This is my recipe for mellow amber ale. It is a very simple recipe – no frills – but it is a very good recipe if it is done with skill and patience. The result can rival any commercially avaialble beer.

Here is a shot of the ingredients … getting ready to brew. I am able to buy my ingredients in bulk from our local homebrew supply store. Shown in the photo below: crystal malt grain (lower left), amber malt extract (in the big tub in back), Cascade hop pellets (on the right in the front) and Safale US-05 dry yeast (in the red packet in front). Also shown is a reusable hop and grain bag in the middle and gypsum (mineral salts) in the foreground. Note: keep the yeast and the hops in the regrigerator until you are ready to use them. If the hop pellets come in a plastic bag, make sure that the plastic has a good air-tight seal. We want the hops to be as fresh as possible.

And here is a shot of the bottled water that I use 2 – 2 1/2 gal. containers of spring water (not distilled water … we want the mineral content).

The nice thing about making your own homebrew beer is that you can save an amazing amount of money. A comparable commercially available amber ale from a micro-brewery from the local store will cost about twice as much for a six-pack.

If you have to buy your ingredients mail order in cans and pre-packed bags, it will cost more — especially with freight expense. Still, it is definitely worth it.

Step One: Brewing

Please see the article: Beer Making – Part I

Add 1 1/2 gallons of water to the bewing pot.

Place the crushed crystal grain in the hop and grain bag (or disposable muslin bag) and place it into the pot of cold water.

Bring the water to a boil, then remove from heat and let steep for 5 minutes. Place the lid on the pot during steeping.

Remove the grain bag and let it sit in a strainer over the pot and use a spoon or ladle to gently press all the water out of the bag:

In the bag you will see a lot of trube (gelatinous precipitation from malted grain). The hop and grain bag will catch most of the trube and keep it out of the wort.

Discard the grain, then carefully bring back to a boil. After turning on the heat, add the 1/2 tsp of mineral salts (gypsum), then add the amber malt extract, making sure to keep stirring to avoid burning the malt. Periodically stir the wort during brewing and watch that you don’t have the fire too high and cause the wort to boil over.

Divide the 1 1/2 ounces of Cascade hops into three equal parts of 1/2 oz. each to make it easy to judge how much to add:

When the pot begins to boil, set a timer for 60 minutes and add 1 oz of hops – that’s two out of the 3 parts of hops that were divided up. That will leave 1/2 oz for later after the boil. We want to bring out the bitterness with this first hopping so we want to boil for a full hour after the first hopping. Hop flavor (not bitterness) will be lost during boiling. We want some hop flavor as well so the last hopping is done after the boil to preserve the hop flavor.

Keep stirring the wort periodically and keep the lid on the pot. Open the lid every once in awhile to stir the wort and to check to make sure it doesn’t boil over.

During this time, sanitize the fermenter, strainer, ladle, stainless steel whisk, air lock (take it apart), thermometer, glass and plastic spoon (for priming the yeast). Add 1/4 cup household bleach to the fermenter, then fill it with tap water, then add everything to be sanitized into the fermenter. Let it sit for several minutes, then rinse everything with hot water to remove any chlorine taste or smell from the bleach. Keep everything clean and sanitized until you are ready to use them.

After one hour, remove from heat and add the remaining 1/2 oz of hops. Place the lid back on the pot.

Chill the wort in a bathtub of cold water for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. At this point we want to chill the wort down quickly to prevent any bacteria from being able to infect the beer.

In the meantime, add about 2 gallons of water to the fermenter plus about 1/2 gallon of ice cubes. This is a guess … you’ll see why later just before you pitch the yeast. The idea is to pitch the yeast when the wort is 70° F. When all the wort has been added to the fermenter, you can add a little boiling water to bring the temperature up or you can add a little ice to bring the temperature down to 70° F.

After 15 minutes, place the sanitized strainer over the edge of the fermenter and using a sanitized ladle, carefully ladle the wort into the strainer. The strainer will catch the hops and the hops will catch most of the remaining trube:

Do it carefully and slowly. In the shot above you can see some of the ice cubes in the fermenter.

When all the wort has been ladled into the fermenter, place the sanitized thermometer into the fermenter and take a reading:

Add water to the fermenter to bring it up to 5 1/4 gallons. The bottled water should be around room temperature — 70° F. You’ll have to keep reading the thermometer and judge the temperature as you add water. If it is slightly under 70° F, then you can add boiling water to bring the temperature up. If it is slightly over, then you can some ice to bring the temperature down. You want the temperature to be as close to 70° F as possible.

This is very important. Temperature is everything when brewing beer. You want the yeast to get off to a fast start. It will start fast if the wort is right around 70° F. But once the yeast has gotten off to a good start and fermentation has begun, you don’t want the wort at 70° F anymore. You want to slow down the fermentation (after about 6 hours) and bring the temperature down to about 60° F for the remainder of the fermentation. You accomplish this by wrapping the fermenter in cold, wet towels or a T-shirt, and by adding some ice around the fermenter. Please see these articles on cooling the fermenter:

• Cooling the Fermenter I
• Cooling the Fermenter II

If you start off too hot, you won’t be able to get it down because the fermentation process generates more heat. You will get the best flavor if you can master the temperature of the ferementaion from the moment you pitch the yeast. Try to keep the room temperature between 65° F – 70° F.

Priming the Yeast

Just before you begin ladling the wort into the fermenter while it is still chilling in the bathtub, and after you have sanitized the glass and plastic spoon, add about 6 oz. of some of the bottled water to the glass:

Add the yeast to the glass and whisk it thoroughly with the plastic spoon to aerate it and help it get a good start. Let it sit for about 10 minutes before pitching:

Pitching the Yeast

When the wort in the fermenter has reached 70° F — or as close as you can get it — "pitch" the yeast into the wort. Just add it to the wort and whisk it vigorously with the sanitized stainess steel whisk for a minute or so. This is the only stage where you want to aerate the yeast and oxygenate it. Later, when you transfer the beer to the carboy and once again when you transfer it back to the fermenter when bottling the beer, you don’t want to agitate the beer at all. The addition of oxygen at the later stages will cause off-flavors in your beer.

Ladle some of the beer into the tube that the thermometer was shipped in. Fill it to about 3/4ths full so the hydrometer will float. Take a hydrometer reading. The first hydrometer reading should be about 1.045 – 1.050. Close the (sanitized) fermenter lid. Assemble and insert the air lock – fill it about half full with water then close it up.

Primary Fermentation

Wrap the fermenter with towels or T-shirt and place it in a terra tray. Wait about 6 hours then fill the tray with ice. Pour cold water down in between the fermenter and the cloth. Distribute the water all the way around the fermenter to thoroughly wet all the fabric. The excess water will fill the tray and the ice will begin to melt.

Primary fermentation can take about 4 – 8 days. After about 16 to 20 hours – I never know exactly when because I usually go to sleep and check the fermenter in the morning – you should see bubbling in the air lock. Add some more ice to the tray and continue adding ice to the tray as often as you can while the beer ferments for the next several days.

Primary fermentation is complete when you no longer see any bubbles in the air lock.

Clarification – Transfer the Beer to the Carboy

Sanitize the carboy, Auto-Siphon and tubing, carboy bung (stopper) and another air lock (take it apart). Add 1/4 cup of household bleach to the carboy, then fill it with water. Add a couple of tablespoons of bleach to a clean sink or basin and fill it about half way with water to sanitize the tubing, bung and air lock. Always sanitize the outside and inside of the tubing and Auto-Siphon. After the bleach and water has been in contact with every surface for a few minutes, attach the tubing to the Auto-Siphon and give it a few strokes and siphon about half the bleach and water from the carboy into the basin or sink with the other items. Empty the sink or basin and the carboy, then rinse everything with hot water to remove any bleach odor. Fill the carboy with hot water and siphon enough of it out to thoroughly rinse it and the tubing.

Please see the article: Beer Making – Part II for full details of the following:

Siphon the beer into the carboy and be careful not to splash it. You can accomplish this by resting the end of the tubing at the bottom of the carboy, then begin siphoning.

Take a second hydrometer reading. It should drop by about half the amount of the first hyrometer reading. Typically, I will see a reading of about 1.016 – 1.022.

Allow the beer to clarify in the carboy for about 5 – 7 days. When the beer is clarified and you can see the spent yeast at the bottom, it is ready to bottle.

Bottling the Beer

After the beer has clarified in the carboy it is time to bottle the beer.

Please see the following articles for full details:

• Beer Making – Part III
• Beer Making – Part IV
• Beer Making – Part V

Cleaning and Sanitizing the Bottles

I use two products from Five Star Chemicals that are available from most homebrew suppliers. One is a cleaner called P.B.W.™ and the other is a bottle sanitizer called Saniclean. Add one ounce of Saniclean to 3 gallons of water to use as a bottle sanitizer. Fill each bottle all the way to the brim with the sanitizer solution and allow to sit for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, empty the solution from each bottle, allow to drain a few minutes while upside down then turn each bottle right side up and allow to air dry. DO NOT RINSE. Please see the article Beer Making – Part IV for full details.

Boil the Bottle Caps

Boil the caps for 5 minutes. Please read the article: Beer Making – Part V for full details.

Adding the Priming Sugar

Most basic beer recipes (and my article Beer Making – Part V) recommend adding 3/4ths of a cup of priming sugar to 5 gallons of beer. I like to push it a little more because I like a little more carbonation. I will usually use 1 cup of priming sugar – one rounded cup or heaping cup depending on how much beer I get out of the batch.

Carbonation and Aging

Store the bottled beer at room temperature during carbonation. It will take about 2 weeks for the beer to carbonate. But the beer doesn’t taste good after only two weeks. Wait a minimum of 3 weeks to drink the beer.

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