This one has the easy-drinking character of a British golden ale with the citrus grapefruit hoppiness of an American Pale Ale. I wanted something sessionable to enjoy outside in the remains of the summer. It worked out even better than I expected. Grain to glass in 19 days!
I mashed for 60 minutes at 65.5C, dunk sparged the bag in a separate pot, squeezed like mad and lost only about 750ml to the grain. The boil was for an hour at 1.5 to 1.6kW. Nothing to remark really, a very straightforward brewday. It got a bit busy in the last 15 minutes due to all the hop additions but nothing to write home about. I collected about 24 litres of 1.039 wort.
Impossibly hot weather for chilling all the way with an immersion chiller with 22C cold tap water so I didn't even bother trying to get below 28C. At that point it went into the brewfridge where I eventually pitched the undecanted 1 litre starter of Vermont ale yeast at 21.5C 9 hours later.
Fermentation seemed to go without a hitch as it always has with all-grain and liquid yeasts made with a starter. I didn't even bother pulling a gravity sample and just went by the end of bubbling after 12 days as 'good as done'. Into the keg it went and a sample at that point showed it had finished at an acceptable 1.007 giving an FG of 4.2%. The smell was just pure Citrus fruits. The Caskwidge floating dip tube was fitted (thanks @peebee !) and the keg purged 5 times at 15psi to rid the headspace of oxygen and the pressure set to 25psi for carbonation to 2.2 volumes in my 20C garage.
A week later I set the tap and lines up to pull a tentative sample and I couldn't believe it. The beer was already completely bright, tasting fresh, light and hoppy. Grapefruit dominates the hop flavour but I definitely get the more subtle citrus fruits as well from the Amarillo. The head is bright white and meringue-like in texture thanks to the wheat. It quickly dies down to a thin coating that laces the glass on the way down.
I can hardly believe I did grain to glass in 19 days with no keg finings. Here's a shot of a half-pint.
Code:
COLOR: 6.0 EBC
IBU: 38.3 IBUs Tinseth
OG: 1.040 SG
FG: 1.006 SG
BU:GU: 0.956 Calories: 356.9 kcal/l Est ABV: 4.5 %
EE%: 80.00 % Batch: 23.00 L Boil: 27.88 L BT: 60 Mins
29.25 L Tesco Ashbeck Water
4.90 ml Lactic Acid Water Agent
2.90 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) Water Agent
2.30 g Calcium Chloride Water Agent
2.30 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) Water Agent
3.16 kg Crisp Clear Choice Extra Pale Malt Grain 85.0 %
0.37 kg Wheat, Torrified Grain 10.0 %
0.19 kg Cara Gold Grain 5.0 %
8.00 g Chinook [10.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 10.1 IBUs
11.00 g Amarillo [8.20 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 5.6 IBUs
10.00 g Chinook [10.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6.2 IBUs
9.00 g Cascade [8.60 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 4.3 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 7.0 mins) Fining
16.00 g Amarillo [8.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 3.3 IBUs
14.00 g Chinook [10.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 3.5 IBUs
13.00 g Cascade [8.60 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 2.5 IBUs
23.00 g Amarillo [8.20 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 1.0 IBUs
20.00 g Chinook [10.10 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 1.1 IBUs
18.00 g Cascade [8.60 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 0.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg Vermont Ale (Yeast Bay WLP4000) YeastI mashed for 60 minutes at 65.5C, dunk sparged the bag in a separate pot, squeezed like mad and lost only about 750ml to the grain. The boil was for an hour at 1.5 to 1.6kW. Nothing to remark really, a very straightforward brewday. It got a bit busy in the last 15 minutes due to all the hop additions but nothing to write home about. I collected about 24 litres of 1.039 wort.
Impossibly hot weather for chilling all the way with an immersion chiller with 22C cold tap water so I didn't even bother trying to get below 28C. At that point it went into the brewfridge where I eventually pitched the undecanted 1 litre starter of Vermont ale yeast at 21.5C 9 hours later.
Fermentation seemed to go without a hitch as it always has with all-grain and liquid yeasts made with a starter. I didn't even bother pulling a gravity sample and just went by the end of bubbling after 12 days as 'good as done'. Into the keg it went and a sample at that point showed it had finished at an acceptable 1.007 giving an FG of 4.2%. The smell was just pure Citrus fruits. The Caskwidge floating dip tube was fitted (thanks @peebee !) and the keg purged 5 times at 15psi to rid the headspace of oxygen and the pressure set to 25psi for carbonation to 2.2 volumes in my 20C garage.
A week later I set the tap and lines up to pull a tentative sample and I couldn't believe it. The beer was already completely bright, tasting fresh, light and hoppy. Grapefruit dominates the hop flavour but I definitely get the more subtle citrus fruits as well from the Amarillo. The head is bright white and meringue-like in texture thanks to the wheat. It quickly dies down to a thin coating that laces the glass on the way down.
I can hardly believe I did grain to glass in 19 days with no keg finings. Here's a shot of a half-pint.
