Pale ale

[Matt in Birdham]

A bit of a kitchen sinker this one, using up some grains and hops before I put another order in - ended up with just under a kilo of GP and the rest of my Vienna, which was just over 4kg. I've been wanting to brew with Vienna as a base malt for a while, so this might be interesting (although likely hard to taste over the hops).

Hop wise I wanted to try something a little different - more in the earthy/piney mold and less citrus - so lots of Simcoe and late Columbus, and bittered with Chinook. Tbh I haven't brewed a pale like this before, so fingers crossed it will work - it should be bold on the flavour front, any way!

Went with RO water again, since it is easy to get hold of and I want to brew a few before coming to any conclusions.

Brew went smooth enough apart from a total brain fart when I started the IC chilling instead of adding flameout additions. Noticed quickly enough, and stopped - but FO additions went in at the low 90's. Let it stand a little longer than planned to compensate.

Yeast is WLP090, a big starter pitched aiming for 1ml cells/ml/P.

22l in the FV at 1.056.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 27.96 l
Post Boil Volume: 23.96 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l
Bottling Volume: 23.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.055 SG
Estimated Color: 12.3 EBC
Estimated IBU: 46.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
4.15 kg Vienna Malt (6.9 EBC) Grain 1 70.7 %
0.97 kg Pale Malt, Golden Promise (Thomas Fawcet Grain 2 16.5 %
0.25 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 3 4.3 %
0.25 kg Caramalt (Thomas Fawcett) (29.6 EBC) Grain 4 4.3 %
0.25 kg Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (3.9 EBC) Grain 5 4.3 %
15.00 g Chinook [12.50 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 6 23.6 IBUs
30.00 g Simcoe [13.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 16.9 IBUs
40.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 2.0 Hop 8 2.5 IBUs
30.00 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 2.0 Hop 9 1.3 IBUs
30.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Steep/Wh Hop 10 2.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg San Diego Super Yeast (White Labs #WLP09 Yeast 11 -
30.00 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
30.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Dry Hop Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
30.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: NO SPARGE
Total Grain Weight: 5.87 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification Add 33.16 l of water at 72.1 C 67.2 C 75 min
Mash Out Heat to 75.6 C over 7 min 75.6 C 10 min

Sparge: If steeping, remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
Notes:
------
100% RO water +
2g table salt, 2g epsom salt, 8g Gypsum, 2g Cacl:

Calcium Magnesium Sodium Chloride Sulfate Chloride / Sulfate
(Ca ppm) (Mg ppm) (Na ppm) (Cl ppm) (SO4 ppm) Ratio
69 5 23 63 154 0.41

75g acidulated

Mash pH 5.3, bang on target using BrewersFriend

nutrient added @ 10 minutes
1/3 Koppakleer @ 5 mins

started chilling before flameout additions by accident. Stopped chilling and made flameout additions at 95C, and left for 4 mins instead of 2 @100C.

21.75 litres in the FV. Oxygenated with O2 on quite high for 90 seconds. Pitched 1.5l of 1.040 wort (crashed & decanted) WLP090.

Brewpi set for 19 for 36 hours, then rising to 22 @ 8 days.

[Goulders]

You given up on slaked lime treatment then?

[Matt in Birdham]

Not really - I just wanted to compare, since I found a place locally that will do 50l of RO water for £6. Will report back after a couple of brews, and hopefully bring a few down to Portsmouth next month (that one is definitely, 100% locked in!!).
I had a few beers recently that weren't as good as I was hoping and I haven't quite put my finger on why, so water was one possibility (beers that were made with both slaked lime and AMS). Not sure what conclusions I could draw, but thought it would be an interesting experiment anyway.

[Hanglow]

Looks good. I like vienna as a base malt, only brewed a couple but have tried a few commercial ones with it too. I'm going to use vienna as the base in a Burton I'm going to brew. Not exactly "correct" but should wok well I think

Any reason for adding table salt instead of calcium chloride for more calcium out of interest?

[Matt in Birdham]

Looks good. I like vienna as a base malt, only brewed a couple but have tried a few commercial ones with it too. I'm going to use vienna as the base in a Burton I'm going to brew. Not exactly "correct" but should wok well I think

Any reason for adding table salt instead of calcium chloride for more calcium out of interest?

I brewed a beer a while ago with 5g of table salt and it was really good - but of course I don't know the exact variable that made it so (but I think the salt might have been a contributor). I was also speaking to a couple of mates back in Aus who also swear by a bit of table salt so I just thought I'd throw it in this one. Sodium is still at a low level, obviously it adds a lot of chloride so I dialled back the CaCl a bit to compensate. I've never been quite convinced by the idea that you can just count "chloride" as a taste, because e.g. the difference in taste between NaCl and CaCl is very obvious. To be honest not sure it will tell me much, since 2g is not a lot in this.

[Hanglow]

Yeah I think chloride can provide fullness etc rather than a taste - you can taste sodium and magnesium though, so too much of either can be bad but I imagine they can help flavour in the right amounts.

Along similar lines, I read about some homebrewers using citric acid to acidify their mash water a bit in citrusy pale ales - it's much more obvious in flavour than the other more usual acids and in small amounts can help for that sharper lemony taste if that is what is wanted

[Matt in Birdham]

This one is down to 1.012 this morning after a nice 4 day ferment. Starting to get a bit colder in the garage now at night with the heater kicking in!



Dy hopped with 30g Amarillo, 30g Columbus and 51g of Simcoe, which was all that was left in the bag (supposed to be 30 again, but I didn't see much point in saving 20g!). Should be aromatic..