Liberty Ale

Classification: pale ale, extract, Liberty Ale, India pale ale, I.P.A.

Source: Caitrin Lynch (lun6@midway.uchicago.edu) Issue #841, 3/11/92

About a month ago, I asked for suggestions on how to duplicate Liberty Ale. This recipe is based on Jim Busch's suggestions. Everyone who replied emphasized dry hopping and Cascade hops. This seems to have done the trick.
My best beer ever, and IMHO better than most beer available in the local store (cheaper too). I attribute the success of this beer entirely to the use of liquid yeast, or perhaps also merely to changing yeast. Previous brews were marred by a slight tang, which I eventually traced to the yeast (thank you Jack Schmidling). The American ale yeast made all the difference in the world. Everyone should at least try it, if only in the spirit of fun. After all, thats why I brew in the first place.

My next brew will be similar but I am aiming for an English bitter. I plan to use the same recipe, only more bittering hops, and subsituting Kent Goldings for the cascade.

Ingredients:

5--1/2 pounds, light malt extract
1/2 pound, crystal malt
1--1/2 ounces, Fuggles hops plugs (60 minutes)
1 ounce, Cascade hops (30 minutes)
1--1/2 ounces, Cascade hops (added handful at a time over last 10 minutes)
Wyeast American ale yeast
1--1/2 ounces, Cascade hops (dry hopping)

Procedure:

The brewing procedure was pretty much standard. Fermented from 1040 down to about 1010 in two weeks. I dry hopped it in the secondary for 1 1/2 weeks. Using only whole cascades (apart from the fuggles for bittering), really made a differance in flavour and aroma of the beer.