After some discussion, we decided to go ahead and enter the Angry Kitty Ale into the Sam Adam’s Longshot Competition. The Angry Kitty Ale has some flaws but even with the flaws, the feedback would be nice to get. So off it went.
Femme Fatale Brewing has been hard at work shifting into the next level of home brewing. It hasn’t been cheap either. 
The goal is to move into all grain brewing and kegging. Kegging is moving slower then desired but we are almost ready to brew our first all grain batch. All that is left is some minor repare work to the demon box otherwise known as our first mash tun. The darn thing keeps leaking and valve keeps sticking but we figured out why and will fix it soon.
The first all grain batch will be a simple pale ale, otherwise known as Fael Ale. Here is the recipe (note: the hop ratios in the actual brew will not be exact, we are using left over hops to bitter the beer, also, the yeast is left off the recipe but it will be basic dry ale yeast):
Fael Ale
American Pale Ale
Type: All Grain
Date: 9/11/2008
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Femme Fatale Brewing
Boil Size: 6.41 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Cooler (48 qt)
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
10.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 100.00 %
0.25 oz Liberty [4.30 %] (60 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
1.00 oz Sterling [7.50 %] (60 min) Hops 26.6 IBU
0.25 oz Liberty [4.30 %] (15 min) Hops 1.9 IBU
0.25 oz Liberty [4.30 %] (5 min) Hops 0.8 IBU
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 0.9 IBU
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.055 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.26 %
Bitterness: 33.9 IBU Calories: 246 cal/pint
Est Color: 3.9 SRM Color:
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Total Grain Weight: 10.00 lb
Sparge Water: 4.74 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.4 PH
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 12.50 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F
Hopefully it turns out well enough. It has to, as we need to brew another Throwdown beer and it too is an all grain recipe. 
So after all the brewing I am doing with custom recipes, I will be left with some extra ingredients. I don’t want to waste anything, especially with the price of hops and grains what they are, so I decided to make a pale ale from the left over hops and grains.
The name comes from the fact the ingredients are “left behind” from being brewed into sweet beer heaven.
This will also be my first 90 minute boil and all grain batch. I went with a 90 minute boil to get the most out of the bittering hops. I will be using my mash tun that I built a month ago. Hopefully it works as intended!
First all grain recipe using left off stuff:
BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Left Behind Pale Ale
Brewer: Femme Fatale Brewing
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Recipe Specifications
————————–
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.31 gal
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 7.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 40.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Ingredients:
————
Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 87.91 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 10.99 %
0.10 lb Rye, Flaked (2.0 SRM) Grain 1.10 %
1.00 oz Sterling [7.50 %] (90 min) Hops 30.0 IBU
0.25 oz Sterling [7.50 %] (20 min) Hops 4.2 IBU
0.25 oz Liberty [4.30 %] (20 min) Hops 2.4 IBU
0.25 oz Sterling [7.50 %] (5 min) Hops 1.4 IBU
0.25 oz Liberty [4.30 %] (5 min) Hops 0.8 IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 9.10 lb
—————————-
Single Infusion, Full Body, No Mash Out
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
45 min Mash In Add 11.38 qt of water at 170.5 F 158.0 F
We finally got around to bottle the Angry Kitty Amble Ale and had ourselves a taste.
It’s good.
It’s damn good.
The hops comes out clearly in both the smell and the taste. The flavor is rich with malt, caramel, rye, and a nice hint of chocolate at the end. The balance is spot on. I can’t wait to see how this one is when it conditions.
For the next batch, I will probably use more hops, possibly in the middle or end of the process.
As an extra treat, I have included a video of how the priming sugar is added for bottling. It is pretty neat to watch.
The video was captured using my cell phone at very low res.
A few days late but we racked the angry kitty amber ale into the secondary Carboy. We snagged a quick taste before we put in the airlock.The nose is very sweet, not too malty, just very sugary and sweet. The taste was a pleasant surprise. We were expecting a very sweet tasting beer but instead the first flavor we got was hops.The bitterness seemed right on the money, as well as the hop selection. Besides the hops, the sweetness from the specialty grains came out very well. So far, it seems the beer is pretty well balanced.
The beer still is a little cloudy but the secondary should help with that along with a clearing agent at bottling. This time we are using Polyclar which is typically used in wine production (it clears out tannins in addition to clearing out the other junk). Originally, we were going to use Irish moss as a clarifier but some sources state that it isn’t ideal for extract brew making (it removes too many proteins). The package says to add it right before bottling but most beer brewing sources recommending adding it at least a day before (so it can settle out).
So far so good for the first version of Angry Kitty Amber Ale. Next one should be even better.