Summer Ale

With a large stock of my last beer, the Belgian Ale still sitting around along with the remnants of my winter ale, I needed something lighter for summer consumption. I started with a recipe from Karl for his “haus blonde ale” and improvised a little bit using the hops I had available.

The base of the recipe was 7 lbs light dry malt extract. From there I steeped a pound of 20°L malt and a quarter pound of biscuit malt. From there I used the following hop schedule:

• 1/2oz cascade and 1/2oz willamette for 45 minutes
• 1/2oz willamette for 15 minutes
• 1/4oz willamette for 5 minutes

I pitched Nottingham yeast at 75°F and measured a starting gravity of 1.045. The beer aged for a week in primary and a week in secondary before being bottled at a final gravity of 1.02 and will be ready to consume mid August. Since this puts my total stock at 6 full cases of beer I’m going to be needing some reinforcements!