Kentucky Common

Paddles · 07-28-2009, 02:50 PM

I'm a babe in the woods here, having only brewed one beer, and that from a pre-arranged kit (They provided the yeast, hops, and grain all premeasured, crushed, etc...). But now I'm wanting to set out a little and try and follow a recipe I found online for a Kentucky Common:

1908 Kentucky Common
by Mike Dixon

5 gallon recipe

6 lb. Marris Otter (Sour 20%, see below)
13 oz. American crystal 120L
3.5 oz. American chocolate
2 lb. Gelatinized grits (see below)

158° F for 1 hour
170° F for 10 min.

90 minute boil

0.5 oz. Cluster (6.5% AA, 65 min.)
0.5 oz. Cluster (6.5% AA, 30 min.)
0.5 oz. Cluster (6.5% AA, 2 min.)

Neutral yeast. (I used Danstar Nottingham.)

OG 1.048

FG 1.016-1.018

IBU 24

SRM 18

Sour 20% of the Marris Otter for 2 1/2 days using yogurt culture or raw grain. Mash first at 158°F and after 170°F mashout reduce to 90-105°F and add yogurt or raw grain. Combine sour mash with main mash before sparge.

Gelatinize grits by boiling for 30 minutes. I found it took about 1 gallon water per pound of grits to keep them runny.

There were two versions given in the different editions of Wahl and Henius. The specs for each were:

1902 Edition – OG 1.040-1.044, ~20 IBU, 30% corn

1908 Edition – OG 1.040-1.050, 20-30 IBU, 25-35% corn, slight lactic sourness

Now, while I hope to expand in the future, right now I'm only set up to brew one gallon at a time. I figure that until I'm a bit more practiced, I'll be glad I don't have to drink 5 gallons of the stuff I turn out...

But my question is, can I take this 5 gallon recipe and divide the amount of every single ingredient by 5? Or is there some give and take where you still need x amount of yeast, or y amount of grain regardless of how small a batch you make?

I apologize if I'm getting way ahead of myself here, but any insights would be greatly appreciated!

hopvine · 07-28-2009, 02:57 PM

Are you setup to do all-grain brewing? Did your first recipe include malt extract, either dry or liquid?

Paddles · 07-28-2009, 03:04 PM

I assume that what I did was all grain brewing. Apologies for my ignorance terminology-wise, hopefully a few days on the board will help remedy that!

But the kit I was given was two different types of grain that I crushed up, then cooked, strained, boiled with hops, mixed with maple syrup, fermented with yeast (First with a tube going into a cup of water, then with an airlock for 2 weeks) then bottled for a couple more weeks. So I think I'm all set...?

macabra11 · 07-28-2009, 03:25 PM

Kentucky Common??? Is that when you "blend" two beers from the same style "family"?

Tonedef131 · 07-28-2009, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by macabra11

Kentucky Common??? Is that when you "blend" two beers from the same style "family"?

No, it's a forgotten beer style. I made one last fall and it was pretty popular, that recipe looks pretty good. If I try it again I would probably use the same recipe with a 50% 2 day sour mash.

Paddles · 07-28-2009, 05:19 PM

Alright, well, based on everything I'm finding, it doesn't seem like there's any reason I can't split the recipe (Dividing everything by 5) and since this is my first crack at souring (Which seems like potentially risky business) I don't want to upgrade to 5 gallons for it.

So I got my ingredients ordered and look forward to giving it the ol' college try once my jug (Which just started secondary fermenting a Chocolate Maple Porter) is free. I'll be sure to share the results!

ODaniel · 07-28-2009, 08:56 PM

I just brewed my take on a KY Common. I mashed normally (all the grains), and let it sit for a day to sour, however, I let it vent and it ended up with some mold and nastiness on the top. I scraped that off and everything seems just fine. Tasted and smelled good. I ended up getting 93% efficiency when my recipe was for 75%, so it's about .01 higher than it should be. Hopefully it turns out well. I used California Ale from White Labs. I'm going to keep brewing this until I perfect it. Post up how that one turns out.

**Dog House Brew** · 07-29-2009, 02:17 AM

Yes you can divide it out to make one gallon batches

leapdog · 07-29-2009, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by macabra11

Kentucky Common??? Is that when you "blend" two beers from the same style "family"?

lmao!!! too bad no one else got that this was a joke!

Paddles · 07-29-2009, 02:15 PM

I was too outraged by the gross generalization to acknowledge it.

Especially since everyone knows that's West Virginians...