The Blager

Had a great day of making beer on Saturday, brewed two new extract beers that I’m pretty excited about. And quite frankly, I just don’t have the time right now to do full mashes.

The first one was a recipe that I got from Midwest Homebrewing Supply, called Autumn Amber Ale. This looks to be nice hearty ale with some dark roasted grain. It smelled delicious while I was brewing it, but then again don’t mostJ. I decided to change up the recipe a bit and replaced the German Tradition aroma hops with Hallertau (actually I wanted to use the tradition in an experimental recipe and the two hops have similar qualities). The Specific Gravity was 1.044, expected to go down to 1.010. After several days in the primary there is a good steady bubble.

Mt. Hood Hops take a dive

The other beer is an experimental extract ale based a black lager. The wort was impressively dark, almost black. This beer has me very exited, lots of dark grain (500 Roasted Barley and 475 Black Malt), some 80 Caramel, and 2-row and 9lbs of light extract. I’ve also used 3oz of hops, Mt hood, and German Tradition for bittering and German Spalt for aroma. My concern right now is for the yeast, the Specific Gravity was 1.082 and if the final Gravity is 1.020 -1.015 then I’m looking at a ABV of 8.5 – 9% and the yeast I used has a tolerance of 10%. But I’m thinking that the Final Gravity won’t go that far, but we’ll see. None the less I’ve always loved black lagers and with out a cold fermentation setup lagers are out of my reach. Like the Autumn Amber, the Black Lager Ale, which I will now coin my “Blager” Ale is starting to percolate.

Update 12/26/08:

Tapped the keg a couple days ago, my first thought as I drank, this is one of the best beers I’ve ever had.  By far the best I’ve brewed.  So dark and lush, yet light and smooth.