American Pale Ale Bee Cave Brewery Haus Pale Ale

I brewed the extract version of this stuff last winter. I ordered the munich syrup from austin homebrew and everything... it came out great!

A week ago I delved into my first AG brew with this recipe. I just got a kegging setup and it will also be my first brew on draft I can't wait to try my first AG batch.

I'd like to thank this community and Edwort for his beginner friendly recipes. I definitely read the MLT cooler thread and this one for my first all grain.

I really enjoyed my first all grain brew. I hit 75% efficiency and the process was very streamlined due to the batch sparge option, and a simple cost efficient recipe from Ed.

I am all about the mantra of KISS (keep it simple stupid) and efficiency. My own extract recipes have revolved around a modest OG with humble amounts of a single hop to keep the costs down. I am looking forward to sipping this one and see if it's that magical and light crispy ale of wonders that everyone is raving about.

Cheers to HBT and the great community here which provides THE central location online for the exchange of homebrew information

This beer will cleary so well after about a month, you will swear its a filtered microbrew lager.

Awesome recipe Ed.

I just picked up 50 pounds of 2-Row and the rest of the grains in bulk as well. Enough for six batches.

I would like to add some other specialty grains to change this up a bit, but I'm not sure what....?

What would adding more Vienna do? Could I add 'too much' and ruin this beer?


My last batch was altered heavily because,
1. I fermented in the low 70's (all my beers do that from time to time)
2. After bottled we had a heat wave at it was over 100 in our apt. This was the real killer.


that batch tastes like Malt Liquor. I can taste a hint of the vienna after I've had half a bottle or so, but mostly it just taste like high alcohol booze. Still gunna drink 'em though..

has anyone tried this with MO isntead of 2row?

Richie said:

Here is a pic of mine. I am not sure what I did wrong but it looks a lot lighter than other peoples pics and has a terrible after taste. It is about 4-5 weeks old, so I am hoping it will get better with age. I ordered the kit from BMW so know the ingredients are correct. Also my mash temps were good.

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Interesting... looks EXACTLY like my first batch did. I also ordered the kit from BMW. I think the yeast (Nottingham) was a bad batch, but not sure. I'm going to try again in a couple of days with fresh ingredients. My mash temps and OG were right on, but VERY slow start to fermentation. Hard to imagine a bad batch of grain causing this. Something seems to have gone awry in the fermentation to me.

I'm not 100% sure, but believe my yeast was from the same lot as this one:
Lot: 1081140118V
exp: 01-2011

I'd be curious to know if you have a lot number, and when you ordered your kit from BMW. I ordered mine end of June.

Just mashed in on my second batch of this stuff. The first batch turned out great. I've actually used this recipe as a base when coming up with my own recipes. I made a wheat ale by replacing 4# of 2-row with 4# of wheat malt, using some tettnang hops, and adding a little honey. That was one of the best batches I've done so far.

Thanks for the recipe, EdWort!

Oh, I used s-33 on that wheat, if anyone's interested

bkov said:

has anyone tried this with MO isntead of 2row?

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Ditto on trying Marris Otter instead of 2 row. Anyone try this? Please share the results.

brewed this one last weekend with friend. suprised to find after 12 hours primary lid BLOWN CLEAR OFF BUCKET! replaced lid and was still fermenting good so proceeded as usual. Bottled after 8 days and we'll see how it tastes in a few weeks.

Be aware that there is a batch of Nottingham that was recalled (same batch I used). I'm cross-posting this here, since my kit from Brewmasters Warehouse came with the recalled yeast. Before you brew, you might want to check the lot number. The lot number, and instructions for getting replacement are in the following thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/nottingham-yeast-recall-135065/

so... let's say i had 3.5lbs of fresh nugget and cascade (mixed, no idea of the AA%) that I wanted to use in a beer awfully similar to this - how would you suggest I go about doing that?

So a while ago I posted that I added some fresh picked Black Raspberrys to this since the grains were a little old. Well, it turned out fantastic! I had a party and most the people that tried it said it was one of, if not the best beer they have ever drank. That was without me asking what they thought. Some were fellow brewers, some were beer lovers and others were BMC fans saying this. I will definitely brew this again!

Brewed my first all-grain batch and it was based on this. (used crystal 15 because my LHBS doesn't carry 10 and changed the hop schedule a little to accommodate higher AA cascades)


The wort tastes great, just waiting to pitch.

My first batch of this ended up with such a bad bandaid taste I dumped it. Since then I brewed about 6 batches of other beer that came out great. I decided to try this one again but this time it would be a ten gallon batch. Well, after ferementing out (day 12) one carboy stunk and tasted like bandaid so bad I dumped it immediately. The second one tasted really good. I kegged it today (day 15) and I am 95% sure this one is infected too. I'm so pissed. I have never had this happen to any other brew. For some reason I can't brew this pale ale. 15 gallons down the drain. What on earth could be causing this, I am very anal about cleanliness and it doesn't happen to any other beer I brew.

nyer said:

My first batch of this ended up with such a bad bandaid taste I dumped it. Since then I brewed about 6 batches of other beer that came out great. I decided to try this one again but this time it would be a ten gallon batch. Well, after ferementing out (day 12) one carboy stunk and tasted like bandaid so bad I dumped it immediately. The second one tasted really good. I kegged it today (day 15) and I am 95% sure this one is infected too. I'm so pissed. I have never had this happen to any other brew. For some reason I can't brew this pale ale. 15 gallons down the drain. What on earth could be causing this, I am very anal about cleanliness and it doesn't happen to any other beer I brew.

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You know, my batch of this also had a funk flavor to it... and the SWMBO said it tasted like bandaids. I found a slice of orange or 2 helped me drink it down anyway, but I found that after a couple weeks in the keg, it tasted much better. I think 10 days might be a bit fast for this beer, and some age does it well. Maybe mine was infected, but none of my others have been... I plan to try this again next month and see if its the same.

KillerKellers said:

You know, my batch of this also had a funk flavor to it... and the SWMBO said it tasted like bandaids. I found a slice of orange or 2 helped me drink it down anyway, but I found that after a couple weeks in the keg, it tasted much better. I think 10 days might be a bit fast for this beer, and some age does it well. Maybe mine was infected, but none of my others have been... I plan to try this again next month and see if its the same.

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The bandaid flavor in the two I dumped so far was so bad that it was undrinkable. I think it would make you sick if you daink it.

nothing in beer will make you sick
look up band aid flavor and you will find reasons for this off taste.
My batch of this turned out very nice and drinkable, albeit a bit "boring" to my taste. I just did a hop tea experiment using 1.8 oz leaf cascade, 160˚ water with a pinch of 5.2ph and a couple ounces of vodka in a french press for 30 min. poured into a carbonated cold keg. The aroma was nice, maybe next time I'd go with 150˚ water. I'll report back with the results after a week in the keg.

bdavanza said:

nothing in beer will make you sick
look up band aid flavor and you will find reasons for this off taste.
My batch of this turned out very nice and drinkable, albeit a bit "boring" to my taste. I just did a hop tea experiment using 1.8 oz leaf cascade, 160˚ water with a pinch of 5.2ph and a couple ounces of vodka in a french press for 30 min. poured into a carbonated cold keg. The aroma was nice, maybe next time I'd go with 150˚ water. I'll report back with the results after a week in the keg.

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I have been reading like crazy trying to determine why this keeps happening to only this recipe. The two biggest factor's seem to be chlorine in water or cleaning with chlorine. I don't use chlorine and I use well water. I did read a little about nottingham yeast causing phenols if ferm. temps. get too high. I had a problem with no or slow fermentation due to the notty recalled yeast. I had to repitch a second pack in one carboy because it never fermented. That one had the worst band aid flavor and odor ever. The one I kegged fermented slowly but at least it did. I had both in a tub of water and I added a frozen water bottle daily until I left for vacation about 7 days in. I'm thinking the ferm. temp was in the low to mid 70's maybe while I was gone. I am going to have to try another batch with a different yeast and see what happens.

Try Safale US-05 or 04. Very clean. Keep the temps around 65˚ or lower.
Campden tablets will neutralize chlorine and chloramine, a charcoal filter will get rid of most chlorine and most off tastes, provided the filtration is slow.
Since you use well water, I would run it through a charcoal filter or just buy your water, like 5g bottles of spring water or similar. I have an RV filter, it does a good job at slow speeds and is relatively cheap.
For sanitizing, chlorine (bleach) is a PITA, try Star-san or iodophor.
-Ben

bdavanza said:

Try Safale US-05 or 04. Very clean. Keep the temps around 65˚ or lower.
Campden tablets will neutralize chlorine and chloramine, a charcoal filter will get rid of most chlorine and most off tastes, provided the filtration is slow.
Since you use well water, I would run it through a charcoal filter or just buy your water, like 5g bottles of spring water or similar. I have an RV filter, it does a good job at slow speeds and is relatively cheap.
For sanitizing, chlorine (bleach) is a PITA, try Star-san or iodophor.
-Ben

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My well water is actually very good and it's filtered by a white filter and a black carbon filter. The only thing I need to do is add gypsum when brewing IPA's or pale ales and they come out great now.I also use star san only for sanitizing. I have several other fall and winter batches planned so it will be awhile before I get back to trying this one again.

nyer said:

My well water is actually very good and it's filtered by a white filter and a black carbon filter. The only thing I need to do is add gypsum when brewing IPA's or pale ales and they come out great now.I also use star san only for sanitizing. I have several other fall and winter batches planned so it will be awhile before I get back to trying this one again.

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I would personally prefer good well water to municipal water any day of the week. I grew up with well water and it tasted better and was just as clean or cleaner than any municipal water I've since.

I just bought a pound of centenial. How would they work in this brew?

Thanks

Skoper said:

I just bought a pound of centenial. How would they work in this brew?

Thanks

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I would think they would be pretty good in here.. give it a shot!

The hop tea experiment is just starting to come around in this beer although just a bit grassy, and I decided to drop in a bit of summit I had left over, this should turn out nice.

This may be a stupid question, but I can't seem to search my way into the right answer. With this recipe, if I wanted to end up with 5 gallons of wort to boil (because I theoretically have a 30 gal kettle and will be brewing inside and absolutely do not want a boilover mess. ) what do I need to modify other than the amounts of water used? Do I need to reduce the grain bill at all?

My plan would be to do a "stovetop" method as laid out by Deathbrewer.

You should be able to just boil as much as you can, and just top off to the desired volume in the fermenter, and not adjust anything else. If you use a little fermcap in the boil, you should be able to get very close to the intended full boil volume. I assume you mean you have a 30 quart (7.5 gallon) kettle.

With fermcap you can probably do a 6.5 gallon boil in a 30 quart kettle but I don't know if your stove will be able to get a good boil of 6.5 galons of wort.

You know, I'm an idiot.. I could easily get to 5.5 gal.... For some reason I had it in my head that 30qt was 6 gallons. 4qts to a gallon! DUH! This is twice in a week i've made the same stupid mental math mistake. I haven't purchased the kettle yet, just considering it! And I won't be using any fermcap anytime soon. I try to avoid the "food grade additives" unless they're neccesary.....

Just transferred a batch of this to secondary, looks and smells fantastic! A little cloudy still after a two-week primary, but nothing to be concerned about. Recipe was brewed as written except my hops were slightly higher AA at 7.7% and I subbed US-05.

I'm looking to kegging this guy in few more weeks, it'll be my first brew on-tap.

Thanks EdWort!

I just made my first batch of this, and my second batch ever! after 2 weeks in primary it was crystal clear so I just went ahead and bottled. Gravity was spot on and the sample was delicious. Only difference to the recipe is I did a pseudo continual hopping schedule. Great recipe Ed, thanks much!

I just took a hydro sample today after being in the primary for 12 days and it came in at 1.006 and had a OG of 1.062. The color is amazing and tasted amazing! Since the kegerator is empty, I threw it in there to cold crash (first time doing this) and will go into the keg on Thursday. I wanted to use the set it and forget it method, but found out today that my wife invited a bunch of people over to watch some football on Sunday, so I might have to get it carbed up a little quicker. I can see another batch of this being made very, very soon!

I've brewed this recipe before and it turned out great. I'm using it as the base for a brew I'm doing this week to highlight Amarillo hops, very low bitter, high flavor/aroma. I was thinking of using some Columbus for bittering, and Amarillo for all other additions, something like:

1 oz Amarillo (7.5%) FWH
.2 oz Columbus (14.0%) 60 mins
.5 oz Amarillo (7.5%) 30 mins
1.5 oz Amarillo (7.5%) 5 mins
2 oz Amarillo (7.5%) dry hop 10 days

What do you think?

My LHBS doesn't carry Munich LME, but they do carry Munich grains. Can I do a partial mash with the munich grains, and then follow the recipe for the extract version?

I haven't done a ton of reading on partial mash brewing yet, so I'm not sure I fully understand the process.

I just bottled 5 gallons of this that I brewed about 5-6 weeks ago. Sample out of the 'shorty' (last not fully filled bottle) was delicious! Can't wait for this to be done bottle conditioning! =D Two thumbs up for sure.

Looking to brew this next and wondered if anyone has tried the PM version with success.. I browsed alot of the pages but didnt see where anyone has tried it. It will be my first venture away from extracts..thanks for any help.

Dirt101 said:

Looking to brew this next and wondered if anyone has tried the PM version with success.. I browsed alot of the pages but didnt see where anyone has tried it. It will be my first venture away from extracts..thanks for any help.

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Just to clarify, I did the "Mini Mash" version of this and hit the O.G. dead on at 1.051. Also note in the mini-mash version, I don't think the 3.5 qts of water for the first steep is correct.... I used about 3-3.5 gallons, then did a second sparge with the 1 gallon of 170* and ended up with about a 4.5 gallon boil on the stove. (in a 5 gallon pot! ) I didn't get any boilover so all is well. I just preheated my stove to 170*, the lowest it would go, for the 1 hour mash. It worked great and if I remember right my temp after the 1 hour mash was about 162*.

Getting back into AG, after a very frustrating episode last year with PTN's Porter recipe (got stuck sparge)..(I am still determined to make it!)

Anyway - I am using a 10 Gal Rubbermaid now instead of the 5 gal and am making this wonderful beer once more. What a difference the 10 g cooler makes...will make another batch next Sunday at my brewing get together

Also - I checked the lot and exp on the Nottingham .. looks like the coast is clear, but I this is the end of the road for Notty ..

Brewed 10 gallons of this yesterday and felt like a kid in a candy store. It's been a long hot summer and this is the first I've brewed in quite some time. Checked this morning and the airlocks are bubbling away. Can't wait to get it kegged. Should be good to go for Halloween (if not sooner)!

Brewed this on 9/13 and kegged it on Sunday. Had my first pint today. It's still pretty green and at 1.006 it is a lot dryer than I had expected. I can still see that it is an excellent recipe though I might drop in an oz or 2 to dry hop it but I'll decide in a couple weeks after I see what's happening. Seems like an excellent beer, I just need to get better at brewing!

Nottingham off to a slow start .. pitched @ 68...but we have healthy activity ,,, think I will switch to the Safale yeast..

Can't wait to try this one. It's kind of funny that I can't decide between your porter or your pale. I also have 5 gallons of Apfelwein of yours that's about to go into the keg. Keep up the good work sir.