I finally took the plunge away from extract kits and went forth with a recipe I found on brewer's friend, I think it was. It was a 5.5 lb grain bill along with 4 lbs of amber malt extract. Brew day went very well, although I made a few modifications to the recipe along the way for a couple reasons, starting with my LHBS not having the all exact grains that were called for but the owner helped me get as close as possible. The recipe called for a mash temp of 150, but we like our beer a little maltier, so I upped the temp to to 157. It also seemed to ask to add all the extract at 60 minutes, but my extracts have been turning out darker than expected so I added it in 15 minute intervals a pound at a time. As it was my first time partialling, I didn't expect to hit all my numbers but nailed the OG on the money. I used PurePitch 550 yeast, but did not have a starter. I popped my head into my fermentation closet and saw airlock activity about 24 hours after pitching. Not sure if it started sooner. All in all, I would say it was a good brew day and look forward to tasting the final product... the OG sample tasted pretty good. I guess I've turned to the dark side, or is it the light side?
Fat tire partial mash clone
- Thread starter irontodd
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Sounds great! It seems like you know what you're doing, but if you're not sure, I'd just add the majority of the extract right at flame out so it doesn't stop your boil and it's still plenty hot enough to pasteurize your extract. Let us know how this turns out- Fat Tire is an old standard and most people like it.
motosapiens
Well-Known Member
fixed that for you, as a free public service.
Gosh, I think this beer has been the most difficult for me to wait for... per the recipe yer supposed to wait 8 weeks post brew day to enjoy this one. I packaged it last weekend into a 5 gallon keg. Putting it on tap on Feb 3. Can't wait!
Fat Tire isn't an exceptionally dark beer so it will mature faster than a stout but it will improve with time. If you keg it and chill it the maturation slows way down so it will continue to improve but it might be more like 6 month before it peaks instead of the 2 that was suggested. With that said, it will be pretty good now so go ahead and start drinking it while you make the next batch so the next batch can have more time warm to mature.
@RM-MN I have plenty of beer in the backlog so time isn't really an issue, per se. However since I'm still a relative newbie, 8 weeks still seems like a long time for me.
@jalc6927 I tasted it when I kegged. It's one of my best brews yet, and it was flat. Even my non beer drinking wife got excited about it. (She prefers wine and cider).
I may take a pre sip this weekend but we are having a few folks over on 2/3 for our first "tapping party" and I'll be serving this along with 2 other kegs, one that has a Porter in it that I drew a couple pints from on Christmas (but took off tap to let it age a bit more), and also my Inexperienced Blonde, if everything goes well with that one.
@jalc6927 I tasted it when I kegged. It's one of my best brews yet, and it was flat. Even my non beer drinking wife got excited about it. (She prefers wine and cider).
I may take a pre sip this weekend but we are having a few folks over on 2/3 for our first "tapping party" and I'll be serving this along with 2 other kegs, one that has a Porter in it that I drew a couple pints from on Christmas (but took off tap to let it age a bit more), and also my Inexperienced Blonde, if everything goes well with that one.
