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Corn Meal Beer

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

This is one of the very first beer recipes that I recorded. Prior to that time, I just was messing around and getting my procedure down. I knew how to make the beer, but never recorded any of the results. Just remembered what worked and what didn't work.
I made this beer a couple of months after visiting the Yuengling Brewery, where I was told that they used corn meal in making their beer. So, stupid me decided to try to make a beer using some corn meal in it. Well, let me tell you this the corn meal is messy. If you are not careful, it will stick to the bottom of your brewpot and burn. It also felt like it added about 10 pounds to the wort. And, Filtering can be a real hassle. The Benefit -- It does add a unique flavor to the beer and when young (2 weeks) will taste like Rolling Rock. After about 6 weeks, the malt and corn flavors blended and there seemed to be a more smoother body and tasting beer.
This recipe will make about 4 gallons.
Corn Meal Beer
64 ounces Alexander's Pale Malt Extract
24 ounces Dry Malt Extract
10 ounces Carapils Malt
6 ounces Crystal 10 Malt
8 ounces Corn Meal
1 ounce Liberty Hops 4.7% Alpha
4.8 ounces Corn Sugar for priming
1 packet Doric Dry Yeast
Irish Moss
Original Gravity 1.055
Finished Gravity 1.022
1. Crush the Carapils and Crystal Malts. Steep in 1 gallon of water for about 60 minutes. Strain and add the wort to your brewpot.
2. Add about 1 - 1 1/2 gallons water to the brewpot and turn up the heat. Slowly add the malt extract and the dry malt extract to the brewpot. Stir while adding to prevent the malt from sticking to the bottom and scorching.
3. After the wort begins to boil slowly add the corn meal and stir. Then add the hops and boil for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, add Irish Moss and continue boiling for another 15 minutes.
4. After 60 minutes of boiling, remove the wort from the heat and chill down. Add about a gallon of clean water to your fermenter and then add your wort. Add additional water to take the total wort up to 4 gallons.
5. Pitch your yeast at the wort temperature that you feel comfortable with. I pitch mine at "blood temperature" which is around 98 degrees. Of course, I open ferment too, which is something you will not find in most homebrewing books.
6. Allow the wort to ferment for about a week and then take a hydrometer reading. If the reading is low enough (at least 65% less the the original) then you can bottom your beer. Otherwise, rack over and allow to further ferment for another week.
7. After bottling, let the beer age for about 2 weeks before trying. Personally, I try one each week to gauge how the beer matures.
Hope you enjoy this recipe. At first I thought it was more a pain then anything else, but after it aged, it was one of my best tasting beers.



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4 comments:

Unknown said...

I'd recommend you mash the corn next time!

Bens Stuff said...

Thanks for the info. Will keep it in mind for the next batch.

Anonymous said...

I tried corn meal and after a few months the brew was light and great. I also have tried flaked oats which works good too.
Suggestion: Put the meal or flaked maizie in a large hop sack and boil. It is less of a mess.
But then after the boil I place the sack in a round bottom bowl and refrigerate. After it has firmed up, cut off the bag and slice. Then you fry the meal in butter, salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy
Gale

Unknown said...

I used corn meal and oatmeal together once and the end result was very much like Yuengling. I know they only use corn but I was in an experimental mood. Everybody that tried it really liked it.

-Willie-

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