Game Room Recipe

1. Heat strike water

Heat 3.5 gallons of strike water to 167°F (75°C) to achieve a mash temperature of 152°F (67°C) when grains are added.

2. Combine grains

Add the crushed pale malt, Vienna malt, crystal 10L and flaked oats to your mash tun. Ensure grains are well mixed and level.

3. Mash

Pitch the grains into the mash tun and pour the strike water over them, stirring thoroughly to eliminate dry pockets. Hold the mash at 152°F (67°C) for 60 minutes. Perform a mash rest and, if desired, a 10–15 minute mashout at 168°F (76°C) to improve lautering.

4. Recirculate

Recirculate the first runnings until they run clear (vorlauf) and then begin collecting the wort into your boil kettle.

5. Sparge

Sparge the grains with approximately 2.5 gallons of water heated to 170–175°F (77–80°C) until you have about 6.5–6.75 gallons of wort in the kettle (adjust to system loss to yield ~5.25 gallons into fermenter).

6. Bring to a boil

Bring the collected wort to a vigorous boil. Watch for boil-overs during the first 10 minutes.

7. Bittering hop addition (60 min)

With 60 minutes remaining in the boil, add 0.75 oz Northern Brewer bittering hops. Boil for the full 60 minutes.

8. Flavor/aroma hop addition (15 min)

With 15 minutes left in the boil, add 1.0 oz Cascade hops. Continue the boil for the remaining time.

9. End of boil / chill

At the end of the 60-minute boil, turn off heat and chill the wort quickly to approximately 68°F (20°C) using a wort chiller or ice bath.

10. Transfer to fermenter

Transfer the chilled wort to a sanitized fermenter, leaving behind as much break material as possible.

11. Top up & oxygenate

Top up with pre-boiled and cooled water if needed to reach ~5.25 gallons. Aerate the wort thoroughly by shaking, splashing, or using an oxygen system (aim for ~8–10 ppm O2 for ale yeast if using pure O2).

12. Pitch yeast

Rehydrate or prepare the yeast according to package directions and pitch into the cooled, oxygenated wort at ~66–68°F (19–20°C).

13. Primary fermentation

Ferment at 66–68°F (19–20°C) for 5–7 days until vigorous fermentation slows (specific gravity should drop significantly).

14. Secondary / Conditioning & dry hop

After primary fermentation slows (day 5–7), optionally rack to a secondary fermenter or leave in primary and add 1.0 oz Cascade hops as a dry hop. Condition for an additional 4–6 days to develop aroma and allow hops to settle.

15. Prepare priming sugar

Dissolve 3.5 oz corn sugar in 1 cup (240 ml) of boiling water, cool to room temperature and add to a sanitized bottling bucket.

16. Bottle or keg

Gently transfer beer into the bottling bucket to mix with priming solution, avoiding excessive oxygen pickup. Bottle (or keg) the beer and cap. If kegging, carbonate to ~2.4 volumes CO2. If bottling, store at 68–72°F (20–22°C) for 10–14 days to carbonate.

17. Conditioning

After carbonation, cold condition in refrigerator for 24–48 hours to help clear. Best enjoyed after 2–3 weeks from brew date to allow flavors to mature.

18. If your tap water is chlorinated or has off-flavors, treat with a crushed Campden tablet (follow product dosing) or use filtered water. Add gypsum or other water salts to accentuate hop bitterness if desired; the listed 1 tsp gypsum can be added to the mash or kettle prior to mash to adjust water profile. Adjust volumes to compensate for equipment losses to achieve final batch size of ~5 gallons.