Ingredients
So the basic recipe we're gonna use for the pale ale is pretty simple. 10 pounds of pale malt for an OG of 1.050, and enough hops to get 30 IBUs, for a 0.6 BU:GU ratio. Since we chose Vanguard, that amounted to roughly 3 ounces. Grabbed just a regular English Ale yeast and we're good to go!
| Requested | Used |
| 10 lbs. Pale Ale malt | " |
| 3oz Vangard (4.6%AA) | " |
| WPL002 English Ale Yeast | " |
February 9, 2008
Strike Temperature: 170.5°, five gallons
T=60min
Mash temp=151°
T=55min
Added 1 quart 212° water
Mash temp=150→154.5°
T=50min
Added 1 quart 212° water
Mash temp=152→154.5°
T=45min
Added 1 quart 212° water
Mash temp=154→154.5°
T=40min
Added 1 quart 212° water
Mash temp=154→155.5°
T=35min
Added 1 quart 212° water
Mash temp=155.5→154.5°
T=30min
Mash temp=155°
T=25min
Added 1 quart 212° water
Mash temp=153→155°
T=20min
Added 1 quart 212° water
Mash temp=154.5→155.5°
T=15min
Mash temp=155°
T=10min
Added 1 quart 212° water
Mash temp=153.5→155.5°
T=5min
Added 1 quart 212° water
Mash temp=155°
T=0min
Mash temp=155°
Slowly lautered out 1.5 gallons of wort (very hazy, lots of stuff in it) and recirculated into the mash tun. Repeated four times until our runnings were pretty clear. Then we just lautered straight into the boil pot. We got about five gallons out of that, and then we sparged with another three gallons of water and brought our boil close to 8 gallons.
We also lautered out some remainder, which we boiled in order to condense it into as much concentrated sugar as possible (to be added to the boil at a later time).
Brew Method
February 9, 2008Once our wort came to a boil, we proceeded as planned. We're unsure, though, whether we're achieving an actual hot break. We'll look into that next time.
T=60min
Added 1.5oz Vangard (4.6%AA)
T=45min
Added condensed sugar wort
T=30min
Added 0.75oz Vangard (4.6%AA)
Started the ice bath
T=15min
Added 0.75oz Vangard (4.6%AA)
Added one teaspoon of irish moss
Inserted the wort chiller for sanitization
T=0min
Turned off the heat, moved our pot next to the ice bath and hooked up the wort chiller. Turned it on, and once the wort was cooled to 100°, we put the pot into the ice bath. Once it then got to 65°, we removed it from the bath, removed the wort chiller, and strained out the hops. We whirlpooled the wort to get sediment to settle conically in the pot, and then racked from the side into the primary fermenter.
Our OG here was 1.044. Not quite the 1.050 we wanted. Shit. What is wrong with our mash?!?
Fermentation
February 9, 2008
Pitched our yeast (noticed the vial had an expiration date of January 22, 2008 EEK!)
February 11, 2008
Noticed a bubble come out of the blowoff hose, but no krausen yet.
February 12, 2008
Ok, now there's a very beautiful krausen on the beer. Hooray! Our yeast made it!
February 24, 2008
Racked to secondary. Smells decent, the fermenter is damn near full. Should get quite a bit out of this one.
Bottling
March 8, 2008
And today we bottle! Our final gravity reading was about 1.010, giving us 4.386% abv. We ended up bottling 27x 22oz bottles, and had enough leftover for a couple glasses to try. It tastes overly malty at the moment, not so yum. It tastes like it needs carbonation and needs to be a bit cooler. We'll see how it is in a few weeks.
Tasting
March 22, 2008
Well these have been in the bottles for two weeks. We put one in the fridge so it would be cooled by the time it came to drink. And I must say... it's pretty crap. Granted, this beer wasn't made to be awesome, it was only to see how Vangard tastes as a hop. The only thing I can say is... yellow beer. If it were more carbonated (it was pretty flat, I don't think there was any yeast in the bottle) it might have been more enjoyable. But as it is, I'm not sure I like it. At all. Oh well. Experiments are called so for a reason.
May 11, 2008
I just had one of these after it had been refrigerated for a couple hours. And I must say, it tasted heaps better. This one was plenty carbonated, had a solid yeast layer at the bottom of the bottle (completely painted), sparkled, had a good head, and actually tasted like a german lager, even though it's an ale. This could quite easily be our most drinkable beer. It just took a bit longer than we anticipated.
Notes
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