Author: smallhomebrew

ABV – 2.1% before natural carbonation in the keg.

Appearance – Golden orange hue with excellent head retention and lacing. I’m actually surprised and I think the hops played a role in the retention. The body is a little hazy as this is currently “lagering” in my basement at about 50 degrees right now in the keg. It’s actually much clearer than it is showing in the photo. On par with a Kellerbier.

Smell – Hoppy, floral & grassy with some graininess from the pils malt. Classic mix between a German & Czech Pils on the nose.

Taste – The flavor is very bright with a touch of caramel from the specialty malts. The bitterness is firm at the end, but not overpowering. I was a bit worried with such a small ABV and this many hops in the whirlpool. Clean finish.

Drinkability and Thoughts – Very pleasant, this would be so fantastic in the summer months as a post-gardening beer or at the beach. You can put down many of them in one session. I like the hopiness of this beer, but I think I would pull back just a bit on the whirlpool hops and try to get more floral than grassy. I think with such a small malt bill you tend to get that grassy not from noble hops. Reminds me of a mini Czech Pils. The beer is really clean, naturally carbonated and drinking very nice and fresh at the moment.

Here is the link to the recipe.

Keeping with the theme of ultra light lagers I wanted to brew something in the American tradition but with rye to hopefully boost the body along with some carafoam for head retention. Loral hops should also go well with the rye and offer a lemony and also floral aroma to this beer. I recently had a Zero Gravity Loral Hopped Lager that was amazing. This will probably be my last lager of the season, but I pitched the cake of the W34/70 here and it took off in a day.

American Rye Light Lager – brewed 2/24/20

Batch size – 5 gallons

30 min mash and 30 min boil

FERMENTABLES:

5 lbs – Organic Two Row
1 lb – Flaked Oats
6 oz – Carafoam

HOPS:

0.5 oz – Magnum Boil for 30min
1 oz – Loral 15 mins
1 oz – Loral whirlpool

SG: 1.024

W34/70 Weihenstephaner Lager Strain

Brew Notes: This was a partial boil batch and topped up with 2 gallons.

Tasting Notes: (Coming Soon)

Here is another crack at these simple Pale Ales with Extract and a few grains. I used the same grain bill but switched out to Azacca hops. I think the difference in SG is the volume I had going into the fermentor seemed a bit larger here. I used some excess to get some of my Westmalle yeast going for the next extract beer. That one is coming soon.

Simple Pale Comet – brewed 2/20/20

Batch size – 2.5 gallons

15 min boil

FERMENTABLES:

1 lb – Briess LME Golden
4 oz – Crystal 60L
4 oz – Honey Malt

HOPS:

0.25 oz – Magnum Boil for 15 min
1.5 oz – Azacca whirlpool

SG: 1.022

WLP002 Fuller English Ale Yeast.

Brew Notes: This was a full boil batch.

Tasting Notes: (Coming Soon)

As I mentioned in the sidebar, I’m looking to test different ways to get these ultra low ABV to work and extract is one that had to be tested. James Spencer from Basic Brewing had mentioned he does a 15 minute Pale Ale extract recipe that works well. Altogether this batch took maybe a hour to brew. I haven’t brewed with extract for a while, but this beer is showing some promise. I also think its a great way to test out Aroma hops on their own. I’ll stick with the Magnum bittering and an ounce of aroma hops in the whirlpool. Hydro sample was not overly bitter.

Simple Pale Comet – brewed 2/10/20

Batch size – 2.5 gallons

15 min boil

FERMENTABLES:

1 lb – Briess LME Golden
4 oz – Crystal 60L
4 oz – Honey Malt

HOPS:

0.25 oz – Magnum Boil for 15 min
1 oz – Comet whirlpool

SG: 1.022

WLP002 Fuller English Ale Yeast.

Brew Notes: This was a full boil batch.

Tasting Notes: (Coming Soon)

I’ve been wanting to brew a Czech lehké which is a “light” beer brewed below 8° Balling (which is similar to Plato of about 1.032 starting gravity). I thought this winter would be a perfect time to get into one of these and try to push the gravity even lower. I had some pils malt on hand and the Weihenstephan 34/70 in the fridge.

6° Light Lager– 2/3/2020

Batch size – 5 gallons

30 min mash, 30 min boil

FERMENTABLES:

• 5 lb – Pilsner
• 2 oz – Crystal 60L
• 2 oz – Crystal 20L
• 4 oz – Wheat Malt, Red

HOPS:

• 0.5 oz – Magnum Boil for 30 min
• 1 oz – Tettnanger Boil for 15 min
• 2 oz – Sterling, Tettnanger combined whirlpool
• 1 oz – Crystal Boil for 5 min

SG: 1.026

Brew Notes: This was a partial boil batch that was topped with 2 gallons spring water before fermentation. More on this in later post.

Tasting Notes: (Coming Soon)

Brewdog kindof set the bar with this beer years back brewing a 0.5%ABV IPA’ish beer called Nanny State. You can view the recipe here. I figured this would be a good starting point to kick this blog off with. I used the grain bill and hop additions as a guide, and used what malts and hops I had on hand.

Somewhat of a Nanny State – 1/29

Batch size – 2.5 gallons

30 min mash, 30 min boil

Fermentables:

• 3.2 oz – Pale 2-Row (22.9%)
• 1.5 oz – Red Wheat (10.8%)
• 2 oz – Vienna (14.3%)
• 0.75 oz – Chocolate (5.4%)
• 2.5 oz – Extra Dark Crystal 120L (17.9%)
• 2 oz – Honey Malt (14.3%)
• 2 oz – Flaked Oats (14.3%)
• 1 oz – Aromatic

Hops:

• .25 oz – Azacca 15 min
• .25 oz – Azacca wirlpool
• .25 oz – Amarillo wirlpool
• .25 oz – Crystal wirlpool
• .25 oz – Comet wirlpool
• 1oz Dryhop with all the above hops combined

Yeast: US05

SG: 1.012

Tasting Notes: (Coming Soon)