Mystery Ale
08/12/2007
So, last night I brewed what I’m calling “Mystery Ale”. The reason I’m calling it that is because I’m not sure where in the BJCP style guidelines it lands.
I threw this together based on some leftover ingredients that I had from the Wheat Ale. I had the Caramel and Cara Pils malts, so I just went to the home brew store and picked up some base malt and hops. Also, I used a packet of Nottingham yeast I had in the fridge. (I was going to use some yeast that I had harvested from a batch a while back, but I guess I kept it too long. Since the starter I made didn’t show any signs of fermenting, I just pitched* dumped it and used the dry yeast.)
Anyways, here’s the recipe:
Mystery Ale
6 lbs. Briess Golden Light DME (1/2 late edition)
.5 lb. Caramel 20L
.5 lb. Cara Pils
2 oz. Willamette 4.5% @ 60 min.
1 oz. US Kent Goldings 4.2% @ 30 min.
1 tsp. Irish Moss @ 15 min.
1 pkt. Nottingham dry yeast
( *Note on the edit: I realized, when re-reading this, that “pitched”, when referring to yeast, means that it was “pitched” into the wort. I wanted to clarify that I didn’t actually use the yeast starter, but dumped it down the sink!)
Where are you storing all the ingredients? How much is an ale costing you for 5 gallons? Um, so, what the hell does mystery ale taste like?!?!?!? I hope it doesn’t taste like grandma’s mystery meat!
Well, when I do have ingredients left over, it’s usually a small amount (since I only buy what I need to make a single batch at a time), so I usually just keep extra grains in large “storage” zip-lock bags. Any extra hops just go in the fridge.
A five gallon batch (doing malt extract recipes) can run anywhere between $17-$35 (or higher), depending on the recipe.
I just bottled the “Mystery Ale” this past Friday, so it’ll be a couple of weeks before I know what it tastes like.