I took the opportunity to brew up another batch over the weekend while my brother-in-law was here visiting.
I used a kit I’ve done already, Cooper’s Real Ale. However, this time I decided to add some ingredients, specifically Carmelized and Chocolate malts, and Fuggles and Hollertauer hops. I used the Cooper’s KD-type can of (pre-hopped) LME (liquid malt extract) and about 3/4lb of corn sugar. I got everything from my local Brew Cellar; good folks, there.
We started off by creating the wort out of the Carmelized and Chocolate malts. I figure we used about 250g each — much like my entire brewing process, I didn’t bother to measure the ingredients; I use my nose more than anything.
We followed the instructions from the Brewer’s Best brew day schedule (which I re-used from the Red Ale I’d just done), which is handy when creating a wort. We started off with the malts in a grain sack and steeped them in warm — but not boiling water — for about 20 minutes. Then we brought the wort to a boil, added the LME and the sugar, and added the Fuggles hops. We brewed that action up for 55 minutes and then added the Hollertauer hops and burbled it for another five minutes.
Since it’s wintertime here in the Great White North — and it’s actually a little white in Toronto this year — I figured it’d be a snap to just set the brew outside to chill, rather than having to do the whole brew-in-the-sink I usually do. Well, although the snowbank and chill winter air did cool the brew down a bit, we still had to resort to the sink and some cold water to chill the wort down proper-like.
Once everything was settled in the brew pot we used that very handy sleeve siphon to get the brew into the carboy without also transferring the trub. Gravity being the benevolent force that it is we did the same thing for the balance of the water jug. We topped the carboy up with a bit more water and siphoned some brew out for the yeast. That extract being conveniently room temperature, we put in a glass measuring cup and threw the yeast sachet over it, covering it with a cloth and leaving it for about 10 minutes. Then we poured the slightly-activated yeast into the carboy and plugged it up with the one-way water-regulated valve. I was a bit worried that since I didn’t stir the yeast into the brew I screwed it up and the yeast wouldn’t activate properly, but that didn’t bear out to be true.
Two days later the brew had a nicely-formed head and a pleasant fragrance emitted from the regulator in two-second intervals — a good sign, I trust, of healthy fermentation.
With any luck, this will turn out to be a warm, chocolate ale with a bright, fiery hops finish. I’ll try to get to the bottling in a few days.
