Kentucky Common Contest Beer

Inspired by the National Homebrewers Conference in Denver a couple of weeks ago, I will enter the National Homebrewing contest with my cousin, Satan. We will brew three beers for submission, his Oatmeal Stout, my Kentucky Common and as yet undetermined beer. With any luck, we will be able to pick up our awards at the 2008 conference in Cincinatti.

Brother Spud's Oatmeal Stout will be an all-grain batch. Kentucky Common will be partial mash. We'll figure out the third beer later.

In that spirit, I ordered the ingredients for the prototype batch and brewed it on July 4th. Here's the recipe:

A Winner and a Sinner Kentucky Common
4.00 lbs. Light Dry Malt Extract
0.50 lbs. Chocolate Malt (350L)
0.25 lbs. Black Patent Malt (525L)
0.50 lbs. Carafa (400)
1.00 lbs. Flaked Corn (Maize)
0.50 lbs. Crystal 20L
1 oz. Cascade 6.4% AAU/60 min.
1 oz. Cascade 6.4% AAU/5 min.
White Labs WLP655 Belgian Sour Mix
Add grains to 155° F water, and hold for 30 minutes. Sparge and bring to a boil. When boil is finished, add to 3 gallons of ice water pitch yeast.
Est. OG 1051
Actual OG 1038 !

I guess I need to work on my partial mashing technique! This time, I put the flakes maize in one steeping bag, and the grains in another. The maize didn't expand, it just gelatinized. I broke up the ball, but there were still dry spots when I got rid of the spent grains. Maybe I'll use, Williams Brewing's 80% malt 20% corn extract next time. . .