St. Valentine's Red Ale

5 gallons, extract and specialty grains; OG = 1.075

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. crystal malt, 60° Lovibond
• 2 oz. roasted unmalted barley
• 8 lbs. unhopped amber dry malt extract
• 1 oz. Northern Brewer hops, whole or pellets (7 to 8% alpha acid), for 45 min.
• 0.5 oz. Perle hops, whole or pellets (4 to 5% alpha acid), for 15 min.
• 2 whole cinnamon sticks
• 2 pinches ground cinnamon
• 10 to 14 g. dry ale yeast or 1 pt. liquid culture slurry (Wyeast 1728 or 1084 recommended)
• 2/3 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step:

In 2 gals. of cold water, steep crystal malt and roasted unmalted barley. Raise heat gradually to 170° F, remove grains, and add unhopped dry malt extract. Boil 15 minutes, then add Northern Brewer hops. Boil 30 minutes. Add Perle hops, boil 15 more
minutes. In the cooling wort steep two broken cinnamon sticks for at least 15 minutes. Cool and top off to 5.25 gals. with pre-boiled and chilled water.

At 75° F pitch dry ale yeast or slurry, seal, and ferment relatively cool for 10 days. Rack to secondary, sprinkle a pinch of coarsely ground cinnamon on top, and age three weeks. Prime with corn sugar (boil in a pinch of cinnamon with your sugar syrup if desired) and bottle. Age in bottles six to eight weeks.

All-grain:

Mash 12 lbs. pale malt with 1 lb. 60° Lovibond crystal malt in 3.5 gals. at 155° F water for 90 minutes. Sparge at 168° F to get 6.5 gals. Steep 2 oz. roasted barley in runnings. Add hops, boil, and steep cinnamon as above. Don't like cinnamon? Well, what do you like? This same brew could be made with almost any "sweet" cooking spice (ginger, cloves, allspice, nutmeg), but be careful of proportions with some of the stronger spices. To make a lighter version cut back the dry malt to 6 lbs. (or pale malt in all-grain version to 8 lbs. and 2.5 gals.) for an OG of about 1.058. Same hops, same yeast, same spice patterns. For an amazingly hot cinnamon treat, prime with 500 ml. cinnamon schnapps and 1/3 cup corn sugar, bottle condition for six weeks, and serve mulled (i.e. gently warmed to about 120° F) with added spices. That's the sure cure for February!

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