch at my workplace yesterday.  Comments ranged from "smooth" to "not super hoppy" but everyone seemed to dig it.  One co-worker admitted that he could "drink this all afternoon."  Another thought that it almost seemed to be close to a sour ale (like in the vein of Magic Hat's 'Odd Notion') and we chalked that up to the yeast I used.

I'm not going to touch the other bottles for at least another week or so, if only to see how much better it gets.  It was brought to my attention that I actually underfilled the bottles.

Working on the recipe for the next batch.

More for my use than yours; this is the rough outline (not yet complete) for my next batch o' brew.

1# Crystal Malt 10

9# Amber DME

1oz Super Styrians @ 60 min boil

1oz Super Styrians @ 60 min boil

1oz Bramling Cross @ 20 min boil

1oz Willamette @ 10 min boil

Wyeast 1098 British Ale Yeast

I haven't determined what my finishing hops are going to be yet.  I do know that I need to buy the DME still, as well as said finishing hops, some nylon bags, and maybe a couple of decent beer mugs.  :)

I had originally shot for a Labor Day brew date on this, which didn't happen due to timing and funds.  Having planned it in advance, I'm having a "Bills and Brews" party on September 28th, where I'm brewing this beer and showing the Bills/St. Louis game.