Honey Basil Ale Notes

Ok, so, another week another brew day. This week we chose to brew a Honey Basil Ale. I found the recipe in this months Brew Magazine and I thought it looked pretty tasty. We have been wanting to brew a different kind of beer. Something with some fruit or a cool spice. This recipe fit the bill perfectly. This is our third all grain brew and we are really learning fast. Oh also a big thanks to our local brew shop, Surf Brewery, in Ventura California. We thought about brewing late friday afternoon and with their well stocked brew shop we were brewing on Saturday afternoon. Now on to the notes!

12:30 pm – go to The Big Arm’s house to gather basil

2:30 pm – add 7.5 gallons of water to the sparge tun and start the burners

This is the first time using an old Bayou Classic Burner lets see if it’s faster

2:45 pm – sparge temp @ 109°

2:55 pm – sparge temp @ 140°

3:02 pm – sparge temp @ 162°

3:06 pm – added 3.75 of water to the mash tun

water temp @ 162°

the recipe asks to stabilize the mash @ 148°

adding the grain should drop the temperature about 10°

plus the plastic mash cooler should drop the water temperature about 5° as it heats up

3:09 pm – MrBaron1 poses with the grain bag

3:11 pm – The mash tun stabilizes @ 160°

3:12 pm – add the grain to the mash tun

3:15 pm – all of the grain is in the mash tun and we are waiting to take a stabilized reading of the internal temperature.

3:16 pm – mash temperature @ 148°

MrBaron1 goes to get his beer hat

we open our “Beer of the Day” a Red Tail Ale

Now we have an hour to wait for the mash

3:45 pm – 30 minute temperature reading: Mash temperature @ 148°

3:52 pm – Jim the “Bread Barron” (he makes bread from the beer grain) arrives to check on the brewing.

4:20 pm – we start to recirculate the mash

we add a layer of foil to the top of the mashes grain bed

then recirculate the wort 7 times to compact the grain bed and clarify the wort.

4:25 pm – the Bread Baron’s reaction to tasting the wort:

“Give me a bootle of the wort!”

“you can taste the grain and sweetness”

4th cycle of the recirculation

4:30 pm – 7th cycle of the recirculation

4:32 pm – start the sparge

5:06 pm – end of the sparge

we left about 3/4″ of the sparge water incase we need it later

the specific gravity reading of the wort 1.050 @ 110°

5:10 pm – start the boil

starting temperature @ 130°

5:15 – pm temperature @ 159°

measured .75 oz of 6.4% Alpha Cascade Pellet hops

5:25 – temperature @ 185°

5:30 – Hot Break Monster!

You should really watch the video

added the hops

6:05 pm – The Big Arm arrives with more beer!

he has found the exact Bison Honey Basil Ale that we are brewing

6:15 pm – we add 1/2 tsp. of Wyeast yeast nutrient

6:20 pm – We add the first Basil! .6 oz

6:25 pm – The Big Arm adds 1/2 lbs. of honey

6:30 pm – turn off the heat

add the second .6 oz of basil

get the wort chiller ready

6:33 pm – start the wort chiller

Wort startin temperature @ 201°

6:53 pm – wort temperature @ 78°

We start the transfer to the fermentor

7:01 pm – Add the yeast

7:05 pm – 1st specific gravity reading

1.072 @ 74°

we decide to add the rest of the extra sparge water.

about a 1/2 gal.

7:12 pm – 2nd specific gravity reading

1.060 @ 74°

we have no more boiled water so we decide to stop here

the recipe asks for a specific gravity of 1.05

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7:35 pm – Finished!