Resurrection Ale and Two Left Boots IPA

P.S. The Resurrection Ale turned out stupendous. Aging a few weeks in the bottle built up the body tremendously. We did revisit the recipe in May, this time using more acidic hops for the boil (1.5oz Columbus pellets), aroma (Sovereign pellets, 0.5oz) and dry hop (2oz. whole-leaf Willamette) and adding 1/2lb dextrine malt to the mash to increase body and head retention. This IPA turned out to be a real winner... That's Andrew holding up 2 samples of 2 Left Boots while we were brewing yesterday. Andrew named the beer in honor of me arriving in Maine to do field work after a 3 hour drive and realizing I had brought 2 Left Boots... ay yay yay. :)

We know it's been a while.

We've finally returned after a lengthy summer break from brewing, and brewed up a batch of steam beer yesterday. Boy did we miss the smell of malty, hoppy goodness coming from the kitchen! For this latest brew we adapted the recipe for "the sun has left us on time steam beer" from Papazian's Joy of Homebrewing. A steam beer is brewed with lager yeast at ale fermentation temperatures. Guessing that is because lagers are traditionally fermented at about 50-55F, while ales enjoy temperatures more around 60-70F. Anyway, here's what we included so far:

Mash: 0.5lb. crystal 60 malt, 160F for 30 min.
Boil: 6lbs. dry briess amber malt extract, 1.5oz. Perle hop pellets, 60 min.
Aroma: 0.5oz. Cascade hope pellets, 2 min.
Yeast: Saflager S-23 lager yeast.

We plan to prime with corn sugar (5oz) before bottling in a few weeks. In the meantime we will be thinking of a name for this brew...