I tasted my latest brew for the third time in four weeks and it was delicious. It's Sierra Nevada clone made with the following recipe:

• 8 lbs. of Pale malt
• 1 lb. Biscuit Malt
• 1 lb. Crystal Malt
• Mash at 150 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour with 1 quart of water for every pound of grain
• Sparge with 10 quarts of water at 170 degrees Fahrenheit
  
• 60 minute boil; at 60 minutes add 1 oz. Chinook Hops, at 15 minutes add 1 oz. Perle Hops, at 2 minutes add 1 oz. Cascade Hops
• Chill wort to less than 80 degrees Fahrenheit
• Pitch Wyeast 1056 (American Ale)

I fermented in the primary for about eight days and then in the secondary for two weeks. I used DME for priming. The last couple times that I tried the beer, it wasn't so great. No esters, but hardly any flavor or carbonation. It's totally delicious now and tastes very much like Sierra Nevada. I wouldn't say that it's exact, but I am very happy about it. The ABV is approximately 5% and my girlfriend, Kat, and I have decided to name the brew Last Semester Ale. Hopefully it will continue to age and get even tastier by St. Patrick's day.

From Last Semester...

Pictured is the label Kat illustrated. I don't really want to stick it on every bottle. I'd rather just save time and only put it on the ones that we give as gifts. Removing the original labels from the bottles is just two much of a pain. In fact, bottling in itself is a pain. I can see myself upgrading to a keg system within a year. Then again, there is an old school glamor to bottling and naturally carbonating, which isn't to say that natural carbonation cannot be achieved when kegging. It's just nice to see a little sediment at the bottom of the bottle, like that in Sierra Nevada Pale Ale bottles.

Labels: beer, homebrewing