Step by Step
Build your water profile to an “amber balanced” one with a 75:60 ppm sulfate:chloride while also making sure your mash pH is between 5.2 and 5.4. Mill all the grain and add 3.2 gallons (12.2 L) of strike water to achieve a mash temperature of 152 °F (67 °C). Hold temperature for 60 minutes. Raise mash temperature to 168 °F (76 °C) for mashout, if possible. Then start a 15-minute vorlauf. Collect 5.7 gallons (21.6 L) of wort into your kettle. Bring wort to a boil and boil for 60 minutes, making the hop additions accordingly. Add any finings such as Irish moss, Whirlfloc®, or Koppakleer®, if desired, in the last 5–10 minutes of the boil.

At the end of the boil, whirlpool, then let settle for 15 minutes. Cool wort and send to your fermenter. Pitch more yeast (about double) than you would a traditional ale targeting about 1.5 million cells per mL degree Plato. Oxygenate thoroughly if using a liquid yeast strain. Ferment at 52 °F (11 °C) for the first two days and then slowly raise the temperature to 60 °F (16 °C).

After terminal gravity is reached and there is no presence of diacetyl, you may cool down to 52 °F (11 °C) . . . this is a good opportunity to harvest yeast to use again for another batch. If not harvesting, then cold crash down to 34 °F (1 °C) and hold for a minimum of 30 days. After approximately 30 days, remove all of the yeast from the bottom of the fermenter and add a clarifying agent such as Biofine® or gelatin. Let beer clarify for a few days then keg or bottle. Bottle with priming sugar or force carbonate the serving keg to 2.7 volumes of CO2.