All Extract Beer. Kinda lazy ...

Kinda lazy, but so what. It is kind of a comfort zone.

It has been a long time since I brewed an all malt beer. I have been
thinking about it for a while. A full malt beer has such a rich flavor
and complexity, but lets face it: 6 hours to brew a beer, that is a big
chunk of time.

For the last few years, brewing an all malt has been been an exercize in
scheduling and negotiation. A full mash takes your full attention for a 6 hour
period. With kids, family, pet, household, job; 6 hours is hard to fit in. Brewing
after everyone goes to bed works but lets face it. It is a pain.

Roll back to my early brewing years. All malt, no mash, no sparge. Mix, boil,
cool and pitch. Well, not quite that simple, but you get the picture. I decided to
do a malt only brew, or close to it. So, with a bit of computer work to get the
proportions right, here is the recipe:

6 lbs American Gold DME
1 lbs 15L Crystal (in bag for boil)
2 oz Hallertau hops (2.2 Alpha - What's up with that? What ever happened to the 4 we used to have?)
2 oz Cascade hops (6% Alpha - these smell sooooooooo sweet)
Yeast - American Ale 1056 (a personal favorite: Med Flocculation. Good attenuation. Yummy grapefruit overtones)

The Boil:
Full boil DME in 6 Gal for 1 hour
Hallertau bittering hops added at 15 minutes
Crystal Malt in malt bag added at 30 minutes
1 oz Cascade hops added at 30 minutes (retain 1 oz for dry hopping)

Cool down
Rapid cooldown using heat exchanger to 77 Degrees F. (See note)

Transfer and Pitch:
Siphon to primary
Add 1 oz Cascade
Pitch with yeast

Starting Gravity: .045

Heat exchanger used 6 lbs of ice and primer of water to cool wort from 212 degrees
to 78 degrees in 14 minutes.

Rack at 6 days from primary (plastic) to secondary (glass)
Cloudy
Specific Gravity: 1.010

Rack at 10 days:
Much clearer, some yeast still in suspension
SG: 1.005

Check back for final transfer to Keg.


Timb