How to Make Your Own Ale – Goat Scrotum Ale
I suppose everyone wherever they are in the world has their favorite beer or ale. Some like Guinness, other Indian Pale ales or even a Coors or Budweiser. What about people who love to create their own ale though? What is their favorite? Without doubt the number one all-time favorite home brew ale to make is Goat Scrotum Ale.
I’d have to admit that the name doesn’t make it sound great, but don’t let that put you off. This ale is very popular to make because there are so many variations of great tasting ales. It can taste of ginger, sweet chocolate, or even licorice, there are so many combination’s of flavors available to you.
This ale began under the name of Tumultuous Porter in the early years of the nineteenth century and the spicy dark drink became popular until prohibition, after which it disappeared for a while. Fortunately Charlie Papazian re-discovered it and brought the ale back for us all to enjoy.
That’s the history out of the way, but just how would you go about making your own ale?
First of all you will require these ingredients:
Crystal Malt – 1 Pound
Dark Malt Extract – 5 pounds
Crushed Barley Malt – 0.25 pounds
Hallertauer leaf hops – 3.5 ounces
Black Patent Malt – 0.25 pounds
Brown sugar – 1 cup
Blackstrap Molasses – 1 cup
Corn Sugar – 1 pound
Gypsum – 2 teaspoons
Irish Moss – 1 teaspoon
Ale Yeast – 1 pack
In addition there are some other optional ingredients you can use a mixture of including grated ginger root (3 ounces), brewing licorice (2 inches) Spruce Tree Essence (2 tablespoons), Dried Chili (Up to 10), Crushed Juniper Berries (0.25 cups) and Baker’s Chocolate or cocoa powder (6 ounces).
That’s the ingredients dealt with now on to the recipe itself.
The first step is take the Crystal Malt and steep it for one hour in brewing water at 150 degrees F
Remove any remaining crystal malt then add the malt extract, both types of sugar and the molasses.
Heat it up to a gentle boil then make sure everything has dissolved.
Then add in quarter ounce of the hops plus any of the additional ingredients such as grated ginger and boil for
quarter of an hour then add in a further half ounce of the hops and boil for another quarter hour.
Next you put in the patent malt, barley malt and boil for guess how long? Yes another quarter hour!
Don’t worry we are nearly finished – add quarter ounce of the hops, the gypsum and moss and boil for another quarter of an hour, but this time add in the rest of the hops two minutes from the end.
Then allow it to cool down to room temperature before straining it into a fermenter.
You add then yeast once the temperature is below 80 degrees F.
After the fermentation process has completed add in about 3/4 cup of corn sugar before you bottle it.
All you have to do now is drink your home made ale!
