Rosemary and Bay Ale
RBA is a fantastic tangy Ale that is great with a roast dinner, especially lamb or goat. The great thing is that Rosemary and Bay are available all year round so as long as you have some malt, hops and yeast you can knock up a batch whenever you fancy.
Ingredients for a 14Ltr batch
10 large Rosemary sprigs
20 bay leaves 1kg spray malt 500g sugar 250g Golden Syrup (you can use honey but up the hops to 30g if you do) 20g hops (fuggles pellets) Ale yeast (half an 11g pack S-04 Ale Yeast) |
Instructions
In the biggest pan you can fit on your hob, boil 6ltrs of water and steel yourself to add the malt. Perhaps consider loosening up with a small home made brew, it would be terribly rude not to. Put your glass down briefly, lower the heat and get K to sprinkle the Malt into the water, only a little at first or you will be subjected to something that resembles the results of a failed school experiment attempted by a spotty youth called Norman. It can be messy but with patience you can safely get the lot dissolved in the water and then get it back to a low boil. Quickly pick up your glass and look busy stirring while K mops the floor. How we chuckled, well Jarvo did, K is still stuck to the cooker. Drop in the bay leaves and strip the Rosemary into the water (we tend to do this first and then add in one go, it saves on drinking time). After it has been at a low boil for 20 minutes stirring frequently, drop the hops into the pan and stir in.
After a further 10 minutes still stirring away and after a couple more beers, pour in the sugar and the golden syrup and dissolve whilst stirring then turn off the heat and sort of casually mention to K that you are about to pour boiling liquid, albeit with a wonderful smell, over her hands. This is a good time to get the keg cleaned and sterilised with your Chemipro OXI. Position the sieve and muslin over the keg and carefully pour the skin meltingly boiling liquid into the keg whilst avoiding K's hands and therefore retaining your testicles. The steam will of course remove your eyelids and the floor will get stickier and stickier but nobody cares. Resist the temptation to squeeze the liquid out. Instead be patient, have a sip and let it drip til you're bored. Heave the keg onto a suitable counter top and top it up to 14ltrs with cold water. Check the temperature, if you can comfortably stick your finger in the liquid without snivelling like a Frenchman, then it's ok to pitch the yeast. We use S-04 Ale Yeast which is great, all you have to do is stir the hooch, sprinkle it on top in a pretty pattern, seal the top and fit the airlock. Remember to label the keg with what's inside and the date. After a week or so depending on the room temperature it should either have stopped bubbling or indicate as being ready when you test with the Harmonica or whatever it's called (see Beers Ales and Ciders home page). Then you can proceed to the bottling phase.