Eureka, time for yet another recipe from my first experiences as a homebrewer. This is a recipe I did back in 2009, a German Ale style beer fermented with Wyeast’s #1007 German Ale yeast. Pretty easy grist, mash schedule and fermentation. Lets go through the recipe:
| Recipe: | German Ale | |
| Numbers: | Volume [L] | 19 (5 gal) |
| Original gravity | 12°P | |
| Terminal gravity | 3.3°P | |
| Color | Around 10 EBC | |
| IBU | 19 IBU | |
| ABV | 5 % | |
| Grains: | Pilsner malt (4 EBC) | 0.38 kg |
| Vienna malt (8 EBC) | 3.9 kg | |
| Carapils (4 EBC) | 0.1 kg | |
| Acidified malt (5 EBC) | 0.1 kg | |
| Hops: | Hersbrucker (3.2% AA) | 37 g and boil for 90 min |
| Tettnanger (4.1% AA) | 22 g and boil for 80 min | |
| Yeast: | #1007 German Ale | |
| Water: | Burgdorf | Mash: 18 L (4.8 gal), sparge: 15 L (4 gal) @78°C (172°F) |
| Rest: | Mash in @45°C (113°F), 20 min @ 43°C (109°F), 30 min @ 63°C (145°F), 30 min @ 71°C (160°F), 10 min @ 78°C (172°F) | |
| Boil: | Total 90 min | |
| Fermentation: | Primary | 7 days @ 20°C (68°F) in plastic fermenter |
| Secondary | None | |
| Maturation: | Carbonation (CO2 vol) | 2.5 (bottled at 4.7°P) |
| Maturation time | > 3 weeks | |
05/01/09: Brew day number twelve begins. All went according to the recipe above. Nothing to mention here.
05/07/09: Bottled the beer with a gravity of 4.7°P. The forced fermentation test finished at a gravity of 3.3°P. There should be enough sugars left for the appropriate carbonation level. The pressure gauge I used to check the carbonation level showed a pressure of about 2.05 bar after a few days into the bottle fermentation. This is equal to a carbonation level of approximately 2.5 vol of carbon dioxide.
I have to mention here, that I did several batches where I bottled the beer just at the right time to have enough sugars left for the carbonating process. Now I just add sugar or even unfermented wort. This is far easier than waiting for the right time to bottle. Another thing that I do differently today is the time for fermentation and secondary fermentations in the first place. I did no secondary fermentation steps back then. Now I leave the beer for another two weeks in the fermenter to let it clear and finish the fermentation.
No tasting results for this batch. Sorry for that. I must have lost them… From the grist I would expect a rather malty beer (due to the high amount of Vienna malt) and a rather subtle hop character. If someone else out there gives this recipe a go please let me know how it turned out.
