In tribute to the demise of the 2007 Cubs in yesterday’s 5-1 loss to the Arizona Diamond backs, I’m brewing a very simple American Pale Ale.

I’m using the following ingredients:

Munton’s light Malt extract (6.6 lbs)
Willamette pellet hops - boiling (1 oz.)
Amarillo whole hops - bittering (1.oz)
Safale US-05 dry ale yeast (11.5g)

I boiled the malt and Willamette hops for 50 minutes and then added the amarillo for ten. I didn’t use any adjunct and since I used less Willamette than is usually recommended (not on purpose) I don’t expect this brew to turn out to heavy. It should underperform just like the Cubs.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take an original gravity measurement because I stupidly broke the hydrometer in my mouth. No, it wasn’t anything kinky. Since I’m new at this, I actually forgot to get the reading before putting the cap on the fermenter. As I was trying to remove the lid from by 5 gallon pickle-barrel fermenter (I used to work in a kitchen and we had special tools for those lids … now I just pull on the sucker til my finger prints rip off) I decided for some reason it was a good idea to put my hydrometer in my mouth. Yeah, no. Chink. The end in my mouth broke. Crash! The other end hit the floor. Damn.

Let that be a lesson.