Journal of Brewing

Pale Ale. I know, I know, it’s technically an English thing. But let’s face it, those cheeky bastards don’t get many things right. American Pale Ale practically defined microbrewing in this country as we know it. Thus, for my second all-grain attempt, i’m going Pale.

Fermentation will take place in the kegerator with the external thermostat set to 70F. Hopefully that will be a good environment for my yeasties. A few changes this time in hops and yeast. I wanted Amarillo and Cascade however I waited too long to get my ingredients. Thus, I had to use Centennial in place of the Amarillo. It’s not going to be the exact same but i’m sure that it will work out well. As far as yeast goes, I’ve never used a White Labs product before. I kind of like the little vial it comes in, that’s kind of cool.

Starter: This time i’m making a much smaller starter. I’ve been making gi-huge-ic starters for the last few batches. I have also been pitching the whole thing. Seriously, that is way too much. My starter was about 10% of my batch size. I really don’t need that much, especially for a 12.5 Plato beer. A one pint starter will do just fine.

Taking all this into account, let’s look at the line-up:

8.5 lb Crisp Marris Otter (MO)
.5 lb Crystal Malt (20L)

1 oz Centennial pellet hops (boil)
1 oz Cascade pellet hops (aroma)

1/2 tsp Irish Moss
WLP001 California Ale Yeast

Grains

Ahh, MO, my old friend. Should lend a nice characteristic to the beer without weighing it down. Neill said to keep the amount of Crystal low and a picked a light one as to not ramp up the SRM.

Now comes the tough part. All-grain in my new apartment. I don’t have outdoor access so it’s all going to be in the kitchen. I’m also splitting the boil over two pots. I was able to pick up two 4 gallon pots at LNT on clearance. All SS so that’s a plus. I think i’ll collect 6 – 6.25 gallons of wort pre-boil. I need to conciously record how much I lose over the hour boil so I know for next time.

I’ll mash in around 152. I think i’ll go with a standard ratio of 1.25 qt/lb of grain. That should give me 2.8125 gal of water for the mash. I’ll make sure I have 6 gallons of sparge water ready. Another new thing i’m trying this time is the sparge arm that I got from Mr. Lanius. If it served him well i’m sure it won’t hurt me any. I’m definitely going to run a slow sparge this time. I want to make sure I get all that sweet sugar out.

Well, it ought to be exciting to say the least. Hopefully in a few weeks i’ll be Pale-in it up