Zappa Pale Ale

 I let my IPA keg get empty a few weeks ago which was a very sad thing - I've been very busy - and ended up buying a case of commercial hoppy beer which I've also consumed. So, it is high time to brew a new hoppy beer to backfill.  Recently I've been experimenting with different levels of dry hopping and have found that 8 oz of dry hops seems to provide more bold flavor than 6 oz and that hopping in the fermenter seems to be as good as putting half the hops in the serving keg.  These have been experiments with hops I'm fairly familiar with.  For this batch, I'll be trying a hop that is new to me and reported to be potent:  a New Mexico hop called Zappa

I purchased these last year from Hops Direct.  They are a low alpha acid flavoring hop and, per reports, are found to have a very strong pine and marijuana-like character.  The Brulosophy web page wasn't fond of the beer they brewed with the hop.  I'll use it for dry hopping only (going to bitter and provide hot side flavor with Columbus and Centennial as I've done in the last several hoppy beers) and have opted for a 6 ounce dose all in at 7 days.  Will be an experiment to see how I like this hop and how I might use the remainder of it.

For the grain bill I've gone with the ratios of grain used by Sapwood Cellars Cheater Hops (which uses Oats and Wheat) and am shooting for a beer in the 1.045 OG/1.015 FG/4% ABV range.  I'm not trying for a hazy beer here but that may be the outcome as the original is hazy.  The wheat and the oats will hopefully provide some interesting complexity and mouthfeel but will likely be far outshadowed by the hops used in this volume.  Other than that I'm using Golden Promise as the base malt as that's what I have on hand.

Finally, for yeast, I've been doing a good job saving money by saving yeast strains for reuse in jars, I'll be reusing some Imperial Yeast Juice her for this batch.  This is a reuse of the third pitch and will be the third beer I've gotten out of the yeast packet.  I think I'll try harvesting the yeast cake from this beer as well for a third pitch as well.  The yeast seems to be pretty strong still after 6 months in the refrigerator which is very nice - will be building a starter for this of course.

Anyway, I'll give this beer 1 week to ferment, then 1 week to sit on dry hops before moving to the keg, and then will give 1 more week in the keg to carbonate and settle before drinking.  A fast turnaround on these beers is a good think I think.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 7 lb Golden Promise
• 2 lb Pilsner
• 1 lb Flaked Wheat
• 1 lb Flaked Oats
• 5 oz Crystal 10
• 2 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Columbus (Leaf, 14.6% AA) at 60 min
• 2 oz Columbus (Leaf, 14.6% AA) at 5 min
• 2 oz Centennial (Leaf, 10.1% AA) at 5 min
• 6 oz Zappa (Leaf 5.3% AA) at Day 7
• Yeast:
• Imperial Yeast A38 Juice (2nd Pitch)
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 5 gal tap water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6.15 gal
• Mash:
• 158 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temps (High 60s)
• Primary Duration:
• 2 Weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.048 (Target 1.045)
• Efficiency:
• 72% (Target 66%)
• FG:
• 1.018 (Target 1.015)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 62% (Target 66%)
• ABV:
• 3.9% (Target 3.9%)

Brewing Notes:

• 6/26/21 - Built a started for a second pitch of my Yeast (it has been in a jar in the fridge for the last 6 months - jar showed good activity once warming to room temp).  Moved to the stir plate to propagate over night   
• 6/27/21 - Brewday - 12:45 PM to 5:30 PM - Including setup and cleanup
• Heated 8 gal of strike water to 185 F
• Milled my grain (ended up falling short on Golden Promise so I swapped in 2 lbs of pilsner.  Added CaCl and Gypsum to the grain so I wouldn't forget
• Added 6 gal of mash water cycled through the RIMS until it was a 170 F
• Stopped the RIMS and stirred in the grain.  Let the grain bed settle for 10 min

• Cycled the RIMS for 60 min at 159 F. The temperature was in the high 150s the whole time
  
• Heated 8 gal of sparge water to 200 F
• Drained the Mash Tun into the kettle.  Added sparge water to the top as I went until had collected 8 gal.  Started heating the kettle once 4 gal had been collected and had it at a boil shortly after collecting the target volume 
• Boiled for 60 min

• Added the bittering hops in a sack
• Added irish moss at 15 min
• Added the wort chiller and flavoring hops with 5 min left
• At flame out, chilled the wort down to about 200 F and let sit for 30 min of hop stand (settled down to about 190 in this window)
• Drained the kettle to my fermenter.  Let the wort fall a couple feet to aerate.  Pitched the yeast during the transfer 

• Collected about 5.9 gal and measured gravity as 1.050.  Topped up with about .25 gal
• Setup the fermenter in the basement since my freezers are unavailable for a controlled fermentation
• 6/28/21 -  Fermentation was proceeding strongly by this afternoon
• 7/5/21:
• Tasted the beer - it has a bit of hop character, although fairly mild, and a medium bitterness.  I think the hot side hops are a reasonable investment but no where close to enough.
• Added the 6 oz of dry hops.  Added these in hop sacks weighed down by stainless steel pipe fittings.  The Zappa smells a bit like pine and grass, maybe a bit herbal and perhaps a bit of citrus - pretty bold smelling.  Will be very interesting how that converts to flavors

• The beer still has a bit of krausen on the surface

• Applied CO2 to the fermenter after adding the hops to hopefully purge off some of the oxygen let in while I had the lid off
• 7/10/21 - Moved to the chest freezer to chill down to mid 30s for a cold crash.  Hooked this up to C02 at 1 psi to prevent oxygen from getting sucked in.  Once it was cold I added dissolved gelatin to clear the beer.
• 7/11/21 - Kegged today.  Flushed the keg with C02 by pushing out sanitizer.  Measured the gravity as 1.018.  The hop flavor is fruity and piney - I think it's very nice.  Saving off a couple jars of the yeast slurry for later batches
• 7/31/21 - Tasting Notes - The hop character is very strong in both aroma and flavor and I find it to be enjoyable.  It is a complex hop that creates many flavors by itself which is nice as well.  I've done a few samplings of the beer next to several fairly fresh Tree House beers and thought the level of hop character delivered by this beer was fairly close to them.  This is a hop I'd gladly use again - will try it as a component in a blend most likely.
• 8/28/21 - The keg kicked today.  Was a very good beer.  Glad to have another ready to go on tap today.