I am going to brew a recipe very closely based on this one from homebrewtalk: Da Yooper's House Pale Ale. I really like the grain bill on this one. I'm going to go for a gravity that will get me an ABV in the 4% to 4.5% range for easier drinking.
The recipe called for the Chico strain but I've decided to use the White Lab 013 London Ale yeast that I just finished fermenting my Oatmeal Brown Ale on. Sort of odd for a pale ale with american hops. I'm going to let it sit in the ambient basement temps (low 60s) so I don't expect that it will be overly estery. Should turn out interestingly.
I've decided to mash at 156 F to try to get the beer to finish between 1.010 and 1.015 but wont mind if it's a bit lower than that. I have also decided to go with an abbreviated fermentation schedule for this one (3 weeks) to try to preserve as much of the late hop character possible.
As a last minute decision (hope I don't regret it), I decided to try an open fermentation as my lid is currently in use for the oatmeal brown. I'll be interested to see if this adds any character (or makes a big mess). I'll be putting the fermentor into the fermentation chamber without temp control to try to protect the beer from airborne particles as much as possible.
Recipe Details:
- Grain:
- 5 lbs Marris Otter Malt
- 3 lbs Vienna Malt
- 2 lbs Munich Malt
- 8 oz Crystal 20L
- 8 oz Crystal 60L
- 3 oz Acid Malt
- Hops:
- 1 oz Cascade (Pellet, 7.2% AA) at 60 min
- 0.5 oz Cascade (Pellet, 7.2% AA) at 30 min
- 0.5 oz Cascade (Pellet, 7.2% AA) at 10 min
- 0.5 oz Cascade (Pellet, 7.2% AA) at 5 min
- 0.5 oz Cascade (Pellet, 7.2% AA) at Flame out
- 1.0 oz Cascade (Pellet, 7.2% AA) Dry hop
- Yeast:
- White Lab 013 London Ale (Re-pitched)
- Water:
- 10 gal Spring Water
- 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
- 1 tsp Gypsum
- 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min
Process Details:
- Batch Size:
- 5.75 gal (Target 6 gal)
- Mash:
- 156 F to 158 F (Target 156 F for 60 min)
- Boil:
- 60 min (Target 60 min)
- Fermentation Temp:
- Ambient Basement Temps (low 60s)
- Primary Duration:
- 3 Weeks
- Secondary Duration:
- NA
Results:
- OG:
- 1.050 (Target 1.045)
- Efficiency:
- 71% (Target 68%)
- FG:
- 1.012 (Target 1.012)
- Apparent Attenuation:
- 75% (Target 73%)
- ABV:
- 4.99% (Target 4.33%)
Brewing Notes:
- 3/13/15 - Made a yeast starter. Used a 1.5 liter starter with 5.5 oz of DME. Transferred 1 cup of yeast slurry from a previous batch and put onto the stir plate to propagate
- 3/15/15 - Brew day - 7:10 AM to 11:20 AM Including setup and cleanup
- Move the starter to the fridge to drop the yeast
- Brought 7 gal of water to 185 F strike water temp - took 30 min
- Added Gypsum and CaCl to the kettle
- Transferred 17 qt to the mash tun and let settle for 10 min - ended up at 174 F
- Added the grain and stirred to eliminate doughballs - temp ended up between 156 F and 158 F (right on target)
- Checked the mash temp again after 10 min and it was the same
- Stirred the mash after 30 min - temp was still the same
- Brought 6 gal of sparge water up to 185 F - took 20 min
- At the end of the 60 min mash it was around 156 F
- Added 2 gal of mash out water, stirred, vorlaufed, and drained (slowly at first to set the grain bed and then at full speed)
- Added 4 gal batch sparge, stirred, vorlaufed, and drained like before
- Collected 8 gal of wort (this was the goal to get a 60 min boil)
- Brought the kettle to a boil - took 20 min
- Added the 60 min hops after the hot break cleared
- Decanted the spent wort off the starter
- Added the 30 min hops when volume got down to 7 gal
- Put in the irish moss with about 20 min to go
- Added the 10 min hops with a bit less than 6.5 gal
- At flame out added the last bit of hops and the wort chiller to sanitize
- Did a 15 min hopstand
- Chilled the wort down to 70 F - took 7 min
- Transferred to the fermentation bucket - let the wort fall a foot or so to aerate (My oatmeal brown is in the bottling bucket I usually use to slosh the wort back and fourth with in order to aerate). I believe this will be sufficient
- Moved the beer to the fermentation chamber and pitched the yeast
- Measured the OG as 1.050 which is a bit higher than expected efficiency
- 3/16/15 - A good layer of foam has formed on the top of the beer - it's neat being able to see the status of the fermentation so easily
- 3/18/15 - The krausen has sunk to the bottom
- 3/29/15 - Added the dry hops
- 4/2/15 - Cold crashed down to 35 F
- 4/4/15 - Added gelatin for fining
- 4/5/15 - Measured the FG as 1.012. The beer has a nice citrus/fruity hop aroma. The flavor is pretty good balance between malt and bitter (bitterness is actually pretty restrained). Bottled with 4.75 oz of priming sugar. Ended up with 5.5 gal which got me 54 12 oz bottles.
- 4/30/15 - I've been drinking this for the last couple weeks. I'm waiting for the hops to mellow a bit before doing the official tasting. The first 6 beers I drank were very carbonated - I couldn't get through even a soft pour without having to pause for the head to settle. The last two I've opened have been very lightly carbonated somehow. I wonder if I didn't get an even mix of priming sugar in this beer. I skipped the stirring step with this one - just added the sugar water at the start let the cycling of the beer flowing into the bottling bucket mix it in. May have to be a bit more methodical on my next batch.
- 5/30/15 - Tasting Notes - A nicely balanced and refreshing beer for the summer.
- 5/1/17 - Drank the last one of these. It was still clean and really nice tasting - no oxidation. Hops had faded quite a bit as expected.
Lessons Learned:
- It was a quicker than normal brew day due to only collecting 8 gal of pre-boil volume. It didn't hurt my efficiency either.
- I went with a bit over a 1.5 qt to pound ratio of water to grain which worked out well. I was able to hit the mash temp and maintain it over the 60 min period.
- Lost about a qt of volume to all the hops in this beer. I'm glad I was shooting for 6 gal rather than 5 as I'll still have plenty of this beer with 5.75 gal.
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