Not long ago I discovered Black Sheep Ale and I really enjoy it. As we like to brew our own beer I asked for a kit that clones the Black Sheep Ale. The result was good but it came out more bitter than the Black Sheep. Hence something close to Black Sheep Ale.
Before starting everything is sterilised!! Very important.
The kit comes with the hops,grains, and dry malt, we do the rest. 🙂
To start we put 2 gallons of water into the brew pot and started the heating process. We then put the grains in the steeping bag and place it in the water.
This needs to steep for 1/2 hour as the water is brought up to a temp of 170F/77C.
Once the steeping is complete the grains are removed and drained. The grains go on the compost pile.
Bring the beer to a boil and then turn off the heat. Add the dry malt, stirring as it is poured in.
It is normal for the malt to become taffy like. It takes quite a bit of stirring to dissolve it all.
Bring it back to a boil.
Now it is time for the hops. The kits will come with the times needed to boil. For this recipe it was a total hour for boiling. The first to go in was 1oz of Challenger hops.
1/2 hour after the first hops are put in 1/2oz of Golding hops are added then 45 minutes after the first hops were put in 1/2oz of Golding is put in. After the hour is up turn off the heat. This will be a foamy process but once the heat is off it will settle down. Then it needs to go into the carboy.
Add three more gallons of water. Once it has cooled the yeast needs to be added. There was something wonky with the yeast given to us this time round. It was very bubbly and not a whole lot of substance. We called the brew place and they said to try it and if nothing happens to get some more. So we tried it. It took awhile to get going but eventually it did it’s thing.
After a couple of weeks it is ready to bottle. The steps are the same as our Hefeweizen. We waited four weeks after bottling to try it.
It wasn’t too bad but not the same as Black Sheep. Black Sheep is a smoother ale. But this was enjoyable and it won’t go to waste!
Will have to try this with the hubs.:)
Good luck with it! 🙂
Sounds like a serious brew.
It’s not too bad. 🙂 It’s good for those who haven’t branched out into making their own recipes. The steps are pretty standard.
I did a Woodforde’s Wherry ‘starter’ kit a little while back, OK for my first attempt, but will have to try this ‘from scratch’ method!
Ah, still a kit. 🙂 We’re not quite there on making up our own recipes. Getting there though!
I’m so impressed by your brewing endeavors – I don’t think I’ve tried home brew since the eighties and it seems to have come on a long way, it certainly was a different animal from the fine brews you produce, I’d really like to find time to give these a try. Thanks.
Just find a good brew supply store. If you have decent ingredients then it’s worth the effort.
Looks like a lot of fun:)
More fun drinking it. 😉
I bet it is:)
I often pass a Home Brewery shop and have stopped to have a look. I’m just not ready to make the leap yet. In the meantime, I’ll do my brewing vicariously through you. 🙂
Once you start it’s hard not to get hooked! 🙂
Wow,really impressed. I’ve never brewed any type of alcohol. Yet, my Mother used to make ginger beer – not realising it was mildly alcoholic! I used to love it as a kid.
Love homemade ginger beer. We make it from time to time. Though the last time a bottle exploded. Oops!
if it can be proved that beer does not develop a belly, i can drink it everyday 🙂 This is such a lovely process to share.
:). Too true!
I’m so glad I found your blog! I’ve been really wanting to try brewing beer, and I really appreciated seeing the process in this post. It will definitely come in handy!
Welcome! 🙂 We love to brew our beer and our family doesn’t mind either!
Shut up!! You brew your own beer? How cool is that? Something I’ve always wanted to get into but have been intimidated. maybe some day…
LOL. I love that reaction! You should definitely try it. Nothing like a home brew.
Looks like heaven in a bottle to me.
It was pretty good I must say. And thank you for the follow. 🙂
Funny how you can find a post and read it and not realize you’ve read it before. Not until I saw my comment. So, originally I made that comment about 13 months ago. I guess you were part of my motivation to finally give it a try. Did my first batch at the end of July last year and this past weekend brewed up batch 7 and 8. Each batch has gotten better and better with practice and research. Batch 8 was my first all grain batch. Maybe someday, I’ll take pictures of the process and start blogging about it. Anyway, thanks again for the inspiration.
Glad you found it again! I look forward to reading when you post about it. 😊