summer ale

I need a really good summer ale recipe. I want something that my in-laws and other non real beer drinkers will enjoy. Also something that I can have 6,8 or 10 of, on these hot summer days. Any ideas?

PS. Not an all grain recipe. I am not quite there yet.
Todd

Here's one I found earlier:

Budweiser Clone by Karl Glarner Jr. (Thanks Karl!)

This is a great, easy-to-make pilsner-style beer made with ale yeast — no lagering required. Comes close to many commercial light pilsners, with just a bit more flavor. (5 gallons)

Ingredients:

• 2.5 lbs. extra light dry malt extract
• 1.5 lbs. light honey
• 1 oz. Cascade hops (6% alpha acid): 0.25 oz. for 60 min., 0.25 oz. for 30 min., 0.5 oz. for steeping
• 1 tsp. Irish moss for 15 min.
• 1 tsp. gypsum
• Wyeast 1056 (American ale) or Yeast Lab Canadian ale (AO7)
• 3/4 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step:

Bring 2 gal. water to boil.

Remove from heat and add dry malt, honey, and gypsum. Return to boil.

Total boil is 60 min.

Add 0.25 oz. Cascade and boil for 30 min.
Add 0.25 oz. Cascade and boil for 15 min. more.
Add Irish moss and boil for 15 min. more.
Turn off heat, add 0.5 oz. Cascade hops, and steep for 2 min.
Pour into fermenter and top up with cold, preboiled water.
When cooled below 70° F pitch yeast.

Ferment seven to 10 days in primary at 70° F or below, then transfer to secondary and ferment another seven days. Prime and bottle.

This may be a dumb question but is the DME weight correct? Though I am new to homebrewing, I am yet to see a recipe, yes even the light beers, with less than 4-5 lbs of total malt.

Jim

I have a couple that my friends really like. True Brew's continental light kit, add 2 lbs of honey to the last 15 minutes of the boil, otherwise follow the kit exactly and the other one is Brewer's Best american cream ale, again I add 2 lbs of honey to the last 15 minutes of the boil. Follow the kit exactly otherwise. I cannot keep enough in stock between my wife drinking it and my friends.

You have 4 lbs when you include the honey.

homebrewer_99 said:

You have 4 lbs when you include the honey.

Click to expand...

2 lbs in each kit. 2 different kits. kits aren't mixed together. maybe I'm missing something

I was just reading your post about the 4Lb batch, and I believe you may be thinking about kits, and the other homebrewers are not.
Forget kits, buy your malted barlet extract syrup at a home brew supply,
but not from kits... from a big barrell with a tap on it.
Fill a bucket with 3-4-5Lbs... however much you want.
I bought a kit 13 years ago, but that was the first and the last one.
Not because it was not good, but it is just an introduction to homebrewing.
Forget kits, syrup comes in 55 gallon barrells, I hope I have even understood your problem, and have not said anything stupid.


Knife

Partial mash seems like the way to commence business. I personally am an all-grain brewer but it has taken me 5 years of doing the hobby to prompt me into getting away from the tins. Tins will certainly give you more predictable results if you are prepared to drop the money for them.

homebrewer_99 said:

Budweiser Clone by Karl Glarner Jr.
Ingredients:

• 2.5 lbs. extra light dry malt extract
• 1.5 lbs. light honey
• 1 oz. Cascade hops (6% alpha acid): 0.25 oz. for 60 min., 0.25 oz. for 30 min., 0.5 oz. for steeping
• 1 tsp. Irish moss for 15 min.
• 1 tsp. gypsum
• Wyeast 1056 (American ale) or Yeast Lab Canadian ale (AO7)
• 3/4 cup corn sugar for priming

Click to expand...

I have been brewing this one for years, but it is not even close to being a Bud clone. For one reason Bud uses only 6 row barley, rice, and cluster hops. The cascade hops have a better flavor and aroma than anything AB produces. I have used Hallertau, Tettnager, Cascade, Liberty, and Willamett hops. I have also subsituted Wheat extract for the EL DME, this made it a dead ringer for Micky Finn's Wheat from Libertyville, IL by the way. I have used various yeast strains as well, including Irish, Kolsch, East Coast, Coopers Dry, and San Fransisco Lager. Also a 3.3 pound can/bag of LME is roughly the same as 2.5 pounds of dry. I have never actually taken a hydrometer reading in 14 years of brewing, but I do know this is soooooo light that it is almost not there at all. I now brew it with 4 lbs of LME, 1.5 lbs honey and use a higher alpha hop for the first addition, usually Nothern Brewer. And for the record, although I bash AB now, I used to drink busch and bud like it was my JOB.
I know the original post is old now, but another easy drinking yellow beer is a Kolsch recipe I use:

1 1/2 lbs. Wheat extract
5 1/2 lbs. Pale extract
1 oz Hallertau for 60 minutes
1 oz Hallertau for 1 minute
White Labs Kolsch yeast.
Ferment of a week or so. Rack to the secondary and drop the temp to about 45 and hold of a couple of weeks. Prime with a cup of DME and bottle or Keg and force at 18 PSI.