I have been wanting to make another gruit ale for sometime now. This recipe is close to what I was planning, though I used more dextrose vs. honey just due to ingredients I had on hand. The whole process took only 3.5 hours; I milled all my grain the night before and choose a No Chill again. Huge time savers! Tomorrow I will pitch the Pacman yeast I was growing and hopefully this will be ready just in time for 11.11.11.
Gold Dragon Ale
Golden Dragon Ale
Ingredients –
Grains
• 3.0 lbs Pale Malt 2-Row
• 3.0 lbs Pale Ale Malt
• 0.1 lbs Honey
• 0.25 lbs Dextrose
Hops
• 0.5 oz of Northern Brewer @ 60min
• 0.3 oz Wormwood @ 60min
• 0.5 oz Mugwort @ 60min
• 0.5 oz Yarrow @ 60 min
• 5g Juniper Berries @ 5 min
Misc
• 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
• Pacman Yeast, harvested (2L starter)
Equipment -
• 6.5 gallon kettle (big kettle)
• 2.0 gallon kettle (small kettle)
• Plastic Fermenter
• Grain Bag (10lbs)
Procedures -
• Unconditioned malt, milled once
• Brew-in-a-Bag
• Single Step Mash, ~145F-150F, 60 minutes, 2 gallons
• Sparge, 4 gallons, 165F
• 60 minute boil
• No Chill
• Yeast Starter, 2L
Beer Profile -
• Batch Size – 5.0 gallons
• Actual OG: 1.040 (Eff: 75%), Estimated FG: 1.005 (4.0% ABV)
• IBU – 17 (hops only, unsure what kind of bitterness the wormwood, yarrow and mugwort bring)
UPDATE 8:30AM-
Checked the gravity of the cooled wort this morning and moved it to the fermenter. OG is 1.040, which is 75% efficiency, which is showing that my process has becomes very consistent. This is a good thing. I got around 4.5 gallons of wort again and have prepped my yeast starter for pitching in the next couple hours when the wort cools a bit more.
UPDATE 2:15PM -
Pitched the Pacman yeast starter about three hours ago and I can already see visible signs of fermentation. Looks like this thing is going to take off shortly!