People's
Choice Saturday, March 3,
at 10am at The Great Dane Pub
and Brewing Company, Wausau, WI (Click
Here)
GOLDEN GROWLER
Homebrew Competition
..
AHA Brewer of the
Week! Let us introduce one of our
own, Tristan Laszweski. Tristan has been brewing for 9 years now and
is extremely enthusiastic about his brews. Like many homebrewers, he
started out with his first kit and got hooked. Now, years later he
finds himself striving to make the best beers he can, with a focus
on all grain lagers and pilsners.
Click on the Photo for the whole
story
Congratulations Tristan! Keep up the good work :
)
..
CLUB NEWS
RECIPE OF THE
MONTH
Big
Belly Belgian Blonde
5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains; OG =
1.060; FG = 1.011; IBU = 26; SRM = 5; ABV =
6.3%
Ingredients:
3.25 lbs.
(1.5 kg) light dried malt extract 14 oz.
(0.40 kg) light liquid malt extract (late
addition) 2.0 lbs. (0.91 kg) corn sugar
(late addition) 1 lb. 13 oz. (0.82 kg)
Belgian Pilsner malt 3.0 oz. (85 g)
Belgian aromatic malt 6 AAU Cluster hops
(60 mins) (0.86 oz./24 g of 7% alpha
acids) 1.3 AAU Styrian Golding hops (20
mins) (0.26 oz./7.3 g of 5% alpha acids)
1.3 AAU Styrian Golding hops (10 mins) (0.26 oz./7.3 g of 5%
alpha acids) 0.25 oz. (7.1 g) Styrian
Golding hops (2 mins) Wyeast 1388
(Belgian Strong Ale) or White Labs WLP570 (Belgian Golden Ale)
yeast (no starter) 1.25 cups corn sugar
(for priming)
Step by Step:
Place crushed grains
in a nylon steeping bag. In a large kitchen pot, heat 3.0 qts.
(2.8 L) of water to 163 °F (73 °C). Submerge grain bag in
water and let steep at 152 °F (67 °C) for 45 minutes. (When
temperature drops below 148 °F (64 °C), heat to 152 °F (67 °C)
again.) While grains are steeping, heat 1.5 qts. (~1.5 L) of
water to 170 °F (77 °C) in a sauce pan. Also, begin heating 2
gallons (7.6 L) of water to a boil in your
brewpot.
When steeping is done, place a colander over
your brewpot and lift the grain bag into it. Pour the "grain
tea" through the bag (which will strain out most of the grain
bits), then rinse the bag with the 1.5 qts. (~1.5 L) of 170 °F
(77 °C) water.
Heat the (roughly) 3 gallons (11 L) of
wort in your brewpot to a boil, then stir in dried malt
extract. (It will foam a bit, so don’t pour all the extract in
at once.) Bring the wort back to a boil, add the bittering
hops and boil for 60 minutes. Add first charge of Styrian
Goldigns with 20 minutes left in boil. Add Irish moss, liquid
malt extract and corn sugar with 15 minutes left in
boil.
Add remaining charges of hops with 10 minutes and
2 minutes left in the boil.
After the boil, cool the
wort (either in a cold-water bath in your sink or with a wort
chiller). Cool until the side of the brewpot feels cool to the
touch. Transfer wort to your fermenter and top up to 5 gallons
(19 L) with cool water. Aerate the wort and pitch your yeast —
straight from the package (no starter) — at 65 °F (18 °F).
(Expect a lag time of a day or more.)
Put your
fermenter somewhere where the ambient temperature is around 72
°F (22 °C) and let the fermentation temperature rise — up to
80 °F (27 °C) is fine — during fermentation. When fermentation
stops, wait a day or two, then rack to secondary. Bottle with
corn sugar (or keg) a few days later.
If possible,
store beer cold (around 40 °F/4.4 °C) after bottle
conditioning for a week or so.
