Most Basic Recipe for Beer?

Try to start with packaged wort (there are a lot of this stuff on the market) - you will need no boiling - just fermentation.

-Anton

On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 22:42:37 -0600, "FTAforever" said in alt.beer.home-brewing:

The most basic beer recipe is the German law - water, malt, hops and yeast. Leave out any one and you have something other than beer.

It's not just the recipe, its your brewing technique and experience. You can make fantastic beer from just a base malt alone, vienna for example, plus one hop variety and yeast and water. Or you can make the most undrinkable gunk from a stunning award winning recipe. If you know how to brew beer, you know recipes are only half the equation. Steve W.

yes i seem to be learning that bit by bit amateur i am also. i've got the home brew companion which is 440 pages of detail explanation CAN I SAY dull read

so what is your very favorite recipe you would offer to share

On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 04:50:08 GMT, "dug88" said in alt.beer.home-brewing:

American pale ale

6 pounds light dry extract 2 ounces Columbus hop pellets 1 pound Carafoam 1 packet Safale S04 yeast

Put the carafoam into a net bag, but it into the 6 gallons of water (for a 5 gallon brew) and turn on the heat.

When the water reaches 160 degrees F, hold it there. Dunk (like a tea bag) the Carafoam about 10 times every 5 minutes for 30 minutes.

Take out the bag. You can bake bread with the flour, set the malt out for the birds or compost it.

Raise the heat to bring the wort to a boil. Put 1-1/2 ounces of hops into a hop bag and put the bag into the wort.

Keep at a rolling boil for 45 minutes. Meanwhile boil about 2 cups of water in a 1 quart jar with the cover sitting on top, so it gets steam scalded. (I use a Ball canning jar.) Boil the jar for a few minutes (to sterilize it), then put it into the freezer to bring the water down to about 70 degrees.

After the wort has been boiling for 45 minutes, add the rest of the hops (1/2 ounce) to the hop bag.

At the 60 minute point, turn off the heat, take out the hop bag and cool the wort down to 70 degrees as fast as you can. (In the winter when there's a foot or two of snow on the ground, I put the pot into the snow and stir the wort with a sterilized [or at least sanitized] stirrer.) A good coil chiller should bring 5 gallons down in 10-20 minutes, depending on your water temperature.

About 10-15 minutes before the wort is cool (or just before you start cooling it) pitch the yeast into the water in the jar. Just let it sit - don't stir or shake.

Beat the wort to oxygenate it. I use a 16 ounce whisk, but there are a lot of ways to do it. Shake the yeast in the jar, then pitch into the wort. Ferment.

It should take only a few days to complete fermentation at 68 degrees

- S04 is a very fast yeast.

The ale is very grapefruity (like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale), pretty bitter and has a caramel undertaste (from the Carafoam).

Oh. OG should be around 1.040. FG should be around 1.008, depending on how much of your extract is fermentable.

If you double everything except the water and yeast you'll have a pretty fair India pale ale.