I’ve gone and stumbled upon something wonderful. I wanted to switch away from the rash of darker beers I had been making and decided to do so gradually by making a mid color beer. I settled on an Irish red. Of course, I can’t leave it at that. I added cherry.

It’s three weeks later and I cracked one open to judge its progress. I was not sorry. The color is absolutely gorgeous and the taste is more so. The tart cherries lend a wonderful lightness that sits on your tongue for a few minutes before releasing its flavor. Mmmmm. Quite delicious. This is one of my favorites by far.

Immortality – A Cherry Irish Ale

OG: 1.050
FG: 1.019
ABV: 4.2%
IBU: 19
Calories: 180 +

5 lbs. – LIght LME 5°L

1lb. – Crystal 10°L

.5 lb. – Flaked Barley

1 lb. – Marris Otter

.1 lb. – Roasted Barley

.6 oz. – Willamette (4.8% a @ 50 min)

.75 oz. – Kent Goldings (4.4% a @ 30 min)

WLP004 Irish Ale yeast (make a starter yeast a few days in advance)

20 oz. – Tart is Smart Cherry Concentrate

Steep grains in 6 quarts of water @ 155° F for 60 minutes. Rinse grains with 4 gallons of hot water (170° F). Stir in LME, stirring as not to scorch extract. Bring kettle volume to 5.5 gallons. Bring to a boil (don’t boil over). Add Willamette at 50 minutes and Goldings at 30 minutes. At end of timer, remove all hops and cool wort to 70 – 75°F. Gently stir in cherry concentrate. This would be a good time to take your original gravity reading. Aerate the wort and pitch yeast. Then aerate the wort again. Insert airlock and ferment at 70°F for 7 days. Raise the temperature to 75°F for 7 days (diacetyl rest). Next, do a cold crash for 3 days (approx 50°F). Transfer to a secondary and continue fermenting another 3 – 5 days. Rack to a bottling bucket. This would be a good time to take your final gravity reading. Prime with 4 oz. of corn sugar and bottle. Condition for roughly 10 – 14 days and enjoy.

I can’t say I had a lot of inspiration for making this particular beer. When trying to decide what to brew this go around, I found that this was a style of beer I’ve not brewed before. It looked quite tasty, has simple ingredients, and was an all grain recipe, which is something I would like to gain more experience with. I am very happy with the results. It is very light in body and fairly low in calories, yet is quite a well-rounded full flavored beer with a beautiful coloring.

Scottish Heavy

OG: 1.038
FG: 1.018
ABV: 2.6%
IBU: 18
Calories: 129

8 lbs. – Two-row base malt

.2 lbs. – Carafa III

.15 lbs. – Crystal 40°

.75 oz. – Fuggle hops (4%a) @ 60 minutes

.5 oz. – Goldings ( Kent) hops (4.4%a) @ 30 minutes

WLP028 Edinburgh Scottish Ale yeast (make a starter yeast a few days in advance)

Steep grains in 3.25 gallons of water @ 152° F for 60 minutes. Rinse grains with 2.5 gallons of hot water. Bring kettle volume to 5.25 gallons. Bring to a boil (don’t boil over). Add Fuggles at 60 minutes and Goldings at 30 minutes. At end of timer, remove all hops and cool wort to 70 – 75°F. This would be a good time to take your original gravity reading. Aerate the wort and pitch yeast. Then aerate the wort again. Insert airlock and ferment at 70°F for 7 days. Transfer to a secondary and continue fermenting another 12 – 17 days. Rack to a bottling bucket. This would be a good time to take your final gravity reading. Prime with 1.2 oz. of corn sugar and bottle. Condition for roughly 10 – 14 days and enjoy.

For once I decided to plan ahead a little bit and make a beer for a holiday. I decided I would make a delicious dry stout for St. Patrick’s day. I spent a little bit of time creating a recipe based on a dry stout I made a few years back. The beer brewed up beautifully and tastes delicious. Unfortunately, I did a horrible job at celebrating St. Patrick’s day this year and didn’t drink any of the beer I brewed for it. Lucky for me, this beer is just as good today as it would have been on St. Patrick’s day.

My Dry Stout

OG: 1.048
FG: 1.020
IBU: 33
ABV 3.7%
Cal/12: 162

Ingredients:

3 lb – Two Row Pale Malt

.5 lb – Flaked Barly

4 oz – Chocolate Malt

4 lb – Liquid Malt Extract Light

.75 lb – Roasted Barley

2 oz – East Kent Goldings 4.7% aa

1 – WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast

Steep grains in 7.5 quarts of water @ 152? F for 60 minutes. Rinse with hot water. Remove from heat and add LME. Stir until LME is disolved. Place back on burner and bring to a boil. When it reaches a boil, add hops. Boil for 45 minutes. Add Irish Moss. Boil for another 15 minutes and remove from heat. Cool wart. Take your original gravity reading and record it. When temperature is below 80? F aerate well and pitch yeast. Aerate again. Ferment for 8 days at 70? F. Move to secondary and finish fermentation for another 13 days. Take a final gravity reading. Prime with 3 oz. of corn sugar and bottle. Condition for 21 days and enjoy.

I’ve started to hear the term “session beer” more and more lately. It is a relatively new term first appearing in the 1980’s, although the idea of a session beer stems from WWI. During that time in England, beer strength was mandated by law and high tariffs. Also at that time, WWI workers were allowed one of two “sessions” where they could go to the pub. These typical licensed session were from 11am – 3pm and 7pm – 11pm. During this time, the workers would drink an average of 8 beers. Now that may seem like a lot, but the workers would intentionally select a beer that had a fairly low alcohol content; that way they could drink those 8 beers and still return to work without being arrested for being drunk and disorderly.

Now, of course, the term has a slightly different meaning. We no longer are allowed to return to work after drinking 8 beers, regardless of alcohol content. However, the term does still refer to a bar session. In England, it is not unusual to get together with a few mates and spend hours at the local pub talking and having a good time. When this happens, it is traditional for each person in the group to buy a round of beer. So if you are hanging out with a group of 7 or 8 mates, you have a lot of drinking to do. Session beers are the way to do this.

Session beers have yet to be truly defined, but this is the gist of it:

session beer (n.) : Any beer that contains no higher than 5 percent ABV, featuring a balance between malt and hop characters (ingredients) and, typically, a clean finish – a combination of which creates a beer with high drinkability. The purpose of a session beer is to allow a beer drinker to have multiple beers, within a reasonable time period or session, without overwhelming the senses or reaching inappropriate levels of intoxication. (Yes, you can drink and enjoy beer without getting drunk.)

Don’t be fooled by session beers. Though they are lower in alcohol content, doesn’t mean that they have to be low in flavor or body. There are thousands of beers sold around the world that are lower than 5% abv. For example, Guiness Draught: 4%,  Newcastle Brown Ale: 4.7%, Coopers Dark Ale: 4.5%, Sam Adams Golden Pilsner: 4.6%, and there are many, many more of all different styles. So the next time you’re out with your mates sitting around the pub, order a round of session beers and have yourself a good time. I’ll get the next round.