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1776 Ale
My boys and I mixed together the wort for Mr. Beer's 1776 Ale one Thursday evening (01/22/2009) while Tracy was out at Bally Fitness. The Mr. Beer kit came with a Cowboy Golden Lager Hopped Malt Extract with Booster. As I mentioned, on my Classic American Blonde Ale page, I usually prefer Amber beers rather than light golden beers, so I decided to see what Mr. Beer recipes used the Cowboy Golden Lager and were a litter darker. 1776 Ale fit the bill. It looked to be exactly what I was looking for.
Since I had the Golden Lager and Booster, I only had to order the can of Mellow Amber UME (unmalted extract) , the Liberty Hops, and the Hop Sack. Those came from UPS on that day, so of course I could not waste time brewing the beer.
Since, there are more fermentable sugars in this brew than are
in a standard Mr. Beer pack, it needs to ferment for a minimum of 3
weeks. I will check it on Friday, February 13 to see if it seems
ready. I will most likely bottle it on the 14th.
1776 Ale is a hoppy, amber beer with a modest bitterness (IBU 11) and an alcohol by volume of 6%.
| Date | Note |
| 01/22/2009 Thurs | Mixed the Beer. Dropped spoon in keg. Worried that I may have ruined batch getting it out. |
| 02/14/2009 Sat | Bottled 7 PET and 3 recycled 12 oz beer bottles. Beer still seemed a bit cloudy and I may have detected a cidery taste on sample. |
| 02/19/2009 Thurs | PET Bottles all rock-hard, so carbonation seems to be going good. Beer has also cleared up nicely. Still going to let carbonation continue for another week. |
| 02/27/2009 Fri | Placed the batch in my little fridge to begin conditioning. I am going to need more fridge space! |
| 03/10/2009 Tues | Despite the fact that it had not been 2 weeks of conditioning, I just had to try one of my 1776 ales. The beer reminds me a lot of Tommyknocker Ornery Amber with slightly more of a hoppy taste. I am pleased. I do believe that this beer needs more aging to smooth out the malts with the hops, but I knew that when I decided to taste it early. Apparently, the dropping of the spoon in the keg did not ruin the beer. |
| 03/13/2009 Fri | Tastes about the same, but I think it is smoothing out a bit. I let my wife try it and had her compare it to Ornery Amber. When I asked her which she thought was hoppier, she told me the Tommyknocker beer. Just goes to show, she has no idea what a hoppy flavor tastes like. My 1776 has much more of a hoppy taste. Color is exactly the same between the two beers. |
| 03/17/2009 Tues | Had a liter with dinner as my St. Patrick's Day beer. The beer is considerably better today than it was just a week ago. The conditioning does seem to be working, making the beer smoother and better blended. I like this beer. |
| 03/21/2009 Sat | Had dinner at Chilis with the family and tried New Belgium's Mighty Arrow. My 1776 Ale is a little darker, but the taste is very similar. |
| 04/02/2009 Thur | Had a little beer tasting party at in-laws. We tasted CABA, 1776, Eric's Red, and Maple Brown. The tasters were all either non-beer drinkers or light-beer drinkers (except me). CABA was the favorite. This beer was the third favorite, but mostly because the strong hops taste is not what most of this group likes in a beer. |
| 04/12/2009 Sun | This beer just keeps getting better and better. |
| 05/24/2009 Sun | Had my last liter of this beer with my steak. Sad that it is gone. I do not know when I'll have a chance to brew this up again. This beer definitely improved with age. |
| 06/04/2009 Thur | Found another 12 oz bottle in the beer fridge and had it while watching the NBA finals. Lakers won (that sucked), but the beer was still good. I do not know if I'll brew this one again. I think maybe I'll tweak this one a bit in the future, but probably not this exact recipe. |
| 1776 Ale |
| Recipe | 1776 Ale | Style | American Amber Ale | |||
| Brewer | Sheppy Brew | Batch | 2.13 gal | |||
| Extract |
Recipe Characteristics
| Recipe Gravity | 1.061 OG | Estimated FG | 1.015 FG | |||
| Recipe Bitterness | 13 IBU | Alcohol by Volume | 5.9% | |||
| Recipe Color | 10° SRM | Alcohol by Weight | 4.6% |
Ingredients
| Quantity | Grain | Type | Use | ||||
| 1.21 lb | MrB. Cowboy Lager | Extract | Extract | ||||
| 1.21 lb | MrB. Mellow Amber UME | Extract | Extract | ||||
| 0.81 lb | MrB. Booster | Sugar | Other | ||||
| Quantity | Hop | Type | Time | ||||
| 0.50 oz | Liberty | Pellet | 5 minutes | ||||
| 1.00 oz | MrB. Cowboy Lager | Pellet | 5 minutes | ||||
Recipe Notes
Boiled 1/2 oz liberty hops with Booster for 5 minutes. Other 1/2 oz dry hopped.
