Fuggle & Kent Amber Ale

After a lot of debate, I am plunging into beer-making this Labor Day weekend. Mother-in-law Pat gave me two beer-making books for my birthday. I went to the beer store to get ingredients.

Beer ingredients are simple compared to wine-making, because you don't have to deal with making juice. While some wine is boiled, generally one sterilizes with sulfite. In beer, the boiling is part of extracting the flavor from the hops. Boiling is obviously the biggest hassle.

Beer-making and wine-making have one thing in common, and that is cleaning, washing and sterilizing. The beer guys seem more anal-retentive, but beer is less alcoholic and less acidic so it is more prone to bacteria. Also the home-brew guys don't use sulfite or sorbate which might help.

Beer-making has some of its own nouns like other age-old crafts: two are "wort" and "pitch."

I started out with a recipe, but I get bored with recipes, so I arrived at this.

Fuggle & Kent Amber Ale

2.25 gallon water
200 g Crystal Malt, crushed
Allow to steep 30 minutes at 150-160F, and then remove.
1800 g Dried Amber Malt Extract
Heat to boiling, then add
8 g Fuggles hops
13 g Kent Goldings hops
Boil for 30 minutes
4 g Fuggles hops
13 g Kent Goldings hops
Boil 15 minutes more
8 g Kent Goldings hops
Boil 2 more minutes.
1 gallon water, after cooling further dilute to 15 deg Brix (see below)
Allow to cool to below 100F.
1 packet Safale US Dry Ale Yeast

Allow ten minutes to rest on surface, then stir in. Transfer to carboy. Wait 7 days
90 g corn sugar 


Allow to ferment 7-10 days

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I checked the specific gravity, and it was 1.070 after the temp correction. I also checked the refractive index RI, and it was 17 degrees Brix.  This means about 9% alcohol, so I added just over a quart of water. This brought the RI down to 15 deg Brix, and alcohol to a manageable 6.8%.  Still strong.

I tasted the wort, and it did not taste great. I did not like the burnt flavor from the Crystal toasted barley -- why do people use this? The hops give it  distasteful bitterness.  Third, it was barely sweet despite the fact that it was overloaded on malt sugar -- I suppose I was comparing it to my mead or cherry wines which were quite sweet.  Hopefully the fermentation will mellow the burnt and bitter flavors.

Nine hours after pitching the yeast, the wort is fermenting nicely. I hope to rack the wort into a secondary fermenter in four days.