Acting on a whim, I decided to make some pale ale using exclusively Simcoe hops.

For the last few batches I’ve been doing all-grain but I just felt like doing an extract version. I just can’t wait to taste it.

Starter: Made a 1 litre starter, stirring it for about 24 hours. Standard issue.

Here’s the lineup:

8 lb Pale Malt Extract
.5 lb Crystal Malt (20L)
.5 lb Carapils Malt

1 oz Simcoe hops (pellets) (boil)
1 oz Simcoe hops (pellets) (15 min)
1 oz Simcoe hops (pellets) (aroma)

1/2 tsp Irish Moss
California ale Yeast

Grains

Ok, so i’m using extract, no biggie. Supplementing it with specialty grains.

Hops

Simcoe. My interest peaked with this hop from Weyerbacher’s Double Simcoe which I love so very much. I just want to hang 40 bags of these things around my apartment.

Yeast

Cali Ale yeast. We’re old friends.

So that’s that. Looking forward to this one.

So we doughed in a touch too hot. I mixed well and there were a few hot spots throughout the mash. I added some cold water to compensate. We ended up doing the rest around 151 for 70 minutes. Didn’t do a starch test, but I could taste that the sugars had been converted.

The phil’s sparge arm, in all it’s ghetto glory, was excellent. When we started using it I realized that I didn’t have a plug for the ends. With some quick thinking I shoved two dove chocolate wrappers in there and we were able to begin the sparge. I’ll have to get some real plugs for that thing.

The sparge lasted a good 45 minutes. We collected around 6.25 gallons of wort. We stopped sparging when we were at 2 plato.

I split the boil into two pots and put them on the large burners on my stove. Needless to say, I had a vigorous boil because I had to top up with around 1/2 gallon of water in the pot. Next time I will turn down the heat a touch.

I’m quite happy with the process. Fermentation is underway right now. Really looking forward to racking this and tasting it. It has a great color and good hoppy flavor. This one should be really good.