Bee Cave Pale Ale (Batch #43)

Ed Wort

I've been meaning to brew this recipe for some time now. The Bee Cave Pale is a very popular pale ale recipe on HomeBrewTalk by brewer 'EdWort.' It's a simple, no-frills recipe for a super solid pale ale. I've had a history of throwing a lot of hops at my pale ales in my pursuit of hop nirvana. With this brew I'd like to find a stronger appreciation for well balanced pale ales.

Recipe Notes
Style: Pale Ale

Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Color: ?
Target Bitterness: ?
Target OG: ?

Grist
8 lb. 2-row
2 lb. Vienna
1/2 lb. Crystal 10L

1 oz. Cascade (FWH)
1/2 oz. Cascade (30 min.)
1/4 oz. Northern Brewer (15 min.)
1 tsp. Irish Most (15 min.)
1/4 oz. Cascade (5 min.)

Yeast
Nottingham Ale Dry Yeast

Brew Notes
Brew Date: 3/6/16
Mash Temp: 150
Mash Time: 60

Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 4.9 gal
Measured OG: 12.0 Brix (1.048)

Hand ground the malt today instead of using my stupid cordless drill that always runs out of battery 20% of the way through anyway. Not too bad. Will probably do this from now on unless we need to buy a corded drill for some household project.

Brought 5.5 gal. mash water to 163. Temp fell just below 150 after dough in. Collected 4.75 gal of 13 brix wort. Boil was straight forward. Added 1/2 gallon of cold water post-boil during the chill phase. Ended up with about 5 gallons of 12 brix wort which is right where I wanted it. Filled the Better Bottle fermenter a little too high probably. Had to dump about 20 oz. of wort or so down the drain. Hopefully not a super vigorous fermentation or things could get messy.

4/23/16 - Kegged today at 1.008 for an ABV of 5.3%. Tasted a little BMC-ish. Fairly dry but with a bit of a toasted, 'husky' flavor I think from the Vienna. The beer also has a slight hefeweissen aroma that dissipates quickly over time. Had a major blow-out during fermentation which usually happens when I brew wheat beers so maybe I'm correlating the dry grain smell or maybe it was the Nottingham yeast that I'm not too familiar with. I usually use US-05 for this type of recipe. I think it'll be a solid easy drinker once it's carbonated.

Trying out a new carbonation method this time. I disconnected the other kegs from CO2 then turned the pressure up to 30psi. I'll leave it there for 48 hours while the keg is in the keezer chilling. I won't be rocking the keg around to increase surface area absorption. After 48 hours I'll drop back to serving pressure (14psi) and see how this trick impacts carbonation time. I'd like to have this beer carbonated within 11 days so it'll be ready for a work party so hopefully this'll do the trick.

4/26/16 - After two days at 30psi and another at 14psi this beer is perfectly carbonated. I think this'll be my go-to carbonation method from now on. Zero to carbed in 72 hours is great, especially for a beer that had some extra time to mature in primary.

Hop Retirement Party

Brought to you today by 'Whirlpool'

For the last of my 'spring cleaning' series I'll be brewing a single-malt 'hop retirement party'. I'm looking forward to brewing a few experimental SMaSH ales next month and wanted to get in the mood by sticking to only two row for this brew. However, I'll be using the remaining six different kinds of hops from our freezer to spice it all up. All you hops is commin' out of retirement for one last party and today is that day.

I'll also be experimenting with a hop stand (a.k.a 'whirlpool') for this brew since I learned Stone uses something similar to make their 'Enjoy By x/x/x' series. There's no real consensus yet on what temperature to hop stand at or for how long. I believe most brewers that whirlpool hops just toss them in after flame-out during the whirlpool process and experience a decreasing steep temperature. I decided chill my wort to 170F and then hop stand for 20 minutes. I chose to cool the wort first to reduce isomerization of the hops during the hop stand. I've read this process is greatly reduced under 175F so that's why I chose the temp.

Recipe Notes
Style: Pale Ale

Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Color: 3.3 SRM
Target Bitterness: 39 IBU
Target OG: 1.040

Grist
8 lb. Briess 2-Row

1.1 oz. Hallertau 2.6% (FWH)
0.6 oz. Liberty 4.5% (FWH)
0.2 oz. Tettnang 4.5% (FWH)

0.8 oz. Cluster 8.1% (20 min.)

0.75 oz. Chinook (Hop Stand)

0.75 oz. Northern Brewer (Hop Stand)

Reused Yeast Slurry (US-05 & WB-06)

Brew Notes
Brew Date: 2/22/15
Mash Temp: 147F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 5.0 gal
Measured OG: 1.040
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%

Excited to use my re-calibrated thermometer today. It seemed a little weird to mill 8 lbs of only 2-row but I resisted the urge to spice it up. Raised 5.5 gal. water to 156 and doughed in. Mashed at 147 for 60 minutes. This was quite a large temperature drop, more that I usually experience. I had expected to mash around 150 but whatever. Chucked in the hops on first wort and collected 5 gallons of runnings. Boiled with only the 20 minute addition. Stuck the thermometer in the boiling wort and it read '204F'. Stupid thermometer. Recalibrated to 212 since I now how to do that now.

After boil I ran the wort chiller for only 2 minutes dropping temp to 170. Added the Chinook and NB hops to steep for 20 min. Temps dropped to 157F after the steep time. After hitting 70F poured the wort through the BIAB bag on a collander and into the ferm bucket. Bag got clogged pretty quickly which made this a slow process. Decided to pour through a hand held fine collander for the last half. This was very easy to dump once it was clogged and the process went much faster. Collected 4.25 gal of 1.048 wort. Dilluted with 0.75 gal of water to reach about 5 gal. of 1.040 wort.

Yesterday I saved two pint jars of yeast/trub slurry when racking the previous brew to secondary. I removed these from the fridge before brewing. Decanted the liquid beer portion of each pint jar (top 1/3 or so) into the wort and aerated vigorously. The slurry was very dark so it may add some color to this brew. Being all 2-row it could probably use some color though.

Update 3/1/15 - Gravity sample after 1 week in primary is at 1.009. Beer is a cloudy light yellow 'straw' color. Tastes very dry. Not much hop aroma or flavor in this one. Maybe next time I'll use a larger volume of late hops.

Kegging Notes
Measured FG: 1.008
Attenuation: 80%
ABV: 4.2%
Calories: 130 per 12oz.
Carbonation: 2.5 volumes

Update 3/6/15 - Finally completed keezer today adding CO2 distributor which lets me finally run lines for my third keg. Racked this beer into the third keg today. Gravity finished at 1.008. Smells and tastes kind of like my 'Spring Cleaning: Light' which is also in the keezer. Not much for variety but can't complain about having 15 gal. of cold fresh beer on tap :)

Update 4/24/15 - Beer is ridiculously cloudy. Maybe from deciding not to secondary? Figured this would be a good brew to try my hand at fining. Measured 1 tsp. of gelatin into 8 oz. of tap water and microwaved in 20 sec. increments, stirring with a thermometer, until it reached 150F. Added gelatin solution to keg and swirled it around a bit with my mash paddle. Decided to add 1 oz. Columbus dry hops just to make the aroma more interesting. Might not help the fining process but I luvz the hops.

Hop Harvest Pale

Hops on Harvest Day

Brewed today with my good friend from college, Mark. It's been too long bro!! We decided to put together a recipe highlighting the homegrown Cascade hops I harvested last month. The hops are only from a 2nd year plant so I'm not expecting amazing things. After cracking open the vaccu-sealed mason jars we found the hops to have a very 'grassy' aroma and they seemed more moist than when I packed them in there after harvesting. Rubbing them between my hands still resulted in a sticky feeling and pungent aroma. Here's hoping they impart a uniquely delightful character in the beer rather than a uniquely grassy flavor. Regardless, I'm sure we'll learn a lot about homegrown hops by the end of this experiment.

Recipe Notes
Style: Pale Ale

Batch Volume: 4 gal.
Color: 9 SRM
Target Bitterness: 50 IBU
Target OG: 1.051

Grist
6 lb. 2-Row
1 lb. Crystal 20L
8 oz. Crystal 40L

8 oz. Flaked Oats

0.3 oz. Cascade 6.6% (FWH)

0.6 oz. Centennial 9.0% (FWH)

2 oz. Homegrown Cascade ?% (10 min.)

1 oz. Homegrown Cascade (0 min.)

S-04 Yeast

Brew Notes
Brew Date: 10/12/14
Mash Temp: 152F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 4 gal
Measured OG: 1.052 (1.050 @ 85°F)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72%

The temps in northern Virginia have cooled to the point where I actually want to brew outdoors again. So we fired up the old propane burner, put the NFL RedZone channel on the iPhone, and got down to it. Brought 5 gal. of water up to 156 and doughed in. Temp dropped to 152 and remained there for the duration of the mash. Ended up with 4 gallons after pulling the grain bag and 4.5 after squeezing the daylights out of it. Decided to do the early hop additions as 'first wort' because I like that there's no 60 minute addition to fuel the hot break into a possible boil over. Things just go more smoothly.

After the boil, we brought 4 gallons of hot wort inside and chilled down to 85 with the immersion coil. Strained the wort through the grain bag while pouring into the fermenter. Took a gravity sample and put the wort in my keezer before pitching yeast. Total brew day was only 4 hours. Gotta love cooking w/gas.

Pitched 11am the following morning at 58 degrees.

Update 11/4/14 - Dry hopped with remaining 1.4 oz. of homegrown Cascade. Divided between two sanitized hop bags and smushed them into the better bottle. Gravity sample reads 1.008.

Kegging Notes
Measured FG: 1.008
Attenuation: 85%
ABV: 5.8%
Calories:169 per 12oz.
Carbonation: 2.5 volumes

Update 11/11/14 - Kegged at 10 psi after seven days of dry hopping.

Update 11/21/14 - So yeah the beer definitely just has a grassy/vegetal aroma and flavor. Not great. None of the Cascade citrus aroma is present. Maybe the hops were picked to young? Whatever the problem this was a major disappointment :(

American Cascade SMaSH

American Cascade SMaSH
December 30, 2012
2.5 gal.

My first attempt at all grain brewing! Tally-ho!

4 lb. 2-Row Pale Malt (Rahr)
1 lb. Toasted 2-Row Pale Malt (Rahr)
1.5 oz. Cascade Hops
1 pkg. Munton’s Dry Ale Yeast
⅜ cup Corn Sugar (Priming)

12/29/12 - Toasted 1lb. of 2-row at 275 for 45 min.

12/30/12 - Removed yeast from fridge. Collected hops from freezer. Crushed grain at 0.025” spacing. Raised 2.5 gal of water to 165 deg. Preheated oven to ‘WARM’. Removed pot from heat. Placed bag in pot. Stirred crushed grains into water. Mashed grain in water at ~155 for 60 minutes in warmed oven. Raised 1.5 gal sparge water to 170 deg. Dunk sparged grain bag in sparge water. Squeezed a little. Added sparge water to boil kettle and got 4 gal of wort. Removed a few cups of water so boil pot wasn’t brimming. Boiled. Added ½ oz. Cascade at 60 min, 20 min, and 5 min to hop bag. OG is 1.048. Racked to glass fermenter. Collected 2.5 gal of wort.

1/5/13 - Racked beer to secondary. SG is 1.010. Super low. Tastes good, like a generic American ale.

1/12/13 - Bottled 2.5 gallons for 26 beers.FG was still 1.010. ABV is 5.1%. Used ⅜ cup of priming sugar for lower beer volume.

1/24/13 - Tried bottle. Very litre carbonation. Furnace was out while on vacation. Probably too cold. Brought beers up to computer room to carbonate. Significant sediment. Poor job racking or too fine of grind or both. Didn't use auto siphon to siphon. It was broken.