Style: Imperial Bohemian Pilsner
Brewed: September 30, 2012
Bottled: November 9, 2012
OG: 1.065  FG: 1.012
IBUs: 45  ABV: 6.9%

Grains
6 lbs Rahr Pale Malt
6 lbs German Pilsner Malt
1.5 lb Vienna Malt
1.5 lb Cara-Pils

Hops
60 min: 1 oz Northern Brewer (10.6% AA)
30 min: 1.5 oz Saaz (3.5% AA)
20 min: 0.5 oz Saaz (3.5% AA)
10 min: 0.5 oz Saaz (3.5% AA)
0 min: 0.5 oz Saaz (3.5% AA)

Yeast
2 liter starter of Czech Pilsner Lager (Wyeast #2278)

Note to self: Don’t walk away during the sparge. Even if everything seems like it’s running smoothly on it’s own, that damn hose has a mind of it’s own sometimes, and can unclip itself and pour your precious wort on the ground.

Style: Spiced Winter Ale
Batch size: 2.5 gallons
Brewed: October 14, 2012
Bottled: November 4, 2012
OG: 1.042  FG: 1.004
IBUs: 30  ABV: 5.0%

Grains
4 lbs Maris Otter Pale Malt
5 oz Caramel 40L Malt
2 oz Chocolate Malt

Sugars
4 oz Honey
4 oz Brown Sugar

Hops
60 min: 1 oz Fuggles (4.5% AA)

Spices
3 Cinnamon Sticks
2 Orange Peels
1 oz Ginger Root
0.5 tsp Ground Cardamom

Yeast
American Ale (Wyeast #1056)

We made two batches out of the same mash…spiced, hopped, and fermented differently.
It did attenuate a bit further than expected, most likely the mash temperature was too low.

Style: Belgian influenced Christmas Ale
Brewed: October 14, 2012
Bottled: November 3, 2012
OG: 1.085  FG: 1.014
IBUs: 16  ABV: 9.3%

Grains
11 lbs Maris Otter Pale Malt
14 oz Caramel 40L Malt
6 oz Chocolate Malt

Sugars
1.5 lbs Honey
11 oz Lyles Golden Syrup
3 oz Molasses

Hops
60 min: 1 oz East Kent Goldings (5% AA)
5 min: 1 oz Fuggles (4.5% AA)

Spices
10 Cloves
10 Whole Cardamom
8 Cinnamon Sticks
0.5 Orange Peel

Yeast
Belgian Abbey (Wyeast #1214)

Style: Pumpkin Ale
Brewed: September 23, 2012
Bottled: October 13, 2012
OG: 1.083  FG: 1.010
IBUs: 28  ABV: 9.6%

Grains
10 lbs Rahr Pale Malt
2 lbs Flaked Oats
0.5 lb Biscuit Malt
0.5 lb Caramel Malt 60L

Hops
60 min: 1 oz East Kent Goldings (5.6% AA)
30 min: 1 oz East Kent Goldings (5.6% AA)

Additions
4 lb Roasted Pie Pumpkin
10 oz Dark Brown Sugar
2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Ground Ginger
0.5 tsp Ground Cloves
0.5 tsp Ground Nutmeg
0.25 tsp Ground Allspice

Yeast
2 liter starter of American Ale (Wyeast #1056)

This pumpkin ale should be ready in time for Thanksgiving, and be a perfect compliment to a slice of pumpkin pie. Both the residual sugar and spice level were lower than I had anticipated, but it certainly tastes like pumpkin!

A few additional things to remember when doing a pumpkin pie beer again:

1. Roast the pumpkin a day early…the roasting itself is a very long process, that will only add to your brew day.
2. Use a bunch of rice hulls to help with the sparge, probably around a pound.
3. Give yourself a lot more time on the sparge than you’re used to. The sparge on this brew was around 3 hours. Never stuck, but never flowing the way I wished it was.
4. The pumpkin will introduce more fermentable sugars. The 4 pounds of roasted pumpkin that I added increased the gravity quite a bit, around 20 points! I’ll probably need to do some more research on the subject, see if someone has a good calculation. Although the next pumpkin brew will be a barley wine, so I’m certainly in no rush to lower the ABV.
5. Add more spices, or maybe add a second round of spicing to the fermented beer as a “tea”.
6. A bit more caramel malt would be good, to increase the sweetness…or mash a bit higher in temp. Then again, my 3 hr sparge may have had something to do with how fermentable the wort had become.

Style: ESB*
Brewed: September 8, 2012
Bottled: October 3, 2012
OG: 1.074  FG: 1.022
IBUs: 29  ABV: 6.8%

Grain/Extract
6.6 lbs Munton's Light LME
1 lb Light DME
0.75 lb Caramel 60L Malt
0.5 lb Biscuit Malt

Sugars
1 lb Honey

Additives
2 tsp Calcium Sulfate (Gypsum)

Hops
45 min: 2 oz East Kent Goldings (5% AA)
1 min: 1 oz Fuggles (4.5% AA)

Yeast
Windsor (Danstar)

There was certainly a whole bunch of hoopla around the White House releasing their beer recipes…of course, most couldn’t resist either the political cheers or jabs. Whatever the political alliance, this is a win for homebrewing.

My first reaction was something like, “Extract brewing?!? Lame!” But the more I thought about it, these guys are beginners, and probably have very little time to read up on the subject…you know, with preparing State Dinners for dignitaries and making snacks for teenagers. I have no doubt these chefs could get a lot better at brewing over time. Plus, any advanced homebrewer knows how to convert these recipes to all grain.

However, we decided to make them as is, with the only change being how we hopped it. (But that was more for practical reasons.) I had forgotten how quick and easy it was to make beer with extracts, but we also forgot how expensive it is!

* – I don’t believe they wrote this recipe trying to closely adhere to a given style. However, it’s also my belief that an English Extra Special Bitter (ESB) is closest in style. This recipe has slightly more alcohol and slightly less hops than an ESB should have. However, the use of traditional English hops, an English yeast, and the addition of gypsum as a flavoring component (as opposed to a water ion modification for one’s own water source) all point to an English pale ale…with ESB being a compromise between SB hopping, and IPA gravity.