Verkenbrau 5.2 & 5.3

Time to start brewing for La Grande.

5.x got a good response, so I'll do it again. Or at least close to it. This may become the basic recipe of Verkenbrau until I start brewing from all-grain and have my own home-grown hops supply on a regular basis.

Ingredients:

7.0 lb bulk pale malt extract
1.0 lb rice syrup solids
1 tsp irish moss
3 oz. Tettnanger hops - 2 for boil, 1 for aroma/finish (batch 1)
3 oz. Willamette hops - 2 for boil, 1 for aroma/finish (batch 2)
1 cup corn sugar for priming
2 pkgs nottingham danstar dry yeast

I'm going to try & reuse the yeast when transferring from primary to secondary by pouring another batch of 5.1 on top of it.

Brought 2 gallons of water up to 170 degrees and turned off the heat, let the grains steep for 20 minutes, squeezed the grain bag & then removed. Brought the wort up to a boil & added the malt extract and rice syrup solids. This is the first time brewing outside and using my propane burner. Like the ability to turn on/off the heat easily & working outdoors. It highlights my need for a utility sink and workbench in the garage for a proper brewing station. I was working with the garden hose which was less than ideal. Boil time was one hour, chilled the wort with an ice bath and combined with enough Clackamas water to bring it to 5 gal in the primary (plastic) fermenter. Ptched the yeast & I was happy to see it happily bubbling away in less than 24 hours.

After 9 days I started my second batch. This time around I'll boil it, chill it, then pitch it on the yeast cake of 5.1 after siphoning into the glass fermenter. Again, I used the same method...steeped the grain bag for about 20 minutes while holding it around 170 degrees. I then brought the wort up to boil and pulled it off the heat to add the extract and rice syrup solids. The new cooker shows it's BTU power, the damned thing wanted to boil over several times, so I had to take it off the heat until it was rolling. Smooth sailing after that. Boil time 1 hour. chilled with ice bath while siphoning 5.2 to a sanitized glass carboy. Made sure 5.3 was under 70 degrees then pitched into the remaining 5.2 yeast cake. Should be good.

A couple of weeks later....5.2 I let ferment in plastic for a week, transferred to secondary, pitched 5.3 on the yeast & it was up & rolling within a few hours. Fermented 5.2 for two weeks in glass, then bottled. Transferred 5.3 into the glass carboy after done bottling 5.2. Will let 5.3 sit in secondary for two weeks before bottling.

Tasted 5.2 after one week in bottles, still needs some time to develop. Nice light body, the bitterness of the hops comes through a bit more, I like it quite a bit. After two weeks in bottles the head is nice & big, yeast is less pronounced and bitterness still evident but not obvious. A very nice blonde brew with a bit of twang from the hops. Good stuff. Interested to see how the yeast tastes from the 5.3 brew.