First APA, All Grain

[bosium]

Hi All,

Also posted on HBT, but thought I'd share this as it has been one of my more successful brew days.

This is my first american pale ale, I had Sierra Nevada pale ale for the first time a few weeks ago and completely fell in love with Cascade hops. My local pub actually makes a pale ale with cascade hops too, strangely enough.

Recipe:

Gary's Haus APA (24.5L, 76% efficiency):

4.0kg Lighter Coloured Maris Otter (70%)
1.2kg Vienna Malt (21%)
250g Flaked barley (4.5%)
250g CaraMunich (4.5%)

Hops (All cascade 8% AA):

35gm First Wort Hopped, boiled 45 mins (24.4 IBU)
30gm 15 mins (10.3 IBU)
30gm 5 mins (4.1 IBU)
Will dry hop for a week with another 30gms when done.

OG 1.053
IBU 38.7 (beersmith, tinseth formula)

I used 2x dry packets of Notty, fermenting at 14.C (58.F). I know that's very low but I'm trying to achieve a super-clean beer.

Unfortunately, my new-design hop strainer's siphon didn't work too well, so I strained the crud at the bottom of my kettle to get another 3L of wort. I boiled it for 5 mins, chilled and added to the primary fermenter before hitting the sack at 01:45am, sheesh. Got 23L in the fermenter, so I am happy. Hopefully the airlock will be bubbling by the time I get home this evening, but at 14.C it might take a while longer.

Any comments welcome!

[bosium]

[bosium]

[bosium]

[bosium]

[bosium]

[mysterio]

Looks great, 14C, woah - that's really pushing the limits of that yeast! Should work OK with the two packets though.

One of the things which really stood out when I was comparing Sierra Nevada Pale Ale to my clone was just how little yeast character the commercial version had compared to mine, even though I fermented mine low-ish (19C). To me, the commercial version was almost lager-like behind the hops, which suggested to me a very large pitching rate, very low ferment temp or probably both.

[bosium]

Thanks, I was sorely tempted to pitch onto a 1098 yeast cake left over from a northern brown ale I made, but I agree that the commercial version really tastes neutral so I thought Notty would be a better bet. I've read that it ferments very cold for almost lager-like effect, which is what I'm trying to achieve.

I might lager this one for a bit too, or at least part of it, just to see how clear I can get it. How did your SNPA turn out?

[WishboneBrewery]

Looks like a good brewday Its the first time I've noticed someone using a pre-chiller on their IC, how long did it take to get to Pitching temp?. Good stuff.

[bosium]

Well it's not really a pre-chiller, what the pictures don't show is that I used tap water to get down to about 20ish deg C, then switched to recirculating ice water to get down to about 13 deg C for cold pitching. It took a long while to do this, but I think it's due to my absolutely miserable immersion pump (£5 ebay number from hong kong). I also find that stirring the kettle contents really helps the chilling process, it's a shame that high-temp pumps are so expensive as I'd love to add one to my setup.

I'm actually in the process of building a new IC which should work better. I bought 25m of copper tube on ebay and plan to construct the mother of all IC's. Will post pics when (if) I'm done!

[mysterio]

Thanks, I was sorely tempted to pitch onto a 1098 yeast cake left over from a northern brown ale I made, but I agree that the commercial version really tastes neutral so I thought Notty would be a better bet. I've read that it ferments very cold for almost lager-like effect, which is what I'm trying to achieve.

I might lager this one for a bit too, or at least part of it, just to see how clear I can get it. How did your SNPA turn out?

The taste was very similar, mine came out just a shade darker. The biggest difference was the fermentation character. Mine had more esters and even a little higher alcohol note on the aroma, even though I used the clean American ale yeast. Next time i should be able to nail it!

One thing you might want to do (as you're fermenting so cool) is raise the fermentation temperature after 2/3 attenuation for a diacetyl rest, you'll make the yeast more active without generating any fruity esters and squeeze out the last few points of fermentation as well as reducing off flavours.

[ChrisG]

Excellent brew.

I have a bit of experience using Nottingham at low temperatures and have made two good Lager style beers brewed at low temps of around 14-16 degrees.

It one of my favourite yeast.

[bosium]

Yeah that's a very good idea, I was thinking along those lines too. Just raise up the temp a bit near the end of fermentation to make sure everything gets well cleaned up. I didn't actually intend this to be a straight clone, but rather just inspired by SNPA. I would have liked to use Magnum but couldn't find them anywhere. I hope Cascade is nice as a bittering hope, I FWH'd it to try and mellow out any harsh bitterness, but never having done it before I don't know how well it will work.

Can't wait to dry-hop and bottle this one!! Think it makes a diff what temp I dry hop at? I was going to do so a bit warmer, maybe 18.C or so to try get some more oils out of the hops before it goes in the bottle.

[mysterio]

18C is around the ideal temperature, much colder and you don't extract much, much warmer and you can extract grassy flavours. Could just do it during the diacetyl rest.

[bosium]

well, 8 days in the primary -> I kept it at 14.C for four days, then have put it up a degree every day after that.
At 18.C now.

Took a gravity reading, 1.017. Seems a bit high, considering there is very little airlock activity. Have given the fermenter a big swirl to try and rouse things up, hopefully it gets a go on. I'm kinda hoping for around 1.013ish, so it has a few points to drop yet.

The sample was very cloudy with yeast, and I guess it is fairly early days still considering the low temperature..