Like many American craft brew lovers I’m a big fan of hops. That said I’m not such a fan of only being able to drink a few of my favorite hoppy beers because of the alcohol content. Now of course I love a good IIPA but now that it is football season I like to sit back and have a handful of beers so I decided one of my brewing goals will be to create a low gravity, hoppy Pale Ale. Basically an American session beer. Working off of my previous Galaxy Pale Ale recipe I’ve tweaked a few things resulting in this:
5 lbs 4.0 oz Rahr 2-Row Pale (1.7 SRM) 58.3 %
2 lbs 12.0 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) 30.6 %
12.0 oz Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM) 8.3 %
4.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) 2.8 %
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min 10.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min 5.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min 9.9 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min 2.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min 5.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) [124.21 ml]
1.00 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days
Thanks to the help of a brewing forum I recently decided I should try to stir more aggressivly when batch sparging so after draining the
first runnings and mixing in the 180* water I vigorously stirred for two minutes. Low and behold my pre-boil gravity was almost ten points higher than anticipated and when everything was all said and done I overshot my final gravity by eight points upping my overall brewhouse efficiency from 72% to about 80%. So much for an Americanized session beer though as this tipped me over 5% ABV.
Yet another new trick I tried on this brewday was whirlpooling my wort before chilling. The first thing I needed to do was rig up a copper diptube in place of the bazooka screen I had been using to keep hops out of the plate chiller. Easy enough process once the right tools were found. Next step was testing out the whirlpool action so I stirred my wort with a large sanitized spoon and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. I’ll admit the chilling process was a bit nerve racking as I was just waiting for the plate chiller to clog but everything went smoothly and I ended up with a nice little pile of hops in the middle of the pot with very little wort left behind.
So, all in all a nice brewday. I learned a few things which I don’t know why I hadn’t tried yet but better late than never right?
Also, I ended up with potentially a pretty nice Pale Ale that I may or
may not end up scaling back to hit somewhere between 4-4.5% ABV.
5 lbs 4.0 oz Rahr 2-Row Pale (1.7 SRM) 58.3 %
2 lbs 12.0 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) 30.6 %
12.0 oz Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM) 8.3 %
4.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) 2.8 %
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min 10.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min 5.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min 9.9 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min 2.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min 5.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) [124.21 ml]
1.00 oz Galaxy [14.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days
Thanks to the help of a brewing forum I recently decided I should try to stir more aggressivly when batch sparging so after draining the
first runnings and mixing in the 180* water I vigorously stirred for two minutes. Low and behold my pre-boil gravity was almost ten points higher than anticipated and when everything was all said and done I overshot my final gravity by eight points upping my overall brewhouse efficiency from 72% to about 80%. So much for an Americanized session beer though as this tipped me over 5% ABV.
Yet another new trick I tried on this brewday was whirlpooling my wort before chilling. The first thing I needed to do was rig up a copper diptube in place of the bazooka screen I had been using to keep hops out of the plate chiller. Easy enough process once the right tools were found. Next step was testing out the whirlpool action so I stirred my wort with a large sanitized spoon and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. I’ll admit the chilling process was a bit nerve racking as I was just waiting for the plate chiller to clog but everything went smoothly and I ended up with a nice little pile of hops in the middle of the pot with very little wort left behind.
So, all in all a nice brewday. I learned a few things which I don’t know why I hadn’t tried yet but better late than never right?
Also, I ended up with potentially a pretty nice Pale Ale that I may or
may not end up scaling back to hit somewhere between 4-4.5% ABV.