This is a snapshot from waaaay back, over Memorial Day weekend. Â Cleveland friend Pete brewed some beer from the 19th century called Common Ale. Â He wrote an article about it awhile back, which you can read here, but May was the first time I got to taste it for myself.
A few evenings previous to sipping this beer, I had Ukranian food with The Alaskans, who have been been getting into beer drinking and brewing. Â Alaska Chris explained to me all the vocabulary used to describe the flavors of beer, things like biscuity and grapefruity. Â These flavors are generally created through various combinations of hops. Â But I imagned these terms to mean things like “grapfruit-like,” something with citrus notes, as opposed to actually like a grapefruit.
And then I tasted the common ale. It tasted just like grapfruit. Â Not in an extremely strong why, like straight up grapefruit juice. Â Not like some girly beer with grapefruit juice. Â But like grapefruit beer. Â It was amazing, delicious, and refreshing. Â I could never imagine that a combination of hops could deliver a flavor so close to an actual grapefruit..
If you’re a home brewer, I recommend taking a look at Pete’s recipe. Â The common ale is a great summertime beer: light and infinitely drinkable. Â It takes less than a month to brew, so you can sip it before summer’s end!
Update: Notes on the ingredients from Pete!
7lbs. American 2-Row Malt (Organic if you can afford it) If you’re an extract brewer, 4.5# of light dry malt extract would work just fine.
3lbs. Flaked Maize.
3oz. Liberty Hops.
California Common Lager Yeast — Wyeasts’ number is 2112 and ferments cleaner than White Labs’ yeast.
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