Mint Julep Ale

Mint Julep Ale

• Two-row: 10#
• Carapils: 0.5#
• Crystal (40L): 6 oz.
• Crystal (60L): 6 oz.
• Tettnang: 1 oz. at 60 min. left
• Northern Brewer: 0.25 oz. at 60 min. left
• Northern Brewer: 0.75 oz. at 5 min. left
• Irish Ale yeast

Going to try to make a minty amber ale. I’ve heard that Northern Brewer hops have a minty taste to them, so I will try putting a considerable amount in at the end of the boil. I also plan on oaking this beer, but I will report on that when I do the secondary.

I used the no sparge method again today, and this pushed the upper limits of my tun’s capacity. With about 11.5# of grain and close to 9 gallons of water, there was little room to spare with I closed the cooler lid. The gravity of the first runnings came out to be around 1.055, but the last dribble that I squeezed out to around 1.042. I’ve been told to expect 1.050 with 10# of grain, but I will add a pound of DME because I want this one boozier.

I ended up with an OG of 1.058, so my pre-boil gravity was pretty close. In two weeks I’ll rack this to secondary with some oak cubes. Until then, happy brewing.