There’s a Pale Ale Rising

Took the day off to brew my first original recipe – a pale ale. I wanted to keep it simple and use only the grains I had on hand – 2-Row and Caramel  60L. Since I’m hoping to have it ready in time for the Open Tap Social in just a couple of weeks, I tried to keep the gravity in check. I had originally planned on 17 lbs of 2-Row and 1 lb of crystal 60L, but after entering the recipe into BeerSmith, my previous efficiency was low enough that I decided to bump it up to 18 lbs of 2-Row. And while I was in there, I figured I would bump the crystal 60L up to 2 lbs as well. I have enough of it, and it still falls well within the color range for a pale ale.

I had originally planned on picking hops based on what my local brew shop had in stock, but their current stock was so abysmal that I decided to order them instead. I went with magnum for bittering, and some cascade for additional bittering and flavor/aroma. I had originally planned on using Citra, but I wanted to start of with something a little more commonplace. Plus, the cascade allows this to be a little more subdued in the hops, which should make it a little more appealing to most drinkers.

Music choice for this brew was primarily Halloween themed, including classics like “Monster Mash” (during the mash, of course), “Bad Moon Rising”, “This is Halloween”, and “Werewolves in London”, among others. I also threw in some random Bob Dylan, Beatles, and Nirvana, just to keep things interesting. It is fall after all, and “Times They Are A Changing.”

This brew day went without any major hiccups. The biggest “setback” was that I decided to sleep in a little, so I didn’t get the mash started till almost noon. There were also a surprising amount of bugs flying around for this time of year, but they didn’t get in the way too much. I had some excellent efficiencies, and it’s looking like this one should end up around 5.3% ABV if all goes according to plan. The OG was 1.050, and I’m using 1.5 packets of rehydrated S-04 per 5 gallons in the hopes of finishing this up in time.

Overall, the brew day took about 10 hours, and the biggest slowdown was probably due to my undersized wort chiller. But I was able to get the wort down to under 70°F before siphoning into the buckets, aerating, and pitching the yeast. It’s sitting at about 63-64°F ambient in the workshop, and should hopefully be happily bubbling away tomorrow.