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.
Bar Stool Economics
I got this story in a chain email today. I don't usually give much thought to these types of messages, but this one is pretty good.
With everyone speculating about the economy these days, everyone seems to have a different idea on how to fix it. The problem is, these 'armchair economists' don't seem to understand how the economy really works. Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't understand how it works. I've even heard people with graduate degrees in economics say that they don't understand how it works enough to confidently suggest solutions to the issues we are facing.
My speculation on this speculation (meta-speculation, if you will) is that no one understands the entire system. Most people don't understand even one part of the system in any depth. Some people do understand certain parts of the system. There exists someone who understands, in depth, each part of the system. But no one person understands every part of the system.