Dragons Blood Ale

For a 5 gallon batch:

3lbs of Amber DME

2.5 Lbs Dark DME

1lb Light dry DME

1lb crystal malt (60L)

1/2 oz Northern brewer pellets

2.5 oz cascade plugs

1 pkg Glenbrew brewers special (ale yeast)

3/4 cup dextrose for priming

start by steeping grains (156F) for 30 min in 1/2 gallon water

sparge with another 1/2 gallon at ~ 170F

pitch yeast to starter

start boil bring initial water volume to 2 gal

add DME and northern brewer pellets

boil 30 min and add 1oz cascade

boil 20 min add 1oz cascade

turn off heat and add 1/2 oz cascade

cool wort and strain into fermenter

at 75F pitch yeast

primary ferment for 6 days

rack to secondary for 10 days

prime and bottle

OG 1.058

FG 1.009

This brew really caught me off guard (it came about as I consolidated the leftovers (DME) from a number of batches which did not use all 3 lbs of DME. The resulting brew was a real surprise (a pleasant one)). The color was a very dark wine red (Dragon blood) and the taste was as smooth as can be the brew cleared mostly in the secondary I think if I added sour cherries to the wort (and cut back on the hops) I would have something special here. All in all this was a great beer, a little heavy for my normal consumption though.

gregg (gjp@earthlink.net) reports: great recipe! got me a B+ in a Beer tasting and it was only my 4th beer brewed!