Which Beer to Brew First?

On my last few trips to the United States I have discovered a beer that if readily available in this country could quite possible turn me into an alcoholic. It is called Boston Lager made by a brewery called Samuel Adams ( http://www.samueladams.com/ ). It’s a very new company, only founded in 1984 but it’s beers are already world award winning creations. It is imported into the U.K by Shepherd Neame but I have never seen it for sale (I have written an email to them asking where I can buy it, will post the information when I find out).

Boston Lager is what I would describe as an Amber Lager. It uses malts that you would use to create a pale ale together with the sort of hops and yeast normally only used in brewing lager. The result is a crisp refreshing but rounded malty tasting beer.

Because I can’t seem to find this beer here in England I have decided to try and make something similar. I found a commercial recipe for the beer and will adapt it for home brewing the best I can. For this first recipe I’ll cheat slightly and use malt extract rather then using the crushed malt grains, but don’t worry I will be making some beers using only dry ingredients soon. I will be using 3kg of Brupaks Pale Malt Extract syrup but also add a small amount of crushed crystal malt (500g). The hops used are what gives this amber lager real identity. Samuel Adams use two varieties of Hallertauer hop, Heresbrucker and Mittlefruh (50g of each). I will also be using a very good lager yeast called WYeast Bavarian lager. Hopefully the malt extract will provide all the sugar I need but if I need more I will add some golden syrup.

I should point out that if you’re lost with any of the product names and technical stuff don’t worry because I will be writing another Blog giving a good explanation of all the processes in home-brewing.

For the first time I ordered all the above ingredients on the web! I have used a company called The Home Brew Shop ( http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/ ). Will be giving a report on how good the service is from this site.