Beer Nuts

About a week before, make a starter from 2 bottles of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Use about 4 tablespoons of plain light malt extract syrup and a couple of hop pellets. Boil major ingredients, ala Complete Joy of Home Brewing, in 2 gallons of water. (60 minute boil). Add 1/3 ounce Chinook hops at start of boil, 1/3 ounce Chinnook at 30 minutes and 1/3 ounce of Cascade hops in the last two minutes of the boil. Then combine with 3 gallons of ice cold tap water (which was boiled the previous night, and cooled in the freezer) in a 7 gallon carboy. Ferment in primary for a week. Put 1/2 ounce of Cascade pellets in bottom of secondary and rack beer into secondary. Bottle three weeks later. This a report on my second use of "maltose" (a cheap rice malt available from most Oriental Markets). In the previous attempt ("Number 17", see HBD #541 or The Cat's Meow: p 36) there were a few problems. It was also my first attempt at culturing yeast (from a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale), and for various reasons, it didn't work very well. The other problem was I used to much maltose, about 40%, which made the result a little too light. This time I decided to use about 20% maltose, which IMHO, is just about right. I've also since perfected yeast culturing. The result is a nice thirst quenching, summer ale, which, with my favorite pizza, is heaven*2. Taste: Excellent! Original Gravity: 1.036 @ 74 degrees Final Gravity: 1.006 @ 69 degrees Primary Ferment: 1 week Secondary Ferment: 3 weeks