Small Batch Beer: Red Goat Number 2

I like beer, and out of curiosity I wanted to try brewing some from scratch. Most recipes I found on the internet are for 5 gallons, which was a little too much for me to brew up in a small apartment, so inspired by this article, some of the recipes in The Complete Joy of Homebrewing and a quick play with BeerSmith I came up with this recipe, and I think the results were good enough to be worth writing down.

Red Goat #2 (~3 Litres)

Equipment

  • Hydrometer
  • 7L saucepan
  • Measuring jug
  • Funnel
  • 5L bottle
  • Temperature probe
  • Scales
  • Steriliser
  • nylon bags


Ingredients

  • 5L bottle of water
  • Maris Otter Pale Malt 0.76 Kg
  • Crystal Malt 0.08kg
  • Munich Malt 0.04kg
  • Cascade hops ~15g
  • Perle hops ~10g
  • Safale US-05 Beer Yeast 1/2 packet


Instructions for an infusion mash

  1. Put the crystal and munich malts into a nylon bag and place in 2.5L of cold water
  2. Heat the water and grains to 63C
  3. Add the pale malt into the nylon bag and mix the grains thoroughly. The temperature should stabilise at 54-57C. Leave for 30 mins.
  4. Add 1.5L of boiling water to mash. The temperature will raise to ~68C. Hold at this temperature for 30-45 mins, stirring occasionally.
  5. Separately heat 1.5L of water to 75C
  6. Raise the temperature of the mash to 70C for 10-20 mins.
  7. Raise the temperature of the mash to 75C.
  8. Remove the nylon bag containing the grains and pour the second container of water through the grains into the mash.
  9. Bring the mash to the boil. Add 3g of cascade hops and 3g of perle hops at the start of the boil.
  10. After 15 mins add 6g of cascade hops
  11. After another 35 mins add 6g of perle hops
  12. After another 5 mins add another 6g of Cascade hops
  13. Remove from the boil and cool to 21-4C in an ice bath. This will probably take at least 30 mins but the faster the better.
  14. When the wort has cooled pour it into the (sterilised) 5L bottle. Pour the yeast directly into the bottle, cover and place the bottle in a cupboard at around 21C.

(I’m just about to give this another try, so I’ll update this again in a bit)