Check out this light ale recipe . . .

Okay, so my father in law loves beer, but he only drinks Stag. Yeah . . . I know! Whatr's even funnier is that I pound it with him on a regular basis, and I have grown to "understand" the virtues in such a beer. Anyway, after 5 years as my father in law, he has never drank one of my beers. Even when I offer, he declines by saying that he is not into ales, dark beers, etc.

Anyway, I wanted to try to brew a beer that he may enjoy, but without the ability or will to lager, I tried to do a very light ale recipe to mimic an American Light Lager as much as possible. Here is what I did:

9 lbs. 2-Row
0.5 lbs Biscuit
0.5 lbs. Crystal (80)

0.5 Hallertauer (60)
0.5 Saaz (15)
0.5 Saaz (dry)

Nottingham Ale Yeast
Mash 148 degrees

OG - 1.041 (due to my horrible efficiency b/c of my new grain mill)


I just racked this to secondary and dumped in a half oz. of Saaz. Gravity is sitting at 1.008. I sampled and it tasted exactly like a flat can of Budweiser. My wife agreed. I am excited to see what the Saaz dry hops will do to it.

This will be a session beer, of course. But, more importantly, I hope it opens up the eyes of my Father in Law to my homebrews.

Congratulations and lets hope he likes it! I think the dry hopping will give it a nice aroma, but not too much to turn him away.

They still make Stagg beer? I thought they were long gone. I wonder if he would like a American wheat beer.

Yeah .. . Stagg beer is still alive and well here in Central Illinois. It is especially popular in the Lincoln area.

As for his taste for American Wheats, he leans more toward German styles. His family has German Heritage, so every now and then, he will buy some German Pilsners that he claims to enjoy. To me, cheap German Pilsners are as tasteless as BMC.

I'm putting this one on tap as soon as it is finished in the secondary. I'll let you all know how it tastes when it is done.

Interesting project! My father-in-law enthusiastically tried one of my beers because his wife was out of the room at the time. He is Korean and very strict but really a cool guy. He was pretty happy with the beer--it was a porter--but said, with a smile of approval, that it tasted like a beer he once tasted: Pabst Blue Ribbon. This totally cracked me up! He hasn't had any beer for years, though he used to regularly enjoy it. My motherinlaw is very health conscious and never allows him a drop of alcohol, the poor guy. So his judgement was a little skewed! Haha! Cheers. And good luck with your f-in-law. I bet he'll like it.

monk

My F-in-L tried mine, and liked it, but he likes Manhattans more, so what are you going to do? My wife's grandfather used to brew as a buck, and was more than happy to have some. It was pretty cool, as both my grandfathers died long before I was born, so he is like the surrogate.

My old man tried it too, and thought it was ok, but he prefers lager style beers to ales, so I am hoping to get some lagering going. Just need to get a chamber/fridge setup, and that isn't until the brewroom is built.

When I started brewing last year, I brought some of my first batch to Thanksgiving, and my 2nd batch to Christmas. It was all gone fast. I am the youngest of 9 in an Irish Catholic family-8 guys and 1 girl........beer is usually a theme at all holidays.

This beer is proof that (barring unsanitary practices) it is virtually impossible to brew a bad beer. Everything went wrong with the brew - poor crush, bad efficiency, stuck mash, etc. I put this on keg a few days ago to force carb. I tried my first sample just now. I think I hit exactly what I wanted to.

The beer is very neutral in every regard. It tastes a lot like BMC, but it has more body, it is a bit smoother, and a bit more aromatic (Saaz in the 2ndary). I am actually quite proud of it - I drink Miller High Life with some regularity (a great summer session beer IMHO :rockin: ); this beer is not too different from the High Life - a bit more hoppy and a little less "crisp." It really is going to be a great beer to drink a lot of.

I think that this beer may make the father-in-law think twice about passing up my homebrews. Of course, now I have a fridge to lager in, so I can make his favorite German style lagersm, too.

Anyway . . . just thought I'd update the thread.