Target Gravity: 1.054
IBU: 32.4
BU/GU: 0.6

Grain Bill

8.0639 lbs American Pale Malt
2.298 lbs Brown Malt
0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
0.5 lbs Special B

Hops

2 oz Perle Leaf Hops ( 7.5 % ) @ 60 minutes

Yeast

US-50 SafAle

Schedule

Mash this beer at 151 for 90 minutes. Boil for 90 minutes. Ferment at optimal yeast temperature, approx 68F.

1.    Preheat the mash tun. This will reduce temperature loss by the mash tun vessel .

2.    Fill the mashtun with the appropriate amount of strike water before adding any of the grain. This will afford you the opportunity to double check the strike water temperature before having to deal with the grains. I generally overheat my strike water by a few degrees to account for temperature loss incurred while measuring out the water. If the temperature loss is less than expected, I just wait a few minutes until the water in the mash tun has dropped to the appropriate level.

3.    Keep the mash tun off of cold tile floors. This is one that I overlooked for nearly a dozen all-grain batches. During the winter months, tile floors act as a significant heat sink. By simply setting the mash tun on your countertop, you might be able to save yourself a degree or two of temperature loss.

4.    Drape some old blankets or some kitchen drying towels over the mash tun to add a little extra insulation. Most insulated coolers are engineered to keep things cold, not warm. Insulation is typically quite lacking in the lids of most igloo coolers.

Grain Bill

12 lbs    2-row
0.5 lbs    Crystal  20L
The Mash

Single Infusion Mash  @ 151F

Hop Schedule
90 minute boil
1 oz Willamette @ 60 minutes.
Yeast
White Labs California Ale Yeast
 Notes:
Create a yeast start at least a day ahead of time or pitch two vials of yeast. Fement this beer at 67F; mine took about nine days to complete.  For such a simple grain bill, the fermentation temperature must be well controlled. Off flavors will not be hidden!

OG 1.050
IBU 50
Bu/Gu: 1.0

Grain Bill
.75 lbs Roasted Barely 300 L
.75 lbs Roasted Barley 650 L
1 lbs Chocolate Malt
7.6 lbs Pale 2-row
1 lbs Wheat Malt
.50 lbs Dextrine Malt
.75 lbs Crystal 6L

Mash
Single Infusion mash @ 152 with a R = 1.2. I had a hard time holding on the to temperature this time around. My mash actually dipped to 149F before the end of the mash. I had too little remaining capactiy in the tun to adjust. This will lead to a very fermentable, albeit lighter beer–I normally perfer my stouts pretty thick. I batch sparged and got about a 70% efficiency.
Hop Schedule ( 90 minute boil )
2.38 oz Amarillo @ 60 minutes.

I had a boilover at around T-50 minutes. This will likely affect the overall bitterness of this brew. I couldn’t guess how much hop matter was ejected during the boilover so I didn’t attempt to correct for it.

Yeast
1 pk Danstar Windsor English Ale yeast ( properly rehydrated )

Notes:

I had about 5-6 gal of wort after the boil @ 1.050 OG. This was the first brew that I have brewed that required a blowoff hose. I just used my syphon hose which is a little on the long side; it generates too much resistence when it gets gunked up with krausen. When the hose if full, the fermenter pressure really builds up; I can hear the fermenter whistling. I am going to have to keep a close eye on this one.

This a light-bodied cream ale ( ale-equivilent to light American lager ). A full description will be added after tasting. I am shooting for a crisp, clean finish with a light mouthfeel–something that is easy drinking. This beer should turn out like a big version of Rolling Rock. I have never brewed a beer that is this high in gravity or mashed at such a low temperature. I hope that the desired balance comes out. The color is very, very light, around 3-4 SRM.

In this beer, one of the key flavors is DMS. The boil length was reduced to allow for some DMS to remaining the wort. DMS has a half-life of 40 minutes.

Grain Bill

6 lbs Pale 2-row
6 lbs Pilsen ( 2-row) malt
1 lbs Flaked Corn ( maize )
1 lbs 2 oz Table Sugar

OG: 1.066 @ 70% efficiency

Mash: Multi-step

A multistep mash is required because a large portion of the grist is pilsen malt, a moderately modified malt. With a 5-gal capacity igloo-style cooler, multi-rest mashing can be a challenge. If I had more space, I would have conducted the first step with a greater water to grist ratio. After about 40 minutes, I had to draw off one quart of wort from the mash and heat it up to 190 degrees to adjust the mash temperature. I performed a batch sparge and collected seven gallons of wort in total. Be sure to exclude the table sugar from all of your mash calculations.

25 minutes @ 120F R = .8
90 minutes @ 149F ( for conversion ) R = 1.3
Hop Schedule: 75 minute Boil

1 oz Amarillo ( 7.6 AAU ) @ 70 minutes
1 oz Amarillo ( 7.6 AAU ) @ flameout

Yeast and Fermentation

I just used a pack of Munton’s Ale yeast that I rehydrated for 30 minutes before adding to the wort. Visible activity in the airlock was apparent in about three hours ( not bad for dry yeast!) I am going to ferment this as close to 65F as I can, which is some temperature around 70F–It’s in a cold water bath.

Additional Notes:

Due to the capacity of my brewpot, I had withhold about 2 gallons of the wort until after the hot break. The extra wort was added back in at 70 minutes.

The first styles that come to mind are Bock and Sour Beer.   It is hard to imagine that I only really had my first bock beer ( Granite City’s Benedictine Bock) this last year and I certainly did enjoy it.   I believe that his style requires lagering so it may have to wait.  The other style, sour beer, I have not yet tried but it sounds quite intriguing.

With sour beer, as I understand it, you take about half of your grist and add enough water to wet the grain. You then leave it in the mash tun in warm place for about four days until it gets really good and stinky.  Then you add the rest of the grain and mash according to a normal schedule ( of course you have to make some corrections for the water already in the tun).  When you boil the wort, all the nasties are kill and your are left with a soured beer that is supposed to be quite nice.  I figure I could try this with a honey wheat or the like.

If any of you have tried making a sour beer, let me know. I would love to hear your tips.

Grain Bill
6 lbs     Marris Otter
1.5 lbs    American  2-row
0.25 lbs    Victory
.65 lbs    Crystal 40
.65 lbs    Crystal 60
.25 lbs    Chocolate Malt

90 minute boil

Hop Schedule
.5 oz    Magnum hops @ 60 minute
1 oz    Amarillo @ 15 minutes
1 oz   Amarillo @ 0 minutes

Yeast:
White Labs wlp001 California Ale Yeast.

 Mash Schedule:
Single Infusion Mash at 152F for 1 hour.
Mash Out at 170F for 15 minutes
Sparge for 1 hour.
 Notes:

I actually managed to sparge for a full hour and collected about 7 to 7.5 gal of wort.  I will boil 6.5 gallons of this to start and add the remainder after 30 minutes ( after some has boiled off and the immediate threat of boil over had passed.)  My mash method was a Continuous/Batch hybrid method.  I kept the wort level above the grain bed until I had collected about 5.5 gal of wort.   I then let it rest for about 15 minutes and then allowed the remained to drain.  Dont forget to vorlauf.

I am going to ferment this as cold as possible.  My home AC unit is on the fritz and room temperature during the day is around 80 degrees.  I will keep this in the bath tub and hopefully ferment this in the low 70s.

I am also pitching this on top of my previous batch, the Sim City IPA, so I will effectively have a HUGE starter.  If you are not pitching on top of a previous yeast cake, be sure to make a yeast starter.

Also, after this brew is done, I will have succesfully finished by 10th batch, 50 gallons in all. I know this is a small number for a number of you, but I don’t get to brew but once every two months or so.  I have been on an accelerated brew schedule lately in order to fill up the four kegs that I purchased, but after this one, I am back to brewing every two months. 

Grain Bill:

10 lbs 6 row malt
1 lbs Crystal 60
1 lbs Crystal 120
Hops :

.5 oz Magnum( 14.5%) 60 min
1 oz Galena ( 11%) 30 min
1 oz Cascade(5.1%) 5 min
Yeast:

White Labs WLP001 Califorina Ale Yeast.

Mash Schedule:

Single Infusion Mash at 154 F for one hour. Mash out at 169F for 10-15 minutes and then sparge.

Boil for 90 minutes.
Ferment at 170F until good and done.

Notes:

I tried to refine my batch-sparging technique a bit this round. I sparged slowly and kept refilling the Lauter Tun with hot ( 170F) water to keep the wort level above the grain bed. When I had collected nearly all of the wort, I let the train drain normally. This time around, I collected more wort than I can boil at a given time ( I have a 6.5 gal max capacity). After boiling the wort for 30 minutes, I added the extra wort to the boil. I didnt prepare a yeast start this time, but should have. I saw active fermentation about 20 hours into the primary. I had to put the fermenter into a bathtub with cool water to keep the temperature down. It ran higher than I would have liked but this yeast to supposed to ferment clean so we will see how it turns out.

If you want a real Sierra Nevada pale ale, I would suggest that you keep looking for another recipe.