So you want to make beer, try this.

Hello everyone!

So you want to make beer, but you think it's to hard. Well it's not. Meaning that you can make it as complicated as you want or vise versa. I have a great simple recipe you can follow to make a tasty brew. It's one of my own but pretty much all beer recipes are the same.

They all contain 4 major elements: Water, Hops, Yeast, and Grains. "WHY G" is what I like to call it, like asking one of your hommies who smashed your girl. Okay throwing some street slang doesn't mean I gots any cred on the street, but it will help you remember the basic ingredients in beer. Then there is a fifth we call adjuncts, which is anything else you add to the beer like spices, fruit, rice, and so forth that either increases the alcohol level and/or adds some flavor. Pretty much every beer has some sort of adjunct.

One thing when you get into home brewing, you'll notice two very distinct groups of brewers. First group I call the "Scientists". They make great beer and always do everything like scientists, and everything has to be perfect. From the type of style the beer is, to the color, and even the size of the bubbles in the beer. I am not kidding.

The second group I call "Artists". They pretty much color out of the lines, doing anything to their beer to get a master piece. Throw in some wild flowers, how about some tea leaves, and even "Pop Tarts". Yes you can make beer out of "Pop Tarts". They just want their beer to be they way they want it.

Both groups do have one thing in common. They want to make great beer. I'm cool with that. I myself like the science behind it all, but I don't always measure everything down to the milligram. I also like adding all sorts of crap to my beers to make them different. So I'm kind of in the middle of those groups, which is good with me, since I like to be in balance. So okay now to the recipe.

So I call this one "Danny Boy", an Irish Red Ale, but really doesn't fall in with the style guide lines. This is also what they call an "Extract Beer", which is a fancy way of saying that someone else did the work of extracting the malt sugars from the grains for your beer. I don't know about you but save me 3 hours out of my brew day is fine with me. So I made this recipe so it's really easy for beginners, or people that don't have to much time to brew. I also did it in mind for people who have basic home brewing kits in mind.

"Danny Boy"

What you'll need:

5 gal. Filtered Water
7lbs. Filtered Ice
1tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1cup Light Brown Sugar
8lbs. Extra Light Liquid Malt
1/8lb. 40 Level Bond Crystal (Barley)Crushed
1/8lb. 80 Level Bond Crystal (Barley)Crushed
1/8lb. Munich(Barley)Crushed
1/2lb. Aromatic (Barley)Crushed
1/8lb. Carmel Wheat Crushed
2oz. Fuggle Hops
1oz. Kent Golding Hops.
1 Tube of Irish Ale Yeast
or
1 package of Ale Yeast

Making the Wort or Beer Soup.

First pour 3 gallons of water into a 5 gallon pot. Bring the water temperature up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit and turn of the stove.

Then place your grains in a steeping bag or sock and place it into the pot. Let it sit for a half hour.

Then remove the bag from the pot, letting most of the liquid drain and discard. Do not squeeze the bag. Bring the pot back up to a boil. When you have a nice rolling boil drop in 1oz. of the Fuggle Hops. Let it boil for another half hour.

Then add 1oz. of Fuggle Hops, 8lbs of Extra light Liquid Malt, 1 tsp. of ground Cinnamon. Let boil for 25 minutes. Stay close to adjust the heat so you don't get a boil over.

Then add the Kent Golding Hops and let boil for 5 more minutes. Then turn off the stove. Let this sit for about 20 minutes with a lid on it.

Place ice into your 5&1/2 or 6 gallon fermenting bucket. Now place a strainer on top of the bucket and strain the pot into the bucket. Be careful the wort is still hot. Discard the left over stuff in the strainer. Then add the rest of the water to the bucket, making sure it gets to the fill line on the side of the bucket.

Take the temperature of the wort. If it is around 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit add the yeast. If it is not let it sit, covered, until it does. Then seal the bucket with the air lock and store in a cool, clean place, for about a week.

Transfer it to a glass carboy with an air lock, for about another week.

Then transfer to a bottling bucket and mix in the cup of Light Brown Sugar.

Bottle the beer and cap it. Let it sit in a cool place for another week and then refrigerate or not and enjoy.


Now I know I didn't get into the full details of equipment or bottling procedures but there are plenty of videos and stuff on the web to show you how. I will tell you I learned from a friend who brews, my local home brew shop owner, and Basic Brewing Radio/Video, (James Spencer is "DA MAN!"). Trust me there are plenty of people who know how to brew out there.

So here are some links to help you brew:

My Home Brew Shop:
http://www.barryshomebrew.com/

Basic Brewing Radio/Video:
http://www.basicbrewing.com/


So have a great time brewing. Enjoy and "Cheers"!