Easy Bake Banana Beer

After an unexpectedly busy week with thirsty summer crowds, we need something to restock the cool room quickly!  So in addition to the usual longer-prep-time  suspects, we tried something new today.   Grabbing a few leftovers from the kitchen, we whipped up this “easy-bake” recipe in-between other batches of brew.  It took all of maybe 20 minutes.

Easy-Bake Banana Beer (5 Gal)

Mountmellick Brown Ale Malt Extract home brew kit (pre-hopped)
1/2 lb DME or Dextrose (we used the corn sugar)
2.5 lb Overripe bananas
2 whole nutmegs
1 lb Wheat malt (grain)

Start warming 1.5 Gal water in the brew pot, and put 3 Gal water in the fermenter.  When the brew pot reaches a comfortable bath temperature, add the malt extract and stir until dissolved.  Crush the whole nutmegs (a nut cracker works nicely) into the wort and add the grain as well.  Do NOT boil.  Meanwhile, peel and mash the bananas.  When the wort is starting to simmer, turn off the heat and add the banana pulp.  Stir quickly, but do not over mix.  Pour into the fermenter with the cold water, top up to 5 gallons and aerate vigorously.  Pitch yeast, being careful to avoid drooling into the fermenter.  It really does smell THAT good.

We anticipate a stronger, lighter, crisper beer than the kit alone would provide, and will be curious to see how much of the initial “banana bread” aroma carries through to the finished beverage.  Slainte!

Genius Stout for Chocoholics

After months of tweaking and improving consistency with the Purple Pils and Cedar Logger brews, we decided to try something completely different to bring some variety to the lighter recipes we’ve been offering lately (Apricot Ale, a Mexican Cerveza clone, and the previously mentioned recipes).   Using Charles Pappazian’s Toad Spit as our launching point, we modified with abandon, and came up with the following concoction…which is bubbling away merrily even now.

Genius Stout for Chocoholics (5 Gal)

Beginning with about 1.5 gallons of cold water, add
4tsp Gypsum then a grain sock containing
.5 lbs flaked rye
1 lb crystal malt
.5 lb chocolate malt

Bring to a boil and maintain for 5 minutes.  Remove grains and add
1/4 C cocoa powder
3.3 lbs amber malt
3 lbs dark spray malt (DME)

Bring back up to a full boil and add 1.5 oz Saaz hops.  Boil for 60 minutes

At 15 minutes add another 1/4C cocoa powder
At 10 minutes add .5 oz Fuggles hops for a light aroma

Sparge into fermenter containing the other 3.5 gallons of cold water.  Pitch 1-2 packets of ale yeast.

Add the usual 3/4C of Dextrose for priming when bottling and wait 3-4 weeks (you can do it) before sampling.

It smelled so good while sparging, we almost considered skipping fermentation altogether, just adding milk and some cinnamon or cardamom…almost.

UPDATE: After a mere six weeks in the bottle, this brew is just coming into it’s own.  Too bad there are only a couple left.  We will most definitely repeat this particular experiment on a regular basis.

Honey Brown Ale #7

This is an old favorite that I’ve thrown together a number of times, without paying overmuch attention to the details.  Perhaps that’s why the end result has been so very different each time?  Unfailingly delicious, here’s the most recent recipe.  Maybe I’ll even be able to replicate it next time…

10 Gallon version

• 6 lbs Honey
• 3 lbs Amber dried malt extract
• 4 lbs Amber malt syrup
• 1 cup Cascade hops
• 1 cup Hallertau hops
• 1 pkt Coopers Ale yeast
• 1.5 C Dextrose (for bottling)

Use yer big pot and add 2 gallons of water.  Bring to a boil and add the honey, malt syrup, and malt extract.  Bring to a boil and add the Cascade hops.  Set your timer for 60 minutes and stay close to keep the pot from boiling over.  While you’re waiting, put 7 gallons of cold water into your big bad carboy.  When only 2-3 minutes remain in the boil, add the Hallertau hops.  When time is up, slowly pour the wort into the carboy.  The cold water will cool the wort sufficiently to allow you to pitch the yeast immediately.  Aerate, and airlock.   This will be ready for bottling in 1-2 weeks, and drinkable in another 1 week…though it will continue to improve with age for the next 8-10 weeks.

Specifics on the quality of these results will be added here once we’ve had a chance to sample the finished product.

Cedar Logger Trial #1

Inspired by the scent of prairie cedar carried on the wind and a love of Scottish Heather Ale, we decided to try capturing those two essences in a medium bodied winter lager.  This experiment is loosely based on two other recipes…a scotch ale and a honey spruce lager.  Our concoction follows  Feel free to try it out for yourself, or wait until we report back on the ultimate results.  We’re also interested in your own successes and hope you’re willing to share!

5 Gallon Recipe for Cedar Logger

• 3.3 lbs. unhopped amber malt extract syrup
• 3.0 lbs plain dried amber malt extract
• 1 lb local honey
• 1 lb toasted rye berries
• 1.5 oz Cascade hops (boiling)
• .5 oz Hallertau hops (finishing)
• 1/4 C berries from prairie cedar (or use Juniper berries)
• 1 pkg lager yeast
• 3/4 C corn sugar (for bottling)

Add toasted crushed rye grains to 1.5 gallons of cold water.  Remove the grains when boiling commences.  Add the malt extract, honey, and boiling hops and continue to boil for 45 minutes.  Add the finishing hops and crushed berries during the final few minutes of boiling.  Sparge immediately into the fermenter and cold water.  Add yeast when cool and bottle when fermentation is complete.

This first batch is currently bubbling away, and smells darned good.  We’ll post an update after sampling the finished brew!

UPDATE: This was a consistent big hit, and will be a regular seasonal feature brew.

Mead Experiment #1

After harvesting 5.5 gallons of honey from our first hive last year, we had to figure out what to do with it all.  Naturally the conversation turned to mead, otherwise known as ambrosia!  Since mead takes such a long time to ferment and condition, we wanted to be sure to do it right…and so we followed actual directions (gasp) courtesy of  Charlie Papazian’s “Complete Joy of Home Brewing” most carefully, straying only so far as to double the size of the batch.

The particular beauty of mead is that it is far easier to find local honey than local malted barley for brewing beer.  Homebrewing mead allows you to live more sustainably and support your local economy, farmers, and environment.  Not to mention it will make you the envy of all your drinking buddies.

We’ve now bottled 10 gallons of promising liquid gold, and are looking forward to monitoring the development of this particular brew as it ages over the coming months.  We’ll let you know how it turns out!

Ordering a cold one

As we continue to experiment and sample the highly-variable results of our efforts, we’ve become accustomed to drinking anything and everything that dribbles, pours, foams, or even explodes out of the bottle.  It would be amusing to know what YOUR personal preferences might be if you were to be accidentally wandering through the rural wilds of Missouri and were distrustful of the water.  Take part in our virtual taste-test below.  It’s highly unscientific, but FREE and non-caloric!