All Grain House Pale Ale

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UNOmar

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Hey all,
I just built my MLT last night following the common 50qt rectangular cooler and the hosebraid filter method. I also just got my dual-tap keggerator setup. My plan is to have 1 tap dedicated to "seasonal beers" or whatever I felt like making at the moment and have the other always serving a standard "House Pale Ale." I'd like it to be something simple (ingredient wise) so I can just buy grain and hops in bulk and keep it on hand year round. After playing around with the recipator I came up with this:

10# American 2-row (assuming 70% efficiency should hit within the guidlines)

1.5oz Cascade Hops @ 60 mins
1oz Cascade Hops @ 30 mins
1oz Cascade Hops @ Flameout

Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast.

It hits within the guidlines, it's simple, and allows me to buy 2-row and cascade hops in bulk. I'm just worried it's too simple and will be a bland beer. Any thoughts? Also, if anyone has a house recipe they'd like to share I'd be grateful.
 
I suppose some character malts wouldn't go amiss, small amounts of either Victory, Biscuit, or Special B malt might make it a bit more interesting. Maybe a couple of ounces.

I'm not a huge fan of Crystal malt but it's undoubtedly the most common addition, so that's another one to bear in mind.

I like the idea of a simple recipe so I would keep it to just one speciality malt addition. But of course, its up to you :)
 
You are on the right track for sure... I'd suggest a nice American Pale malt and a tiny bit of Victory or Vienna to give it a bit of toasty/nutty malt flavor (though this is totally optional for the style)... maybe for the first batch just use the Pale malt and then if it seems like it needs a little something, add some of the other American malts in small quantities till you find the recipe you are looking for...

Here's a little more info on the style:

http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category10.html#style10A

Good luck, and let us know what you decide

later,
:mug:
mikey
 
I too would add Victory,Crystal and maybe Munich malts in my recipe. It's still simple but would add some complexity to the beer. I just listened to a nice podcast of American Pale Ales by Jamil Zainasheff who is a respected brewer and judge. Might be worth a listen. Pale Ale podcast is about half way down the list for April 10th.
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/jamil.php
 
I think this is a good recipe. Might be a little bit malty so I would have recommended adding some roasted goodies to bring out the flavor. This is optional though.
 
I'm drinking Walker's IPA (well, not *right* now, it's 7:00 in the morning) which used Cascade and Northern Brewer for flavoring and aroma. You could add a little complexity to the beer by using those two hops together (or Cascade and something else). You could still buy the Cascade in bulk, you'd just have to buy a little NB. Guess it depends on whether you want the character of the beer to come through in the malt or the hops profile.
 
Well, I think you're right...it will be too simple and will be a bland beer. (You did ask.)

BAsically the only significant flavor element in this recipe will be Cascade hops.

I think you can keep the hopping schedule as is if you want that very clean cascade taste, but I'd definitely flesh out the grain bill some: if you want a dry finish and light color (which I assume you do from the recipe you've made), you could use 4-8 ounces of some light crystal and maybe substitute a lb of vienna for a lb of the 2-row or something.

There are several APAs in the "Beer Captured" book--take a look at the grainbills in those recipes for some suggestions.
 
I use this recipe often: (simple easy and bulk capable).

9lbs American 2 Row
.5lb Rauch (LHBS own smoked)
.5lb Wheat

Cascade 60/20/FO
American Wyeast

I have also done the same recipe instead subbing Northwest Wyeast and Northern Brewer or Fuggles hops-

You can also throw in honey if desired.

- WW
 
1056 American Ale yeast is terrific strain for your beer here.

May I suggest:

5-10% each of the following malts: Munich, Crystal, and Wheat
Followed with 70-85% 2 row pale malt.
Any combo of the above will give you a nice malt profile.
On to the Hops.

May I suggest:

Kettle addition: Northern Brewer or Perle
Middle Addition: a combo of NB, Chinook, and Perle.
Late Addition: Cascade
Flame out: Cascade
Dry hop: Cascade

And you will have highly drinkable mostly Pale Ale, that you'l be reaching for often.
 
Looking back on my SNPA clone recipe, which was an extract w/speciality grains batch, it appears they get most of their flavor from the hops. Aside from the standard DME there is only 8oz of Crystal 20L and 4oz Maltodextrine.
Does the maltodextrine contribute to the flavor or is it just a alc% booster?

I suppose I could add perle and nugger hops, but buying small quantities from LHBS is pricey. Compare $2~3/oz as opposed to $5/lb from hopsdirect.com.
 
Maltodextrin is a body booster rather than an alcohol booster. It contributes unfermentable, tasteless sugars which give a thicker mouthfeel.

SNPA is definately all about the hops.
 
Cool. Thanks for all the help everyone. I think this is the Recipe I'll go with. I might tweak it a little later on based on how everything turns out.

Grain
7# 75% 2-row
2# 20% Vienna
.5# 5% Crystal 20L (I'd like 10L but I don't think my LHBS has it)

Hops
1oz Cascade @ 60
1.5oz Cascade @ 30
1oz Cascade @ 1
.5oz Cascade @ Flame out

Yeast
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

I can still buy bulk 2-row and cascade and at least my LHBS has relatively cheap specialty grains by the pound. After recycling some yeast from the first batch I'm hoping to get the cost down around the $10 range per 5Gal.
 
Very cool. I'm interested in how it turns out. Please post a picture of a nice beer glass full of it.

How do you intend to recycle the yeast?
 
I plan on making a big starter from the smack pack and splitting it. I'm curious as to how the yeast will mutate after a few trips through this process.
Anybody have experience with this? How noticable is the change?
I also just washed some 3068 (?) Hefeweizen yeast from my primary. Will definitely use that again.
 
I usually make a big starter and split it for two brews on successive days.
I then wash the yeast from both batches, and get enough to brew another 6 batches. I've never tried going to another generation, and never noticed any mutations. I did however once get an infection in a jar of washed yeast, and of course it was when I was down to my last jar. Is smelled most unpleasant when I iopened the jar to make the starter, so I used a Safale 04 that I had for emergencies.
I do find that the longer I store the washed yeast, the longer it takes to get started, but that's not surprising.

-a.
 
I'm going to do the same and work on a House Ale. I've tweaked your recipe just a bit. I hope it turns out a clean crisp ale that SWMBO will like. Total cost at AHBS was $16.42 No room for bulk grains yet.

Grain/Extract/Sugar

8.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row)
2.00 lbs. Vienna Malt
0.50 lbs. Crystal 10L

Hops Pellets

Amount Name Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Cascade 60 min.
0.50 oz. Cascade 30 min.
0.50 oz. Cascade 5 min.


Yeast: Danstar Nottingham

Gonna batch sparge it with my new 10 gallon Home Depot cooler. Thanks for a great idea. Brew weekend, here we come!

:rockin:
 
Can I ask you how many gallons of water you will collect prior to the boil?

A recipe I wanna try is 3kg Pale and 250g crystal + hops, I.M & yeast.
 
I figure between 6.5 to 7 and then boil down to 5.5

Promash says my preboil is 6.47, but I'll check how efficient my system is, or my level of skill at all grain that is.

I plan to primary in a buckt for a week, then rack to a carboy for several weeks at a bit cooler temps before crash cooling & kegging.
 
Chairman Cheyco said:
6.47gal for a pre-boil volume seems a bit low for 10.5# of grain. What's your water/grain ratio set at for your mash?

Good question. I haven't gotten that far. I'm upgrading to my 10 gallon Home Depot cooler this weekend, so I was going to search for the old water calculator for Batch Sparging. I won't run out of room like I did on my brown with 13.5# of grain last brew.

Edit:

Just figured it out:

I'm going for 7 gallons preboil.

Mash in with 3.61 Gallons
I'll add 1.39 gallons to first run
Second batch with 3.5 gallons.

Neat little Excel spread sheet from Bay Area Mashers.
 
I just bottled my new House Pale Ale, I too wanted something simple and at the same time try some things I've always wanted to. I bottled it the other day and as usual had a enough left over for half a glass, it was pretty darn tasty I may tweak it a bit by adding some bicuit or victory in the next batch.

I do 6.5 gallon batches on beers with lots of hops, insures I get at least 5.5 gallons in the fermentor.

I wanted to try some crystal 80L for a change, I like the Caramel, Slight Burnt Sugar, Raisniny flavor and in this case it worked very well, the color is SRM 10 well within the guide lines.

11.5 lbs US Pale two-row
1 lbs Crystal 80L

I wanted to try an all cascade PA and I also wanted to try a different hop schedule so I added half an ounce of cascades every 10 minutes and two ounces at flame out. The bitterness is smooth not over powering like it is when using a full ounce of hops in the 11% range, at 34 IBU's it has just the right amount of hop bitterness, flavor and aroma.

.5 oz cascades 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10
2 oz cascades Flame out
 
Wort is on. My 10 gallon Igloo Water cooler worked great. I calculated 74% efficiency with a batch sparge. I collected 6.9 gallons of wort that measured out at 1.040 after temp adjustment. Now for the boil and hop run.
 
EdWort said:
Wort is on. My 10 gallon Igloo Water cooler worked great. I calculated 74% efficiency with a batch sparge. I collected 6.9 gallons of wort that measured out at 1.040 after temp adjustment. Now for the boil and hop run.

Ed, how long are you mashing? I've never gotten much better than 60% using batch sparge (that's all I've ever done). I've taken to mashing larger amounts of grain to hit my O.G. Even then I sometimes come in low. I don't know what happened on my last batch - efficiencly came in at 52%. . .

Here's my tweaked "Ruff Haus Pale Ale"

9 lbs. 2-Row
2 lbs. Vienna
1 lb. Crystal 20

.5 oz Perle at 60 min.
1 oz. Cascade at 20 min.
1 oz. Cascade at 5 min.

White Labs California Ale Yeast


this time got an O.G. of 1.044 (target 1.047)
 
Just pitched the yeast at 75 degrees. My final OG is 1.048 for 5.5 gallons.

Here's my final tweaked recipe.

8 lbs. 2-Row
2 lbs. Vienna
0.5 lb. Crystal 10L

1.0 oz Cascade at 60 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade at 30 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade at 15 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade at 5 min.

Nottingham Dry Ale Yeast Hydrated with a pint starter.

Calculates out to about 38 IBUs and it should look like this.

HouseAle.png


I upgraded to a 10 gallon cooler. Preheated it, and mashed in with just over 3.5 gallons of water at 165 degrees. My mash hit 152 degrees and stayed there for an hour. I did stir it well during mash in and once during the 60 minute pause.

After 60 minutes, I added about 1.5 gallons of water at 185 degrees and stirred well. Waited a few minutes and then vorlaufed and poured into the kettle.

One more batch of 3.5 gallons at 170 degrees, stirred well, waited a few minutes and then let er rip into the kettle.

I'm just using a stainless braid.
 
That's a very similar recipe to mine and a very similar procedure. Don't know why my O.G. came in so low. . .
 
One of the best beers I've ever made was 7 lbs pale malt, 1 lb 40 degree crystal, bittered with fuggles and dry hopped with EKG's. Some times simpler is better.

But, I wouldn't go with only pale malt for the grain. It's like making a cake using only flour and no other flavorings.
 
Actually all pale malt makes a very nice almost lager like beer. I make a Blonde Ale thats just two-row and lightly hopped with saaz hops, very crisp light and refreshing.
 
EdWort said:
I'm going to do the same and work on a House Ale. I've tweaked your recipe just a bit. I hope it turns out a clean crisp ale that SWMBO will like. Total cost at AHBS was $16.42 No room for bulk grains yet.


$16.42?!?
Not fair! I just got back from the LHBS where I paid that much for the grain alone and that didn't even include the milling charge (.25/lb).
Granted I paid $9 for the 1056 smack pack, but even omitting that I'm still $10 heavier than you. What's your secret?
For comparison's sake here are the prices at my LHBS:
Any 5lb bag of grain $7.50
Any 1lb bag of grain $1.85
Milling charge $0.25/lb
1oz Cascade Hops $1.50
Wyeast 1056 smack pack $8.95
Safale 04 dry yeast (backup) $2.25
 
I just added mine up and not counting yeast - I guess add about a $1 because I reuse yeast - I brewed that Pale Ale recipe above for about $12.30.

buying grain in bulk really helps!
 
UNOmar said:
$16.42?!?
Not fair! I just got back from the LHBS where I paid that much for the grain alone and that didn't even include the milling charge (.25/lb).
Granted I paid $9 for the 1056 smack pack, but even omitting that I'm still $10 heavier than you. What's your secret?

My Secret? Well..... Ok, here it is...

Austin Home Brew Supply ROCKS!

8# 2 Row Brewers Malt $8.80
2# Vienna Malt $3.00
.5# Crystal 10L $0.95
2 oz. Cascade Hop Pellets $2.38
Nottingham Yeast $1.49

Acutally it comes to $16.62. AHBS rocks because they sell in fractions of a pound, don't charge to crush it, and when you give them your list, they give you a nice big paper bag will all your grain in it ready to go. I swing by at lunch on the Friday before brewday and pick up my ingredients so they are very fresh. Since they all qualify as food, there's no tax either.

Ahhh, liquid bread.
 
*contemplates moving to austin...*

Well, now I have really got to buy that grain mill so I can buy in bulk.
 
This beer has been sitting in my lagerator connected to gas since October 4th. I just put it in the Kegerator as my Porter blew this weekend.

I must say, this is one mighty tasty beer. SWMBO approves, so I've found something she'll drink besides my Bavarian Hefeweizen and Apfelwein.

Thanks to another great thread here, I've found a good all around recipe that tastes great and most folks will enjoy.

Hmm good. It's going to be a very MERRY Christmas this year.

Cheers!

Ed



EdWort said:
Just pitched the yeast at 75 degrees. My final OG is 1.048 for 5.5 gallons.

Here's my final tweaked recipe.

8 lbs. 2-Row
2 lbs. Vienna
0.5 lb. Crystal 10L

1.0 oz Cascade at 60 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade at 30 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade at 15 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade at 5 min.

Nottingham Dry Ale Yeast Hydrated with a pint starter.

Calculates out to about 38 IBUs and it should look like this.

HouseAle.png


I upgraded to a 10 gallon cooler. Preheated it, and mashed in with just over 3.5 gallons of water at 165 degrees. My mash hit 152 degrees and stayed there for an hour. I did stir it well during mash in and once during the 60 minute pause.

After 60 minutes, I added about 1.5 gallons of water at 185 degrees and stirred well. Waited a few minutes and then vorlaufed and poured into the kettle.

One more batch of 3.5 gallons at 170 degrees, stirred well, waited a few minutes and then let er rip into the kettle.

I'm just using a stainless braid.
 
Im actually considering doing one of these myself. At the moment im using just under 7 pounds of maltto make up a 5 gallon batch and then adding a tin of light malt extract to reach the desired gravity.

This works good but im starting to realize now that its cheaper just to buy another bag of grain and not bother with the tin. I've been messing around with promash and have drawn up this hypothetical IPA recipe I intend on doing:

6 kilos Pale crushed
1 ounce Black patent
2 ounce 8.5% Northdown (1, 60; 0.5, 30; 0.5, 15)

That's alot of grain but then I figure I dont need to be too fussed over efficiency especially now that I am getting to grips with the principles of homebrew and am growing in confidence.

Actually I just re-read this thread. Im only collecting like just over 6 gallons of water pre-boil, maybe 6.5 max. With my electric kettle filament boiler there is no way I can collect more than this. Therefore I am going to stick with my partial mashes, or what I will call 'pseudo-AG' for the time being.
 
EdWort said:
My Secret? Well..... Ok, here it is...

Austin Home Brew Supply ROCKS!

8# 2 Row Brewers Malt $8.80
2# Vienna Malt $3.00
.5# Crystal 10L $0.95
2 oz. Cascade Hop Pellets $2.38
Nottingham Yeast $1.49

Acutally it comes to $16.62. AHBS rocks because they sell in fractions of a pound, don't charge to crush it, and when you give them your list, they give you a nice big paper bag will all your grain in it ready to go. I swing by at lunch on the Friday before brewday and pick up my ingredients so they are very fresh. Since they all qualify as food, there's no tax either.

Ahhh, liquid bread.

Ed, I don't know if subliminally I had already embedded your recipe in my brain, or what, but I'm thinking of something pretty much exactly like this for my next brew (since I've temporarily given up on the idea of a steam beer). Couple pounds of Vienna for some character, little bit of Crystal 10L or Crystal 20L, but otherwise just a good, solid, session beer using primarily Cascade hops. MAYBE using some Northern Brewer, since I liked the combo with Cascades so much in Walker's IPA.
 
the_bird said:
Ed, I don't know if subliminally I had already embedded your recipe in my brain, or what, but I'm thinking of something pretty much exactly like this for my next brew (since I've temporarily given up on the idea of a steam beer). Couple pounds of Vienna for some character, little bit of Crystal 10L or Crystal 20L, but otherwise just a good, solid, session beer using primarily Cascade hops. MAYBE using some Northern Brewer, since I liked the combo with Cascades so much in Walker's IPA.
I tell ya, after letting the keg sit in the kegerator for a few days, the beer settled to crystal clear. I AM SO AMAZED at this easy and quite quaffable brew. I took some to some homebrew buddies (two liter bottle with a Carbonator cap) and they were amazed at the clarity, lace & head retention, not to mention the taste for a beer fermented with a dry yeast for two weeks in a bucket before kegging.

It may have something to do with being aged for over a month on gas, but I intend to repeat this many times as SWMBO likes it and I'm very happy with the results. I can't wait for the Barley Crusher to arrive so I can buy grain in bulk and bring the price for a batch down even further.

I have to hand it to UNOmar for starting this thread and the idea of a Haus Ale. This is going to be a signature beer for me that will be "in stock" to accompany my Apfelwein.

HausAle3.jpg
 
This will be my next beer, something nice and easy to drink, that will go well with pizza and wings watching college hoops in a couple months, a session beer, something I can drink all afternoon.

"Paler Than Gonzaga" March Madness Pale Ale.
 
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