If I don't like 8 pints...

... I'll not bother making forty.

Yesterday, in my shiny new stainless steel 5+ gallon tin - of which I used a third - I boiled up:

For 1 gallon:
1lb 5 and a half oz pale dried malt extract,
2.7 oz Crystal malt (100ECB, but I'd go lighter next time)
1/8th oz Magnum (12.7% AA) (boiling/bittering IBU 54)
and I'll put in some East Kent Goldings tomorrow (dry)
Safale US-04 English Ale Yeast, and some Burton Water Salts.

1 gallon, O.G. should be 1.060, but I forgot to take a measurement! I was very tired after singing in a festival in Co. Down. Very sunny, lots of fun, a pint or two of Belfast Blonde, and I think I've got a name for my ale...

Feile Pale (Fay-luh Pale) or Festival Pale.

It's a basic recipe, but the measurements are quite hit and miss. Our scales are as bad as our tin openers. Nevertheless, if I don't like it, I've only got 8 pints to drink/distribute. If I do like it, it was very easy to make, I've got loads of malt left, and I've developed a raging thirst. And I think it shows a great commitment to beer making that I brewed a batch before unpacking the camping gear... or is that laziness. No, no, definitely commitment.

Not going against the (speciality) grain.

Last night, after hours of research and printing stuff off the internet, I devised a recipe for an Irish red ale. Far from an eureka moment, it happened by taking the ingredients for 8 different recipes (all off the net) and working out an average for each ingredient. It leaves me with the following:

5lb 3oz light DME,
1lb 7oz of speciality grains (Crystal and roasted unmalted barley)
roughly 2oz hops (Fuggles and Goldings) whatever I need for an IBU (bitteness) of about 22 - 28
Irish Ale Yeast and some leftover DME for conditioning.

It's an exactly average recipe, but hopefully it will ease me into extract brewing and I'll have a good base on which to work. A canvas, if you will. We'll find out soon. I'm not short of 'quality control' volunteers.

Any suggestions, with the recipe or a name for it, are very welcome.

I've also heard that the local barley farmer, my dealer, is planting Quench soon, which is great news. I love it when a plan comes together!