One of my worst kept secrets is that I love drinking and in turn making (or trying to make) overly complex beers. When we first started this brew-venture I decided to run full speed before learning the basics. It was a humbling experience that I have definitely strayed away from since then. I’ve come to appreciate simplicity in grain bills and making easy drinkers is pretty satisfying, this is especially true when it is nearly 100F outside on a consistent basis.
Volume II of our SMaSH series was brewed on 7/1. It was made with African Queen hops, that we bought without having to support ABinBev and 2-Row malt. I think the overall goal of this is to have a dry crushable pale ale with some fruity notes. African Queen hops are pretty complex in their own right—citrus, apricot, cherry, and maybe a little bit of spice. We used them in a Dark Saison from a few months ago, but I’m pretty curious to see how they impact a simple pale ale.
One thing I’d like to point out is that we upped the amount of hops in this batch from 4oz to 5oz, because as good as the SMaSH I was, it fell off relatively quickly. Hopefully adding more hops to the recipe aides in that.
Grain Bill:
10 lbs 2-Row
Hops:
5 oz African Queen
Hop Schedule:
.5 oz First Wort
.5 oz 30 minutes
1 oz 15 minutes
1 oz Flameout
2 oz Dry Hop (4 days)
Yeast:
1 packet US-05
Mash:
152F 60 minutes
Boil:
60 Minutes
Expected OG: 1.050—1.053
Expected FG: 1.012—1.014
Expected ABV: 4.9%—5.1%
Actual OG: 1.052
This was another pretty standard brew day, all things considered. We started early, hit our numbers on point, and finished quickly. We first started heating the strike water to 161F (to account for temperature loss when transferring) and added the grain and water treatment to the water. Since we built the gravity table our efficiency has went up a consistent 5%, which is absolutely welcomed. We collected about 6.9-7 gallons of wort and began our boil.
If you recall we were mulling over the idea of building a hop spider because of our recent issues with the plate chiller clogging. We decided to just build it, because why not? This was our first brew day with it in action. My only issue at the moment is the fact that we used PVC pipe to build the base. It’s the higher quality of PVC that has a higher heat threshold, but it still kind of sketches me out. I think we are going to use a sink drain in the future because stainless steel is an infinitely better option.
We added the hops in as we normally would while utilizing our shiny new hop spider. The hop additions were added as listed in the recipe information. One thing about the African Queen hops; when they are being boiled they smell almost exactly like apricots. Probably one of the better smelling hops I’ve had the pleasure of using.
We chilled the wort from 210F to about 77F in 5 minutes, and put the carboy full of wort in the fermentation fridge set at 38F for an hour until it hit the pitch temperature of 66F. After it cooled down to pitching temp we took a gravity reading: 1.052, right in line with where we wanted it to be. Next we pitched the packet of Safale US-05 and within 24 hours fermentation was under way.
All in all, successful and smooth brew day. No clugs, no hiccups, nothing except good times and an overall fun day. We bottled the dark Saison we brewed back in May so we should be able to sample those pretty soon. The black IPA is done conditioning as well, we will crack open one of those this weekend on our next brew day.
Next up is the Hoppy Pilsner! This should be fun to mesh a traditional German beer with the classic West Coast Dank. Exciting!
Oh, one more thing. We entered another competition for August. We were going to brew Brown Eye Woke again to submit that but getting word of the competition so late in the registration process we may just send over the Saison or the Black IPA, the taste test this weekend will determine which brew we send. Cheers.
Beergonomics 