NB Extra Pale Ale

i'm thinking about brewing this to be ready for spring

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/extra-pale-ale-extract-kit.html

I've read a lot of review saying people added a pound of DME or dry hopped with an ounce of citra, cascade, etc.

Just curious if anyone has brewed this, modified this or not, and has any recommendations.

I'm aiming for Summit's EPA, so if a modification is necessary, i'm all for it. I just don't want to be adding anything to a kit that doesn't need it.

I think that beer should ony take 4 weeks at 1045 OG no ? I just did a APA 2 with 5oz of hops and at 1056 OG. Two weeks in the primary and two in the keg. Used dry yeast "US-05" rehydrated. Its perfect.

I brewed this for my first ever batch. The kit (liquid extract) had been sitting on top of my buddy's fridge for about a year. I used a fresh vial of WLP001 and followed instructions in the box. I caramelized the extract but it still tasted like beer. It was about 2x as dark as it should have been and believe it or not I could still taste and smell hops.

If I made it again I would definitely dry hop with 2oz of Cascade just to give it that extra burst of aroma.

I think I will give it 4 weeks secondary, just because I like what I've read about secondary and it makes me feel good. I don't use secondary for every batch, but if the instructions call for it, I practice my patience by waiting the maximum amount.

Dry hopping with 2 ounces seems excessive. I've thought so far that 1 extra pound of Light DME at the last 20 minutes would help the body and the alcohol content, and dry hopping with 1 oz. of something would help the aroma and flavor a little bit.

I don't want to make this a super hoppy beer. I want it to be strong, yet balanced.

Thanks for the feedback so far though, i'm brewing it in 3 and 1/2 weeks and it's getting my gears turning.

4 weeks secondary is much too long for this beer IMHO. I put mine in secondary for a week and it was perfectly clear (other than the chill haze). 2 weeks primary and 2 weeks secondary max even if dry hopping. Three weeks primary would be better yet. Less work and chance for infection/oxidation. If you can cold crash then a secondary is totally unnecessary for clearing purposes.

That being said, it's your beer and your time. If you're freeing up a vessel for another batch then absolutely use the secondary.... The more beer the better

I brewed this without any modification and it was just ok. It was nothing like Summit EPA. To be truthful i started out brewing Midwest supplies kits and really liked most of them but I thought I would try 3 of Northern Brewers just to check them out. Bascially all three kits were mediocre at best so I would definitely recommend modifying them because they just arent that great by themselves. Of course I think you could probably doctor up any kit that you buy. I don't think any of them give you enough hops.

I am just finishing off the last bottle of this as I type. I actually reviewed this beer on NB's website. I added a pound of DME and dry hopped with an ounce of Centennial and Cascade. It is good. However, I put too much priming sugar in. I had some siphoning issues as well, and ended up getting oxygen in the beer. I lost about a gallon of beer, so I added 4 ounces of corn sugar to prime. It was too much.

I still like the beer, but I have to open a bottle and let it sit for a little bit until much of the gas has released. Then it is really good. The over carbonation really messes with the taste.

Go for it. But I would refer to a chart to see exactly how much priming sugar you should add.

doing some calculating has shown me that i will have to add an extra 1oz of cascade (roughly 5.75% AA) to the bittering addition to get it to around 45 IBUs- which is where summit is at. Now, If I add another pound of Light DME to the boil, that will increase my gravity, and lower my IBU. I couldn't find a calculator to help me figure out what that change will be. Also, I'm only guessing that the 1oz of cascade at the last 1 minute of the boil will not come through the way they intend if I add this extra pound of DME, so dry hopping will help. I'm thinking two weeks primary, two weeks secondary (left alone), and two weeks secondary (dry hopped), then bottle. Maybe 1 or 2 ounces of cascade? I feel like I should stick with cascade so the hop character is consistent. Any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated.

Scot_chale said:

doing some calculating has shown me that i will have to add an extra 1oz of cascade (roughly 5.75% AA) to the bittering addition to get it to around 45 IBUs- which is where summit is at. Now, If I add another pound of Light DME to the boil, that will increase my gravity, and lower my IBU. I couldn't find a calculator to help me figure out what that change will be. Also, I'm only guessing that the 1oz of cascade at the last 1 minute of the boil will not come through the way they intend if I add this extra pound of DME, so dry hopping will help. I'm thinking two weeks primary, two weeks secondary (left alone), and two weeks secondary (dry hopped), then bottle. Maybe 1 or 2 ounces of cascade? I feel like I should stick with cascade so the hop character is consistent. Any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated.

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If you are going for Summit EPA this recipe will get you alot closer. First Summit EPA bitters with Horizon hops and flavors with Cascade and aroma with Cascade and fuggles. One thing you have to keep in mind too is that Summit EPA ferments this beer very dry. You do not have that luxurying extract so your beer will have a bit more body and not quite as high of alcohol but it will be a real good beer with alot of hop character. Vert sessionable.

I didnt ask what yeast you are using. I would recommend Wyeast 1056 with a 1 liter starter. You can also use Safeale US05 dry yeast.

If you are doing a partial boil I would recommend that you start you boil with 2-3 lbs of your liquid extract and then add the rest at 15 minutes. If you are doing a full boil just add it all at once.

Leave your beer in primary for 3 weeks. Then add the dryhops for a week. Then add your priming sugar and bottle for at least 2 weeks and you should be good to go. Let me know if you have any questions.

NB Extra Pale Ale
American Amber Ale
Type: Extract Date: 2/2/2013
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal Brewer:
Boil Size: 2.30 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Pot ( 3 Gal/11.4 L) - Extract
End of Boil Volume 2.08 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 4.75 gal Est Mash Efficiency 0.0 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients


Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 13.3 %
8.0 oz Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 2 6.7 %
6 lbs Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 3 80.0 %
1.00 oz Horizon [12.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 27.7 IBUs
1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 5 11.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 6 4.6 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 7 0.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 8 0.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 9 -
1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 10 0.0 IBUs

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.048 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.8 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Bitterness: 44.8 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 7.4 SRM

This was also my first beer ever made, Snisup!

4 weeks way too long, I mean you could leave it there, but two, three weeks max. I've modified an AG version with a little more "extras" but keep the SG close just so I can have it kegged, forced carbed and drinkable in 3 weeks as my house ale.

very cool- thanks for the input guys. i'm ordering my ingredients this week so i'll do a little more digging and let you all know what I decide.

You could add some corn sugar late in the boil to help add some dryness. Summit EPA is one of my favorite beers (which I have family bring to Alabama when they visit!).

I am interested to see how your final recipe comes out compared to summit!

I am going to follow the hop recommendations previously stated, I'm going to add 1lb of DME at 20 minutes, and go with northern brewer's specialty grain bill. I'm also going to add 1/3 of the malt at the beginning, and the rest at the last 20 minutes. I've had a lot of problems with color lately, and I think this will solve that problem. Wyeast 1056 will be used, smack pack style. I haven't gotten to the point where I'm making yeast starters yet, but that's next on my agenda. I was going to brew it 2 weeks from now, but the Irish Red is currently sold out, so i'm moving this up to this sunday. Either way, I think it's going to be a good beer. We have it for sale in 6 packs, and on tap in town, so I'll make sure my taste buds are good and educated on it for when mine is done. I'll keep you all posted as to how it goes.

I just checked and the clone recipe and NB recipe use the same grain bill, so that's cool. The only thing i'm doing different is using gold malt syrup instead of pale and a full pound of DME instead of half.

Brewed on 2/10 without any problems. I changed the hop additions to the previously stated clone. temperature was perfect for pitching and the wyeast 1056 was as inflated as it can get. 12 hours and lots of air lock activity. My question now is with the 1.5oz Cascade that i'm going to dry hop with, should I add it right away at secondary? wait a couple weeks? I want it in secondary for 4 weeks either way, I'm just not sure when I should dry hop. Any suggestions?

Scot_chale said:

Brewed on 2/10 without any problems. I changed the hop additions to the previously stated clone. temperature was perfect for pitching and the wyeast 1056 was as inflated as it can get. 12 hours and lots of air lock activity. My question now is with the 1.5oz Cascade that i'm going to dry hop with, should I add it right away at secondary? wait a couple weeks? I want it in secondary for 4 weeks either way, I'm just not sure when I should dry hop. Any suggestions?

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I dry hop for 7 days. I would put it in the last week of your secondary.

I tested the gravity after 4 and 6 days and it was 1.010 consistently. It puts me at 6%abv. I racked it and dry hopped right away and will bottle after 8 days. The taste and color are perfect, and the aroma was right, but not as pungent as I'm hoping for- which dry hopping should fix. I haven't had that high of an alcohol content happen as quickly before, but the health of the yeast and temperature of the wort probably had something to do with it. Like I say, I'm gonna bottle it this sunday and see how it turns out. It seems wreckless to me to only do 1 week primary and 1 week secondary, but it tastes good! so if a great recipe has been discovered with a short fermentation period, I'd say that's a good problem.

keep us poste on how it turns out.

Bottled on 2/24. Only got 1 case+7 bottles. Lots of trub in primary, and dry hopping seemed to eat a lot of volume. came out right around 3 gallons. I was kinda bummed out, but abv is at 6.02% and it looked, smelled, and tasted great. Can anyone explain why I could be having volume loss? This has happened more than once, but then I also bottled an Irish red on 2/25 that I was 3 bottles shy of 2 cases. Carbonating is underway with the summit clone though, and i will keep you posted on tasting notes after carbonating, and again after cold conditioning. Cheers.

just started cold conditioning yesterday. The aroma is huge, the color is just what I was aiming for, head retention is good, and the flavor is right on. Changing the bittering hop to horizon was the ticket for sure. The only thing I'd change is go from 1 week primary to 2 weeks. I thought since it was done fermenting that it was ready to rack, but if I had at least cold crashed the fermenter or let it sit another week I would have had better volume retention. I only got 31 12oz bottles out of the batch. Also, I have little experience dry hopping, and so I just pitched them directly into secondary without a sack and it was a hop cake on top of the beer for the week that it sat in there. It seemed like that ate up some volume too. I'll use a hop sack when dry hopping from now on, and give every batch 2 weeks in primary or cold crash the fermenter. I'll have a proper tasting review after a couple weeks of cold conditioning.