Help me design this recipe please for my gf.

I'm unemployeed and aside from looking for a job and playing video games, I thought I'd whip up my first recipe for my girlfriend. I'll describe roughly what I'm looking for based on what she likes.

We have a basic brewing kit, would prefer extract since I'm familiar with the process. My fermenter (carboy) sits in a Igloo 60qt cooler and temps are pretty good 55-70ish depending on the amount of water in the frozen 2ltr bottle.

She likes darker beer which typically has a bigger alcohol content it seems and is thicker than light ale's. so..


Jake's Rasberry Ale
5 Gallon batch (3 gallon boil/2 gallon added in fermenter)
Extract w/ grain
Amber in color
thicker than standard ale but not 5w20
alcohol content between 5-7%
prefer wyeast pack since they seem to do so much better
I assume rasberry extract gets added at bottleing??
I also assume I still need bottleing corn sugar??
not too bitter please


I'd do a search for one but I'd kinda like to throw this one together with some help and make it my own. It will also give me something to do aside from be depressed over loseing my job, a job I loved.

She's was very understanding yesterday so this one's for her.

I'm still reading Palmers book, brewing for dummies and 2 other books but I think some hands on would be good at the same time.

Thanks guys/gals.

Jake

BADS197 said:

She likes darker beer which typically has a bigger alcohol content.
--
I assume rasberry extract gets added at bottleing??

Click to expand...

Hey, anything to keep the SHMBO happy. I would add the raspberry in secondary or better yet in hindsight in late secondary. Below is something I made for a large picnic. A pound and a half in secondary actually turned out very strong and way too much for me. Other people liked it but it floated after my Hefeweizen.

Hope this helps, please forgive the sparse notes.

20080530-Red
1/8 lb Wheat
1/8 lb Roasted Barley
1/4 lb Belgian Caraphils
1/2 lb Crystal Malt 10
Steeping 160F 30 minutes.
8 lbs Light Malt Extract.
1 oz Columbus 15% AAU 60 minute boil 17:05
1/2 oz Tettnang 4.8 AAU 30 minute boil
1 oz Yeast Nutrient 15 Minutes
1 oz Irish Moss 15 Minutes
1/2 oz Tettnang 4.8 AAU 5 minute boil
Cooled Pitched
WLP001 California Ale Yeast
20080606 Racked to secondary 5 Gal - Added
1 1/2 lb Oregon Red Raspberry purrie.
1 Orange rinds, lightly shaved added once fermentation was good.
20080608 Ferm slowing to 1 bps - added two small cloves
20080611 Put in Fridg to cool crash.
20080613 Racked to Keg - pressurized.
20080627 Gone in one afternoon.

Thanks.

I would probably cut back on the rasberry stuff myself....

Why not a Raspberry Sweet Stout? I guess something like a Mackenson's but with some raspberries added to the secondary.

Or a porter? Im a girl, and one of my girlfriends gave me this recipe, which I'd like to convert to AG and try:

Ingredients:
6 oz. chocolate malt
6 oz. black patent malt
8 oz. honey malt
8 oz. 10L crystal malt
4 oz. toasted barley (buy it pre-toasted, or DIY @ 350 deg./10minutes)
8 oz. malto-dextrin
6 lbs. Light malt extract syrup
1 lb. Light dry malt extract
1 1/2 oz. Galena hops (60 min. bittering)
1 oz. Cascade hops (1/2 hour bittering/finishing)
1 oz. Tettnanger hops (5 min. aroma)
Wyeast #1338 European Ale yeast
2 tsp. each Gypsum and Burton Water Salts (We have very soft H2O)
2 cups fresh raspberries (do not drain)

I pre-make my malts at the brew store to lessen the mess.

Procedure:
Add salts, gypsum to 1 1/2 gal. H2O. Steep grains for 1/2 hour @ 158 deg. Sparge with 1/2 gal. 170 deg. H2O, and strain out any loose grain. Mix in extract and malto-dextrin, and top off with H2O to desired optimum level for your brew pot. Bring to a boil, and boil for 10 minutes before adding Galena hops. After 30 more min., add Cascade hops. Last 5 min. add Tettnanger hops. Cool wort with hops in it. Remove hops at pitching temp., and pitch yeast. Add raspberries. Ferment to completion according to your desired method.