Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WLP080 Cream Ale Yeast
Yeast Starter: yes
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.041
Final Gravity: 1.010
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: clear brown
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14
Tasting Notes: Herbal, minty nose. Clean and nutty backbone

Starter yeast:
1 vial WLP080 Cream Ale Yeast
1/2 cup Breiss Amber DME
1 pint tap water
Boil DME and water 10 mins
Cool to 80
Add wort to sanitized beer growler and aerate by shaking for 2 mins
Pitch vial
Set at 68 for 3 days.

Grain bill
5# Golden Promise base malt (Scotland)
2.5# flaked maize
0.5# Victory
0.5# Carahell
2 oz Black Patent
2 oz Crystal 120

Single infusion Mash: 149 for 60 mins
3.00 gal
Recirculate 2 gal (or however much is necessary until the wort runs fairly clear. I am partial to a clearer beer, so I tend to do a number of recirculations.)

Sparge 5.00 gal / 170deg

I collected about 6.5 gallons pre-boil, then tried something I hadn't done before. As electric stove-top users can attest, bringing that much wort to a boil can take a long time. I split the wort up into two parts and used two burners simultaneously, also reducing the risk of boil-overs. It worked, in that I didn't get a boil over and had the wort at a roll after 35-40 minutes. The only downside is that, due to increased surface area I ended up with only about 4.75 gallons of wort.

I boiled for 60 minutes with the following hop additions. The Cluster is a common hop strain for bittering classic American styles. The Amarillo was left-over from an IPA I brewed recently, and as far as I'm concerned you can do little wrong with Amarillo.

Hops
1 oz Cluster (60)
0.25 Amarillo (30)
0.25 Amarillo (15)
1 oz Perle dry-hop pellets 7 days

1.041 OG
1.010 FG

This was our 4th all-grain homebrew and it may be our best. I deliberately wanted a lower strike temperature because I think the drier flavor you get from the lower strike temp compliments well the corn's potential for sweetness. That said, with the extra bittering from the Amarillo I'm wishing this beer were more balanced with sweetness, and I think next time I'll aim for 151-152.

The decision to dry-hop this with an ounce of Perle might have been rash. With the Scottish malt I figured that I'd already 'globalized' this old American style, so had no qualms about the addition of a Germanic hop cultivar. I'm so glad I did! The spicy and minty hop aromas hit the nose and palate before the beer ever gets to the tongue, giving way to a backbone of clean and nutty flavors.