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.

Style: Black India Pale Ale
Brewed: September 8, 2012
Bottled: September 29, 2012
OG: 1.074  FG: 1.014
IBUs: 77  ABV: 7.9%

Grains
13 lbs 2-Row Pale Malt (US)
1 lb Belgian Wheat Malt
1 lb Caramel 120L Malt
0.25 lb Black Patent Malt
0.25 lb Roasted Barley

Hops (whole leaf)
60 min: 1 oz Citra (15.6% AA)
50 min: 1 oz Cascade (6.1% AA)
30 min: 1 oz Cascade (6.1% AA)
10 min: 1 oz Cascade (6.1% AA)
14 day dry hop: 1 oz of each of Cascade (6.1% AA) and Centennial (10.3% AA)

Yeast
2 liter starter of Denny's Favorite 50 (Wyeast #1450)

A black (okay, more brownish) IPA, made with “C” hops.

Style: Rye IPA
Brewed: August 18, 2012
Bottled: September 8, 2012
OG: 1.061  FG: 1.016
IBUs: 56  ABV: 5.9%

Grains
10 lbs Maris Otter Pale Malt
2 lbs Rye Malt
0.5 lb Belgian Aromatic Malt
0.5 lb Roasted Barley

Hops
60 min: 1 oz Columbus (14% AA)
10 min: 1 oz Super Alpha (New Zealand) (13% AA)

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

Our first RyePA turned out so well, it was the first that ran out. For this one we decided to do it on our own….no kit, all grain.
Since it’s one of the lower gravity beers we’ve made recently…have two =)

Style: Belgian Strong Golden Ale
Brewed: August 26, 2012
Bottled: September 10, 2012
OG: 1.094  FG: 1.010
IBUs: 27  ABV: 11%

Grains
15 lbs Belgian Pilsner Malt
0.25 lb Biscuit Malt
0.25 lb Cara-Pils

Sugars
2 lbs Sucrose

Spices (at 15 minutes)
1 oz Coriander Seeds
4 g Ginger Root
4 g Seeds of Paradise

Hops
60 min: 2 oz Saaz (3.5% AA)
30 min: 1 oz German Saphir (4.6% AA)
1 min: 1 oz Saaz (3.5% AA)

Yeast
Belgian Abbey II (Wyeast #1762)

Attempt at a quick grain-to-glass beer…very REVved up!

I used a similar spice profile that was used with the Pink Elephant, but there should certainly be more body on this beer. (Pink Elephant was the first all grain attempt…and while it wasn’t bad, I really didn’t have an understanding of just HOW important a mash temperature was.)

Banana esters were more than abundant during the fermentation, you would have thought I was fermenting a smoothie. We’ll see if those come through in the finished product.

It’s no secret that George Washington brewed beer, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that one of his beer recipes was uncovered.

"To make Small Beer.

Take a large sifter full of bran.
Hops to your taste. Boil these 
3 hours. Then strain out 30 gallons
into a cooler, put in 3 gallons
molasses while the beer is 
scalding hot. Or, rather drain the
molasses into the cooler & strain 
the beer on it while boiling hot. 
Let this stand till it is little more 
than blood warm. Then put in 
a quart of yeast. If the weather is 
very cold, cover it over with a blanket 
& let it work in the cooler 24 hours. 
Then put it into the cask — leave 
the bung open till it is almost done 
working. Bottle it that day week 
it was brewed."

While much of the recipe is pretty straight forward, there are certainly some things that are quite confusing…specifically the measurement of a “large sifter”. However, there is a good (and convincing) discussion on Home Brew Talk about this recipe.

Most people end up converting this recipe to as modern a version as they can, especially when it comes to taste. From what I gathered, it ends up being 60% molasses, and 40% 6-row barley. Today, if someone put more than 10% molasses into a recipe, they’d probably get a sideways glance. (And 10% is probably a bit too generous, it may be closer to 5%.) However, for our first iteration at this recipe, we wanted to see how close to genuine we could make it; which, as it turns out, makes it very easy to make. This allowed us to make the beer up in Michigan (on “the bayou”), and over a fire.

Ed came up with a nice aluminum brewing rack that could be placed over a fire.

Brewing over a campfire is pretty fun, but I certainly learned a bit for if we try that again.
First was time. I was scared of the initial 3 hr boil, and thought we were going to end up evaporating more liquid that we wanted to, so I upped the initial volume…too much. Our total boil time ended up being closer to 5 hrs to get us down the appropriate volume.

Then, SMOKE! And I don’t mean in the eyes…that’s a given. I’m talking about the flavor it imparts to the beer. When I sampled this on bottling day, the initial taste (way before the obvious molasses flavor) was smoke. Personally, I don’t care too much for smoked beers, but I know that some people love them. I find them a bit overpowering, but I’m sure that if paired appropriately with smoked or barbecued foods, they could be quite nice. So if we decide to brew over fire in the future, we better not be planning a lighter beer like a pilsner or pale, but rather it should be something like a porter.

We added toasted French oak chips to the fermentation vessel, since, as Ed pointed out, that’s more in line with what it would have been fermenting in back then. They sure weren’t using a Better Bottle made out of PET, like we did.

Style: Colonial Small Beer
Batch Size:2.5 gallons
Brewed: August 12, 2012
Bottled: September 2, 2012
OG: 1.061  FG: 1.016
IBUs: 62  ABV: 5.9%

Grains
2 lbs 6-Row Pale Malt (US)

Sugar
3 lbs Molasses

Hops
120 min: 1 oz Cluster (7% AA)

Yeast
1 l starter of English Ale Yeast (White Labs #002)