Dear Replicator, Although we have taken our share of brewery tours, our favorite and most informative to date has become our favorite micro brewery and ale. To our absolute delight, within driving distance of our home is New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewing Company. The staff and brew masters there are always a pleasure to converse with and on numerous occasions have spent quality and informative time with us explaining and allowing us to sample Flying Fish’s superb ales. After spending an afternoon with Robin, a Flying Fish co-owner, we were inspired to try our hand at creating our own homebrew. Our favorite ale is their seasonal Farmhouse Summer Ale. We enjoy this beer all summer long at our local pubs and are sad to see that it is currently out of season. I have tried a number of Belgium White Wheat Ale recipes but I can’t quite seem to replicate the crisp and refreshing aroma and taste of Flying Fish’s Farmhouse Summer Ale. We would love to enjoy this beer all year round. Can you help? Gene and Sharon Zak Sewell , New Jersey Gene and Sharon, Here is a great example of a unique summer beer. I spoke to Head Brewer Jonathan Zangwill at Flying Fish about this seasonal beer. Jonathan describes Farmhouse Summer ale as a beer that does not fit into a traditionally recognized beer style. It is light in color, with low hop bitterness. Jonathan says that Farmhouse Summer ale is “ One of the most quaffable summer brews I have ever had. What makes this beer so delicious is its crisp, slightly sour and citrusy finish. The beer drinks so easy on hot days…you don’t even realize you are drinking beer. This very unique characteristic is the reason we can’t make enough of this stuff.” The crisp, slightly sour flavor comes from the Flying Fish doing a “sour mash” with a small portion of the grain that they use to make this beer. Now, as homebrewers we normally do not like sour malt, but this beer is an exception! The procedure is a bit unusual, but it should be fun to try!! To make the “sour mash”, start 2-3 days before brew day. Crush 3 ounces of the 2-row malt, and put in a in a bowl and cover with about a pint of 150F water. Put something over it so the roaches don’t get to it and store in a warm place. If this malt gets so stinky you could never imagine putting it anywhere else but the trash can…it’s perfect. Then use the mash and the liquid to add to your brewing water! This beer sounds like it might be more fun to make than it is to drink, but then it also sounds so good that it can’t be more fun to make it than drink it! For more information you can visit the Flying Fish Brewing Company web site at: http://www.flyingfish.com or by calling 856-489-0061. Flying Fish Brewery – Farmhouse Summer Ale (5 gallon, extract with grains) OG=1.045 FG=1.010 IBU’S = 15-18 SRM= 3 Alcohol 4.6% by volume Ingredients 3.3 Lbs. Coopers (light) malt extract syrup 2.5 Lbs. Briess Wheat dry malt extract 0.5 Lb. Wheat malt 3 Ounces Carapils (Dextrin) Malt 3 ounces pale 2-row malt (for sour mash) 1.0 AAU Styrian Golding hops (First Wort hop) (.25 Oz. of 4.0% alpha acid) 5.0 AAU Magnum hops (bittering hop) (.13 Oz. of 14.0% Alpha acid) 3.0 AAU Styrian Golding hops (boil 30 min.) (.75 Oz. of 4.0% alpha acid) 2.0 AAU Styrian Golding hops (boil 2 min.) (.50 Oz. of 4.0% alpha acid) White Labs WLP005 British Ale yeast or Wyeast 1098 British Ale yeast O.75 cup of corn sugar for priming. Step by step instructions For the sour mash: Start 2 to 3 days in advance of brew day. Steep 3 ounces 2-row pale malt in a pint of 150º water, then cover (to keep the bugs out) and let set for 2 to 3 days in a warm location. The malt should have a nice “stinky” aroma to it! On brew day steep the sour mash (water and grain) along with the Wheat and Dextrin malts grains in 3 gallons of water at 152º for 30 minutes. Remove grains from wort, add the first wort addition of Styrian Golding hops, malt syrup, dry malt extract and bring to a boil. Add the Magnum hops and boil for 60 minutes. Add the second addition of Styrian Golding hops for the last 30 minutes of the boil, and add the last addition of Styrian Golding hops for the last 2 minutes of the boil. Now add wort to 2 gallons cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons. Cool the wort to 75º, aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68º, and hold at this temperature until the yeast has finished fermentation. Bottle and enjoy! All grain option: This is a single infusion mash. Do the sour mash the same as the extract sour mash above, 2 to 3 days in advance of brew day. On brew day add 7.5 lbs of 2 row, 0.5 lbs of wheat malt, and 3 ounces of Dextrin malt to complete your grain bill (leaving out the extracts). Mash your grains and your “stinky” sour mash together at 152º for 60 minutes. Collect enough wort to boil for 90 minutes and have a 5.5-gallon yield (approximately 7 gallons). Lower the amount of Styrian Golding hops in the 30 minute boil to 0.5 ounce to account for higher extraction ratio of a full boil. The remainder of the recipe is the same as the extract.
