In the next installment of my recipe series, here is my apple ale recipe, which I am calling New England Apple Ale. I wanted to make a full-bodied beer, that made you think of apples (and cider, and apple pie). I wanted this to hold its own as a beer first, rather than a beer-cider hybrid, or a sickly-sweet fruity beer. I think I pulled this off.
The apple notes are strong, but they are balanced by the toasty notes from the roasted barley. The cinnamon and nutmeg in this recipe are dialed down from the last iteration of this beer I brewed, and I think that helps a lot. It still reminds you of apple pie, without completely being one.
This recipe took 3rd place in the 2008 Sam Adams Tour Center homebrew contest.
Read on for the full all-grain recipe.
This is for a ~5 gallon batch.
Grain Bill
- 8 lb 2-row Pale Malt
- 2 lb White Wheat
- 1.5 lb Crystal 60
- .5 lb Roasted Barley
Hopping schedule
- 1 oz. East Kent Goldings 5.5% Alpha Acid for 60 mins.
- .5 oz UK Northdown 6.5% Alpha Acid for 15 mins.
Also
- 1 tsp. Irish Moss for 15 mins.
- 1/2 Gala apple, sliced up, in the hopback
When Racking to Secondary
- .5 Tbs Cinnamon
- .5 Tbs Nutmeg
- 1 Gallon Organic Apple Cider
Notes
The specific gravity when the wort went into the primary was 1.060. When I racked it to the secondary (before adding the cider), it was 1.022. The specific gravity of the cider was 1.051. I’m not sure why the fermentation stalled so early; but I suspect the low fermentation temperatures in my basement. I forgot to take a reading when I bottled, so I don’t know how much alcohol the cider added, but I imagine it re-started the stalled fermentation, since it didn’t finish too sweet.
Be sure you read through the whole recipe before starting (though you made it this far, so why am I mentioning it?). You will want to be sure that your secondary fermenter has enough room for the 1 Gallon of cider you will be adding.
15 Comments
Hi Dan
Yeah, I just put the apple in the hopback, with no hops. By the end, the apple slices were nicely cooked, but very bitter tasting (from the hops added in the boil). That was unfortunate, since I thought it would be fun to eat them afterward.
What would be an extract alternative recipe for brewers not as experienced as all grain brewing?
Hi Cory-
I’m not sure exactly how to convert it to extract, but I’d suggest just taking either a red ale or brown ale recipe that you like, that has a good malt profile, and add the apple slices, cider, and spices as I did in this recipe. Experiment and have fun! I’d love to hear how it turns out!
This sounds great. Did you put the Gala apple in your hopback without hops? Just the apple?
Thanks,
Dan
This sounds really good and I am planning on trying it with some fresh cider next month. What temperature did you mash at? Will have a lot of impact on residual sweetness. Thanks
I also meant to ask what yeast you used. Thanks
I used my standard mashing procedure, which I use for all of my all grain brews. I have detailed it in this post, if you are interested.
For the yeast, I used WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast .
Let me know how yours comes out!
Not sure what happened, but I just tried this recipe and it is nothing like you would think Apple Ale would taste like. The result was a dark beer that is quite thin with a strong alcoholic taste. Barely drinkable. The brew went really well so I can’t point to anything that might have gone wrong. Too bad, I had high hopes.
PolarHuskie, that is too bad. My version was rather dark, but it definitely did not have an overly-alcoholic flavor, and the body was not too thin. I’m not sure what to suggest, but I hope you have better luck in your future brews!
Just got commissioned to make beer for a music festival on the Applegate River called AppleJam (May 20-22 2011, Provolt, Oregon. $20 online for all three days, free camping)
Given the location and name of the festival, I decided to make apple beer. I followed this recipe, but I cancelled the roasted barley, and used Crystal 20 instead of 60, and I just cubed the apple for the last 15 minutes of the boil instead of making a hopback.
The original gravity is 1.063 (whoa!) and it is looking a bit like a hefeweisen so far.
Can anyone answer this: 30 minutes into the boil last night, I ran out of propane (after the propane store was closed) and had to re-start the boil this morning and add the rest of the hops. The wort tastes good…will this have any effect on the finished product?
Hi Mikey B
Sounds like fun!
If your wort tastes good, then I think you are probably fine. The biggest risk you run would be souring, if bacteria/wild yeast got in and soured the wort overnight, but this would be unlikely, since you had just boiled it (thus killing anything that might have been in there from the grains, etc). Also, since you boiled it again afterward, if it wasn’t soured then, it won’t sour now; anything that may have gotten in would be killed off by the second boil. It is possible you may have boiled off some of the hop aroma that would have otherwise been present, but since this beer isn’t very hop-aroma-centric, I wouldn’t worry. In fact, in addition to not worrying, I would relax, and have a homebrew
.
As an aside, what you ended up doing (leaving it overnight and then boiling it) is very similar to making a sour mash. In that case, though, you would leave it with all the grains in the water (as a mash) and leave it overnight. The wild yeast and bacteria that is always present on the grains would sour the mash overnight, and then the next day you would sparge, and boil as usual. Because the wort was boiled after it was in contact with the wild yeasts (thus killing them), you wouldn’t have to worry about your fermenter always having wild yeasts in it that you are unable to get out. If you ever want to try making a Berliner Weisse, this is the basic process.
Enjoy the AppleJam!
The only thing about adding during the boil even late and flameout, is that the majority of the apple will be fermented out. You can always backsweeten after racking to secondary or even before if you want to with an unfermentable sugar like lactose or even splenda. 1/2 to a cup of splenda per 5 gallon volume should be enough although you may want to taste test to your liking by taking samples with your gravity readings.
Can anybody convert this to an extract?
Patrick – Did you make 4 gallons of beer, then add the 1 gallon of cider to make 5 gallons combined? I am thinking of doing it that way and adding the cider near the end of primary.
Hi Ryan
I think it was a little less than 5 gallons of beer when I racked to secondary, but I used a 6 gallon carboy, so there was enough room. There wasn’t a whole lot of headroom, but the fermentation at that point, even with the added sugar source, wasn’t too vigorous. But, if you are worried about not having enough space in your carboy, I would suggest trying to shoot for a little over 4 gallons going into the primary, since you should plan to leave some behind with the yeast and hops particulate that settles out during primary fermentation. Also, if you have any extra that won’t fit into secondary, you can always just rack it into a pint glass!