Se Noyer Brewing Recipes

Remember, your mileage may vary, but relax, and have a homebrew! All recipes are for 5 gallons.

Hopful Romantic I.P.A.

Our Hopful Romantic India Pale Ale was brewed in honor of Valentine's Day. It's a fairly basic I.P.A with the exception of one unusual ingredient...

Ingredients

Procedure

  1. Start the boil and add bittering hops
  2. After 20 minutes, add malts and 1.5 tsp irish moss
  3. After another 20 minutes, turn off the heat, and add finishing hops and rosebuds

Results

Expect a starting gravity of 1.053, and an ending gravity of 1.013 (5.1% alcohol). This ale takes a while to condition in the bottle. Initially, the rosebuds imparted some of the desired floral smell (complementing the Cascade hops) and a strange taste. After more conditioning (approx 2 months), the rose taste was subtle but evident, and the resulting I.P.A. was clean, well-bodied, and refreshing!

Paruparo Chocolate Porter

We've only tried making this once, and contaminated yeast (we think) ruined it, but we're going to try again! This recipe is based on Slanting Annie's Porter from Papazian's Homebrewer's Companion.

Ingredients

Procedure

  1. Crush grains and add to 2.5 gal water at 150F for 30 min
  2. Strain grains, retain liquid for boil
  3. Add cocoa, malt extract, and bittering hops to boil for 90 minutes
  4. Add .25 tsp irish moss when 30 minutes remain
  5. Add flavor hops when 15 minutes remain
  6. After boil, steep aroma hops for 2-3 minutes

Results

Expect an SG of around 1.067, and an FG of 1.017 for 6.5% alcohol. We'll keep you informed when we make this again.

Hundred-Acre Sparkling Mead

Our first attempt at a sparkling mead.

Ingredients

Procedure

Bring honey to a boil in 5 gal water for 5 minutes, skimming off the top. Add yeast extract (for nutrients) and acid blend (to control pH) to boil. Cool and pitch yeast. Ferment until clear, prime with 3/4 cup of corn sugar, bottle, and wait.

Results

Fermentation required a few months, but the mead did eventually clear, and tasted like a slightly sharp dry white wine. After a month or two in the bottle, carbonation still had no occurred (perhaps we killed the yeast?), but the sharpness has decreased and it's a more than passable wine. We're hoping it'll be champagne in time for New Year's Eve. (Update: this became a truly delightful champagne-like beverage after about 12-18 months!)

Iduali Dry Pale Ale

Iduali Dry is a light and refreshing pale ale, which you may find underhopped.

Ingredients

Procedure

  1. Crush crystal malt and add to 1.5 gal water
  2. Bring to boil, strain crystal malt out
  3. Add extract and bittering hops for 45 minute boil
  4. Add .25 tsp irish moss when 15 minutes remain
  5. Add finishing hops during last minute of boil
  6. Add wort to carboy with 3.5 gal Arrowhead drinking water

Results

Expect an SG of 1.053 and an FG of 1.015, for 5% alcohol. Fermentation is fast, and so is bottle-conditioning. This is a straightforward, simple, and tasty ale.

Philippine Independence Ale

Philippine Independence Ale was brewed in honor of Philippine Independence Day (June 14), and was an attempt to brew something like Iduali Dry but bigger and much more seriously hopped. Something close to an extra special bitter, perhaps.

Ingredients

Procedure

  1. Crush crystal malt and add to 2 gal water
  2. Bring to boil, strain crystal malt out
  3. Add extract, Cascade bittering hops, and .5 oz Willamette bittering hops for 60 minutes boil
  4. Add the other .5 oz Willamette bittering hops when 30 minutes remain
  5. Add .25 tsp irish moss and half the finishing hops when 10 minutes remain
  6. Add the remaining finishing hops when 1 minute remains
  7. Add wort to carboy with 3.5 gal Arrowhead drinking water

Results

Expect an SG of 1.052, and an FG of 1.015, for 5% alcohol. Fermentation was quick, but bottle-conditioning seems to be taking longer. After 2 weeks, the beer had some strange tastes, as if the flavors hadn't blended yet. This was probably due to a heat wave and the resultant temperature variation of the bottled beer. (Yep, later we found that the heat variation resulted in some contamination of this one. Bummer!)

Castaway Ginger I.P.A.

This one's just like Hopful Romantic but with ginger instead of rosebuds. And it was great.

Ingredients

Procedure

As in Hopful.

Godfather Porter

We moved to Chicago in August 1997. We got back to brewing in the summer of 1998, and got a plain IPA into the fermenter a day before a heat wave struck. Our apartment isn't air-conditioned, and even wrapping the carboy in a wet towel didn't keep the temperature down enough to prevent contamination.

But now it's January 1999, and we have great radiators, so it's a constant 65-70 degrees in our apartment - perfect for brewing! So to make up for the IPA that wasn't, we did a double-brew and put Godfather Porter and Russell's Mead (below) into action.

Ingredients

Procedure

  1. Crush black patent malt and roasted barley and add to 2.5 gal water
  2. Bring to boil, strain grain out
  3. Add bittering hops for 20 minutes
  4. Add extract for 40 more minutes
  5. Add .25 tsp irish moss and half the finishing hops when 10 minutes remain
  6. Add the remaining finishing hops when 1 minute remains
  7. Add wort to carboy with 2.5 gal drinking water

Results

The smell during the boil was incredible - the roasted barley smells like coffee, and later, Alan began to have visions of his favorite beer in the world: Anchor Porter. Our SG was fairly high for a porter. Fermentation didn't begin for 3 days (Alan got nervous and pitched more yeast at day 2 - should probably have relaxed and not worried). More details as it progresses.

Russell's Mead

Named for Mary Russell, the protagonist of Laurie King's excellent book, The Beekeeper's Apprentice. The goal: a very sweet still mead (like Chaucer's).

Ingredients

Procedure

Bring honey to a boil in 2.5 gal water for 10 minutes, skimming off the top. Add yeast extract (for nutrients) and acid blend (to control pH) to boil. Cool and pitch yeast. Ferment until clear, bottle, and wait.

Results

In progress!
[ BACK ]Return to the Se Noyer Brewing Home Page