Out of Season Red Ale

Both the Kumdis Island Spruce Ale and the Cherry Fever Stout apparently both require ingredients that are currently out of season, so I went to my Local Home Brew Shop and picked up Bob's Red Ale recipe.

7 lbs light malt extract
8 oz dark brown sugar (added last 5 min of boil)
1 lbs 40L crystal malt
2 oz roasted barley
2 oz Willamette hops (60 min boil)
1 oz Willamette hops (5 min boil)
1 Whirlflock tablet
1084 Irish ale yeast

This was definitely a new procedure for me, but I've attempted to 'sparge' with a very very small strainer.

Steps
Add 3 quarts of water to a med to large saucepan and head to 165-170 degrees. Stir in grains and steep for 30 to 45 minutes in a warm oven (mine was set at 150). Pour grain mixture through a strainer into boiling kettle. Rinse (sparge) grains with 2 quarts of 160-170 degree water into boiling kettle.

Add 2.5 gallons of water to boiling kettel and bring to a boil. When the water is boiling, remove from heat. Add malt extract and mix well. Return kettle to heat and bring to boil. Add boiling hops and boil per hop schedule (add Whirlflock at 45 min in, add brown sugar and finishing hops at 55 min in).

When hour boil is done, remove from heat and cool wort. Add to fermenter, and add enough cool water to bring total volume to 5 gallons. When wort is below 80 degrees, aerate well by stirring, and pitch yeast.

On Hold - Cherry Fever Stout

It seems that with cherries out of season that the Cherry Fever Stout is on hold. I will be collecting cherries as soon as they're in-season and freezing them for a delicious future.

Instead, I will be brewing Papazian's Kumdis Island Spruce beer.

Next Up - Cherry Fever Stout

Ingredients
3.3 lbs plain dark LME
2.5 lbs hopped flavored light LME
1.5 lbs plain dark DME
1 lbs crystal malt
1/2 lbs roasted barley
1/2 lbs black patent malt
1.5 oz Northern Brewer hops (boiling)
1/2 oz Willamette hops (finishing)
8 tsp gypsum
5 lbs sour cherries
1 - 2 packages ale yeast
3/4 cups corn sugar (priming)

Directions
Add crushed roasted barley, crystal and black patent malts to 1 1/2 gallons of cold water, bring to boil. At boil, remove grains and add malt extracts, gypsum, and boiling hops, for 60 min. Add 5 lbs cherries (pits and all), and steep for 15 min (160-180 degrees) - do not boil. Add finishing hops 2 min before adding to fermenter, add cold water to make 5 lbs. Pitch yeast when cool, after 4-5 days, move to secondary for another 2 weeks and bottle upon complete fermentation.

Raspberry Mead

We made up a bit of this recipe as we went along, but I'm looking forward to tasting it in about a year.

Ingredients:
12 lbs Clover Honey (thanks CostCo!)
7 gallons purified drinking water
1 lb (16oz) raspberry preserve (pectin, sugar, water and raspberries)
2 handfuls frozen raspberries
1 orange peel
1/4 oz coriander seeds
2 satchets champagne yeast

Directions:
Added 2 cups water to mason jar, microwaved for 2 min. Added 4 tbsp honey, pitched 2 satchets of yeast. In 2 pots, poured 1 & 1/2 gallons of water each. Heated the water until almost boiling, mixed in 8 oz of raspberry preserves and 1 handful of frozen raspberries per pot. Added the peel of half an orange into each pot. Brought the water to a boil and removed from heat. Added honey - 6 lbs per stock pot - honey added volume, so we siphoned must out, and then put the warm must back in the containers to dissolve the honey and get all of it into the pots. Siphoned must into 7 gallon fermenter, and put in ice bath. Added coriander seeds, and pitched yeast after an hour.