Next On Tap....

It's real warm here lately - in the 90's. So it has been somewhat difficult to keep my fermentation temp low without a real thermostat control. I have the carboy in a plastic tub of water right now which is just barely keeping the temp around 75F. I deally I'd like it to be around 70, but this will have to do for now until I convert the old refrigerator. And then I can make some lagers!

Right now in the secondary fermenter I have my own version for an Irish Red Ale. I guess I'll call it an Irish/American Reddish Ale, because so far in the secondary fermentor it looks very much like a Brown Ale. And I used Northern Brewer hops and some darker malts to try to get it a little darker than a Kilkenny Ale. We'll see how this works:

1.50 lb Dark Dry Extract (17.5 SRM) Dry Extract
6.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain
0.02 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain
2.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50%] (30 min) Hops
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (15 min) Hops
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (5 min) Hops
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Irish Ale (White Labs #WLP004) Yeast-Ale

From this batch I have tried harvesting the yeast in order to try to culture it for a couple more batches. Hopefully that works. I can save $5-6 per batch if it does.

And next on tap after the Irish ales, is a "wife beer". I found someone who posted a recipe for a "Lemon Lingerie". It's basically a hefeweizen, but he adds lemon zest to the secondary fermentor to give it the lemon zing. Sounds real good for a summer beer that Erika can drink.

UPDATE 8/21
I forgot to tell you how this one ended up!!! I think this is my best beer to date. I'm calling it "Trabuco Brownish Ale" I looked up the style guidelines and technically it does fall within the style of an "American Brown Ale" mostly due to the higher hop content. But since I used Irish Yeast, I'll call it a Brownish (Brown-Irish) ale. It tastes similar to but hoppier than a Newcastle I think. But I'm not a great taster.