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Cyserale

5 gallons, partial mash with honey, fruit juice; OG = 1.050, FG = 1.012, Bitterness = 28 IBUs

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. pale malt
• 0.5 lb. light crystal malt, 35° Lovibond
• 0.5 lb. malted wheat
• 3 lbs. unhopped light malt extract syrup
• 1 lb. light wildflower honey
• 1.5 gal. fresh nonpreserved, nonsulfited apple juice or sweet cider
• 1.2 oz. Tettnanger hops (5% alpha acid, 6 AAUs) for 75 min.
• 0.5 oz. Cascade hops (6% alpha acid, 3 AAUs) for 15 min.
• German ale yeast slurry (such as kölsch)
• 7/8 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step:

Heat 1.25 gal. water to 160° F, mix in crushed grains, and hold at 150° F for 90 min. Sparge with 2 gal. of 168° F water. Add enough water to make 2.5 gal. total volume in kettle. Stir in malt extract and honey, bring to a boil. Total boil is 75 min. Add Tettnanger hops and boil 60 min. Add Cascade hops, boil 15 min., and remove from heat. Cool, add apple juice and enough chilled, pre-boiled water to make 5.25 gal. At 68° F, pitch yeast slurry.

Ferment at 62° to 65° F for three weeks, then rack to secondary. Condition at 60° F for four to six weeks (honey and fruit juices ferment relatively slowly). Prime with corn sugar and bottle. Condition at 50° F for three to four weeks.

Notes:

Temperature: The temperatures in the recipe are warm enough to ferment the honey relatively quickly, yet cool enough to prevent the apple juice from becoming acetic.

Apple juice vs. cider: It doesn’t really matter whether you use apple juice or cider as long as it tastes sweet. If you’re buying pre-pressed juice, be very careful to avoid anything that is preserved or sulfited (use only pure apple juice). I prefer to press my own apples because I can pick and choose the variety of apples and be absolutely certain there are no additives. Depending on how early in the season you brew this ale, however, it may not be possible to find fresh local juice. Seek out a good, all-natural (even organic) canned or bottled juice. This would be an interesting brew to try with pear cider. If the apple juice is not pasteurized, be certain to boil it for 15 min. at 160° F before adding it to wort.

Extract:

Omit the pale malt, increase the malt extract to 4.5 lbs., and start by steeping the crystal and wheat malts in 2.5 gal. of 150° F water for 30 min. Remove grains and continue with the addition of the extract.

All-grain:

Omit the malt extract and increase the pale malt to 5.5 lbs., mash in 2.5 gal., sparge with 3.25 gal. (same times and temperatures), and proceed as above. You may need to add water to the kettle to make 5.25 gal. in the end.

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