Brew Day: Suwannee!!! Pale Ale

Back to basics. I love pale ales. Its hard to find an IPA with any perceivable malt character. Those "Session IPA" things are to thin and watery to withstand all the bitterness. I love a nice toasty, crackery malt profile with some resinous, citrus, and fruitiness layered on top. Pale ale fits the bill.

Suwannee!!! Pale Ale

Batch Size: 6 Gallons (post boil in the kettle)
Pre-Boil:  11 Brix or 1.043 (7.25 gallons)
Post Boil: 13 Brix or 1.052
Final Grav: 1.009
App. Atten: 83%
Alc. By Vol: 5.6%
IBU's (rager): 40
SRM: 5.4 L


10 lbs Great Western 2-Row
  1 lbs Wheat Malt
  1 lbs Briess Bonlander Munich
 .5 lbs Breiss Victory Malt

2 tsp gyspsum
2 tsp CaCl

Mashed-in with 5 gal of 162 F RO water. Mixed well and rested at 148.5 for 1 hour. Added 2 gal of 212F water to reach 155F.  Sparged with 3 gallons.

Collected 7.25 gallons of 1.044 wort.  Added 1 tsp gypsum. Good hot-break and foaming.

14 g of Cascade for 60 mins
14 g of Cascade for 30 mins
28 g of Amarillo for 10 mins
56 g of Centennial for 10 mins
56 g of Chinook in the whirlpool
Whirlfloc at 10 Mins

Chilled using ice water through the immersion chiller down to 69F. Whirlpooled and settled for 20 mins. When racking to carboy, the cone collapsed and ended up with more trub and hop matter in the fermenter than usual.

Placed in chest freezer and cooled to 64F.

Measured 13 brix on the refractometer and confirmed 1.052 with the hydrometer.

White Labs WLP001 pure pitch in a 1.6 L starter to reach 182B cells (.75M / mL / deg. P). Chilled after 24 hours. Removed from refrigerator at pitching time. Decanted spent wort and pitched into 64 F wort.

Filled headspace with O2 and shook for 20 seconds. Two times.

Probe taped under paper towel and bubble wrap.

Temp dropped to 59 F overnight thanks to a cold front. Heated with a blow dryer to 63.

Chilled on day 9 (airlock still had some activity) slowly down to 32 over the course of 2 days.

Kegged, sent to NHC, and drank.

Brew Day: Anniversary Ale

I started homebrewing a couple years ago. My first batch was a Big Ben Pale Ale kit from midwestsupplies.com. But for my second batch I came up with my own Pale Ale recipe. I managed to squeeze in 6 different grains into a mini-mash. The crazy thing is that the beer came out pretty darn good. It had the body and malt character of a Sierra Nevada Pale ale with a floral, piney, resinous hop character. Maybe its an inflated memory, or I was just so happy about creating my own beer. Either way, I saw my hand scribbled recipe acting as a bookmark in my copy of Charlie P's, The Hombrewer's Companion, I just had to make this again. This time All-Grain with a long hop stand after the boil.

Anniversary Pale Ale

Batch size: 6.0 gallons
Boil size: 7.0 gallons
Boil time: 60 minutes
Grain weight: 10.5 pounds
Efficiency: 75%

Original gravity: 1.049
Bitterness (IBU): 36
Color (SRM): 5.2°L

Yeast: White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Malt Bill
10.5 pounds

4 lbs Maris Otter 4°L - 38.1%
4 lbs American 2 Row 1.5°L - 38.1%
1 lb Munich (Light) 8°L - 9.5%
1 lbs Wheat Malt 2°L - 9.5%
.5 lbs Carahell 11°L - 4.8%

Mash
Strike Target 155°F
5.0 gallons165°F 90 minutes (+0)


Boil
60 minutes, 7.0 gallons

0.35 ounces Chinook hops 11.8%, Pellet 60 minutes
0.50 ounces Goldings (Kent) hops 5%, Pellet 30 minutes

Whirlpool / Hop Stand Hops

40 Minute hot whirlpool/rest(wort chiller gets in the way of the whirlpool) after the boil. Estimated hop utilization the same as a 10 minute hop addition in the boil. Maintaned over 180 F for whole rest.

0.5 ounces Goldings (Kent) hops 5%, Pellet 5 IBU
1.0 ounces Crystal hops 3.1%, Pellet 3 IBU
1.0 ounces Chinook hops 11.8%, Pellet 10 IBU


The goal for this recipe was a nice bready, biscuity, crackery malt flavor. The original recipe used Optic, Halcyon, and Marris Otter malts. But I kept it simple. I also used bolander munich from Briess in the original. But the new homebrew shop I went to only had weyerman light. Thats an upgrade anyways IMO.

I've heard Jamil Z uses no hops in the boil when making Heretic Evil Twin. So obviously you are getting isomerization during hot whirlpools. Figured this was the perfect beer to try it with. I want a big hop character without overwhelming the malt with a bitting bitterness. The crystal and chinook are the perfect floral and piney pairing. If you want a single hopped example of crystal try Rogue's Brutal IPA FKA Brutal Bitter.

Can't wait to taste this bugger.

Brewers Note: I love the new hop union packaging. Easy to open, and the aroma of the chinook was insane. Makes me think all the hops I've used in the past were stale.