AG#5 - Pale Ale

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Doglaner

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2015
Messages
175
Reaction score
91
Location
Tamworth
Almost a smash, but I had some unused Chinook to finish off which I used for bittering.

Going to call this one "Birchseed Blizzard" as it was a windy day, we're surrounded by birch tree, and the results were impressive. I'm sure a couple made it into the FV!

So, up at 7.00 and still in pjs into garage, in the pouring rain, to get the water on. Oh, the things we do for love (of brewing)!

Fed kids breakfast, SWMBO got a lie in.

Doughed in at 8.30, 6kg extra pale malt, 16.5L @ 75c. Mash temp low at 61c, so added 2 kettles of boiling water to bring up to 67c. I think the malt was at lower temp than anticipated, at 12c. I did warm the mash tun with a couple of kettles full off boiling water, too.

Had a shower, got myself and the kids dressed.

First runnings at 9.30, then 2 x 20 min 6L sparges at 75c, giving a total of 20.6L in the boiler. adjusted OG 1064 (aiming for 1056, so I think my efficiency may be higher than my estimated 65%.

Boiling by 11.00, and hop schedule :

6.7g Citra, 12.7% AA, 60 mins.
12.1g Chinook, 14.6% AA, 60 mins.
20g Citra, 10 mins.
20g Citra, 0 mins.
1/3 Protafloc tablet @ 10 mins.

Meanwhile 3 y/o emptied the mash tun. "Can I do digging, please, daddy?" It' be churlish not to let him, bless.

Cooled using a copper cooling coil, and down to 28 deg and in FV by 12.30.

A problem I have with the Cygnet boiler is that I lose a lot of wort when I drain it out, even tipping it up. The Bazooka filter clogged up with fine gunk, and sticks so far into the boiler, and is so high up the side, that I left about a litre and a half in there with all the trub.

Might drill a hole lower down for the tap, and put a blank in the current one, or fit a thermometer, perhaps...?

Anyway, ended up with 13.75L in the FV which I was disappointed with, until I measured the gravity at 1078. Added 8+ L of cold water to bring it down to about 1048. This is slightly stronger than planned, and a slightly shorter brew accordingly, however it is for my own personal stock, and will be drunk in the early vestiges of Autumn, so a bit of strength will be quite pleasant, I think.

Pitched yeast - Whitelabs WLP001 - Californian Ale Yeast.

Ended up with 22L, of lovely pale, golden ale. It's now in the fermenting fridge at a steady 19c for the next two weeks +. Going to dry hop with 30g Citra at 3 days, and another 30g at 12 days. (Am I overdoing this, perhaps....?)

And I managed to hoover the house in-between, too!

Dog?
 
Sounds like a dream brewday my friend!
Don't worry about over doing those hops, it might be at the high end for a pale ale but its no where near ott.
I really like the way you do two dry hops, I will try that out myself at some point, I think Russian River do that with Pliny the Elder.
Thumbs up fella, report back when you start drinking it and let us know how it is.

Cat?
 
The double dry hop is something I want to try altho 3 days for the first seems a bit early to me, if it is still really actively fermenting them the co2 drives off the hop aroma I believe. Mind, if your brew kicks off quickly 3 days might be ideal but I'd take a gravity reading personally.

Brew sounds good by the way, I made a citra pale recently and it was great and the recipe wasn't massively dissimilar.
 
3 days for the first seems a bit early to me, if it is still really actively fermenting them the co2 drives off the hop aroma I believe.

+1 for this, maybe wait another few days to ensure that most CO2 production has occurred.

I Absolutely love Oakham Ales Citra beer though! Perfect for summer drinking, fingers crossed it turns out great.
 
Thanks guys.

I'm going to wait until day 9 before dry hopping. Planning to boil a muslin cloth, and some marbles to sterilise them, and hang them into the FV.

Any other ideas on a good way to dry hop? What do you do?

Dog.
 
Thanks guys.

I'm going to wait until day 9 before dry hopping. Planning to boil a muslin cloth, and some marbles to sterilise them, and hang them into the FV.

Dog.

I normally use pellets so just throw them in when dry hopping. If using whole hops then a muslin bag and weights is often used, just be careful not to disturb the trub. You want to try and suspend them in the middle of the FV, enough to cover them but not weigh them down.

Equally I've read of many people just throwing whole hops in and also having good results. But personally, I imagine that having the whole hops submerged would lead to more of the oils being released, much like a bag of tea.
 
Thanks for that.

I was also thinking about how to suspend them, I'm thinking that I will tie the muslin to a string, and then stretch the string across the top, of the FV, tied each end to the handles on the outside of the FV. That way the lid should rest back on without leaving a huge gap for nasties to enter.

Another question, is 60g of dry hops a lot on day 9 of fermentation? I've just had a look at it on day 6, and it is still churning away. My previous brews fermented at a higher temp as I didn't have the fermenting fridge at that point, and seemed to go off like a rocket for three days, then slow right down. This one has been at a constant 20c, and seems to be much slower but steadier. Hmmmm...

Looking forward to drinking this a lot.
 
If using whole hops then a muslin bag and weights is often used, just be careful not to disturb the trub. You want to try and suspend them in the middle of the FV, enough to cover them but not weigh them down

Why do you not want to disturb the trub?
 
Thanks for that.

Another question, is 60g of dry hops a lot on day 9 of fermentation?

Looking forward to drinking this a lot.

Dry hopping is always a matter of personal preference. I've used 50g of dry hops in a 10L brew before and it turned out very hoppy which is what I like. However, some friends said it was over the top. I would recommend just trying 60g, it's not overly excessive and you can repeat the brew in the future and change the quantities to suit your preferences.

As trub contains debris from hot/cold break, dead and autolysing yeast etc., disturbing this will bring these back into the beer and has the potential to produce off flavours. Similarly, if the hops are just resting on the bottom of the FV, then the hops will be in contact with the trub layer more than the beer itself and this won't release the oils as much as if it was floating in the middle of FV. One way to overcome this would be to rack the beer to a secondary and dry hop here instead.
 
Hello. Day 10 of fermentation and I decided to dry hop. Boiled up a muslin cloth and heavy teaspoon as a weight, then suspended 50g of Citra in the top of the FV.

It is still fermenting as there was a decent layer of yeast on top, too. I didn't take a gravity reading as I will not be bottling until after the weekend and will do it then.

Plan to leave the hops in for Three to four days.

Dog.
 
Update : 2 days later and 13 days in the FV, took a sample to measure the FG. 1006!! Very low, but not a problem. Those yeasts know what they are up to.

Plan to bottle on Sunday night, so still a bit of time for the dry hops to work their magic.

Tasted the sample and it was nicely aromatic with citrus and grapefruit aromas. Not too bitter at all, and slightly sweet, too. Very, very nice indeed.
 
Hello, fancy an update?

There are now only 4/40 bottles left, as the rest have been quaffed by various parties.

This was a really great beer, and enjoyed so much by various people that I have just ordered the bumf for a similar brew, but this time with Amarillo hops instead of Citra.

I can recommend it thoroughly although as always I was too impatient to wait and started drinking it too early. I really should know better by now. In fact I do, and the brew after this is being left well alone and has been bottled for three weeks already, with only four downed to check progress. Going to save them for December.

Cheers!
 
Back
Top