American Pale Ale Bee Cave Brewery Haus Pale Ale

many things to look for def. do a search on efficiency.
not enough stirring, poor crush, channeling (if you did fly) too fast on the drain (fly)
Dropping 5˚ is quite a bit, maybe your cooler needs more insulation.

bdavanza said:

Dropping 5˚ is quite a bit, maybe your cooler needs more insulation.

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I agree. You should preheat the cooler with a gallon or two of hot tap water for 15 to 30 minutes before you start your mash. That helps to not draw the heat from the mash.

]I missed the strike temp, started at 155 and it dropped to 150 over the course of the hour.

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+1 to pre-heating the cooler. Just heat your strike water about 12-15 degrees higher than your calculated strike temp. Add that to the mash tun and leave it for 5 mins, lid closed. Then stir it until it's down to the strike temp you need and stir in your grains.

Try wrapping some blankets around the cooler while it's mashing, and don't open it until it's done. Doing all of the above, my mash loses less than 1 degree in an hour.

masonsjax said:

+1 to pre-heating the cooler. Just heat your strike water about 12-15 degrees higher than your calculated strike temp. Add that to the mash tun and leave it for 5 mins, lid closed. Then stir it until it's down to the strike temp you need and stir in your grains.

Try wrapping some blankets around the cooler while it's mashing, and don't open it until it's done. Doing all of the above, my mash loses less than 1 degree in an hour.

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I did pre-heat with boiliing water for 10 mins before mashing and wrapped in towels... the cooler loses a bit of heat where the lid handle is carved into the lip of the lid.

BUT... I think I figured out what the problem was:

I lautered and sparged at full throttle... that is, I cranked the ball valve all the way open. From what I've been reading up on, one should lauter and sparge slowly.

Would this practice really have accounted for the apparent lack of efficiency?

EDIT: grammar and spelling

Williamston-
Lauter and sparge at full throttle will make a small difference if you are batch sparging, and a huge difference if you are fly sparging. We don't know what method you use, or what kind of manifold/braid/false bottom you have. Grain crush has had the biggest difference in efficiency for me.

I use a SS braid in a 48qt rubbermaid, and drain as fast as it will go. The only batch I had real efficiency problems with was when I miscalculated the sparge volumes and ended up with some water left in the mash after hitting my pre-boil volume. Luckily, I still wasn't too far off though.

There are a million variables that can effect your efficiency. The crush is a big factor. There could have been dough balls still, or water chemistry might be off, you didn't boil strong enough, or long enough, or your thermometer is mis-calibrated, forgot to stir batch sparge water into the mash, immersion chiller leaks water into the kettle, etc.. If you're like me and drink too much while brewing, it's easy to overlook little things too. No matter what happens, you usually end up with decent beer in the end, so if we just keep at it, eventually we'll nail down our process pretty well.

Congrats on your first all-grain batch! It's a good one.

I am using a 10 gallon Coleman chest-style cooler with a stainless steel braid. The thermometer is right on, it's a digital probe style.

Water was a factor I had considered. The brew fermented away really vigorously and rapidly at about 72 degrees. I think it'll turn out right. Perhaps, until I pinpoint the problem, I can compensate by adding more grain?

I didn't stir too often during the mash, maybe 3 times. I batch sparged.

I mash in a thin aluminum (high heat conduction) pot, and after 1 hour in the pot the mash loses less than a degree of heat with ambient temps ranging 60-70f.

I'm guessing stirring may have been a problem. When you put your grain into the hot water for the first time, you need to make sure you stir it so it doesn't clump up into gooey "dough balls" that are impervious to water. What you want is the grain to form a slushy mixture. You want it all to flow freely. I stir quite often at the beginning of the mash to make sure all the grains are hydrated. That's what you're going after. Partial hydration results in gooey dough balls.

Furthermore, stirring homogenizes the temperature, because the grain starts out at ambient temperature and draws heat from the water thereby decreasing the temperature of the mash (and perhaps accounting for your temperature loss).

Anyways, once I find where to get stainless steel washers, I'm going to try this recipe unadulterated Texas style for my first run with cooler mashing.

Did this batch as the second batch of a double brew day. Didn't have to think too much about it, just brewed it up! Thanks for the recipe.

Speaking of not thinking, I just realized I didn't add the yeast nutrient or the Irish Moss. Guess I was just brewing in classic Ed style - Reinheitsgebot!

Does anyone know of a website that sells all of the ingredients for the extract version?

The best I've found is Morebeer.com, but they only have:
7 LB Ultralight Malt $16.10
Crystal 15L - 1 lb Milled $3.40
Cascade Pellets (2 oz @ 5.6%) $7.00
Nottingham Ale (11g) $1.60

This is way off of the posted recipe. The Cascade pellets are only 5.6%, so I figured that 2 pack of hops will work, but increase the bitterness pretty sharply.

Will the different kind of Crystal Malt and the extra 0.5# of ultralight malt severely affect the finish product?

Also, Austin HomeBrew is the only place I found that sells Munich, but they don't have all of the other items!

elbajista said:

Does anyone know of a website that sells all of the ingredients for the extract version?

The best I've found is Morebeer.com, but they only have:
7 LB Ultralight Malt $16.10
Crystal 15L - 1 lb Milled $3.40
Cascade Pellets (2 oz @ 5.6%) $7.00
Nottingham Ale (11g) $1.60

This is way off of the posted recipe. The Cascade pellets are only 5.6%, so I figured that 2 pack of hops will work, but increase the bitterness pretty sharply.

Will the different kind of Crystal Malt and the extra 0.5# of ultralight malt severely affect the finish product?

Also, Austin HomeBrew is the only place I found that sells Munich, but they don't have all of the other items!

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you should probably pm this one as a lot of the flavor comes from malt that can't be steeped.

just my $0.02

anyone brew this AG using WPL 001?

im thinking of doing that next weekend.

CaliBrewin said:

anyone brew this AG using WPL 001?

im thinking of doing that next weekend.

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I believe that's the same thing as s-05 and wyeast 1056, so it would work well as a notty alternative according to edwort.

But I don't use white labs so I could be mixed up the strain number

My second batch is bottled and has cleared up nicely,




Curt

I picked up all the business for this one, rocking 5 gallons tommorrow. Looks good, love me some Cascade.

fishkid said:

My second batch is bottled and has cleared up nicely,

Curt

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Now how are you gonna get your bottle of Fermcap outta that bottle of beer! You got a problem there!

I just brewed this today as my first All Grain Brew.

Session went well considering it was my first outdoor session as well. I was a little disorganized with the outdoor session. All in all, good session.

Hit my OG at 1.049. Brewsmith tells me I had a 70% Efficiency. Not too shabby IMO. I slapped an airlock on there, but may go down and change out to a blowoff tube just in case.

Thanks for the easy to use recipe Ed.

JohnnyO said:

I just brewed this today as my first All Grain Brew.

Session went well considering it was my first outdoor session as well. I was a little disorganized with the outdoor session. All in all, good session.

Hit my OG at 1.049. Brewsmith tells me I had a 70% Efficiency. Not too shabby IMO. I slapped an airlock on there, but may go down and change out to a blowoff tube just in case.

Thanks for the easy to use recipe Ed.

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I brewed this today as my first all-grain, and I had 72% efficiency. My cooler mlt isn't finished yet, so I decided to use bags (paint-straining, 5 gallon). My final color was a bit more copper than I had expected - though I brewed a summer ale about 6 or 7 weeks ago and it had the same color straight out of the kettle. It cleared to a nice pale color after secondary and bottling. So I'm not going to worry much about this.

I'm about ready to pitch and let the yeast take over the work.

I'm at about 27 hours post pitching and I have heavy activity. Probably my heaviest yet. Without a wort cooler, I used an ice bath in the kitchen sink and brought it down to about 77F before I pitched my yeast.

I have it stored in the basement where it is 68-70F. The sticky thermometer on my primary is reading 79-80F. Should I put this in a water bath with an ice bottle?

Here's a video I took earlier (my first youtube post):

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cXtB-tlkbc]YouTube - Fermentation Day 2[/ame]

I erred on the side of caution and created a swamp cooler. Cleaned the krausen out of the airlock And blowoff tube too.

I love homebrewing. I must have stared at the blowoff for 30 minutes today!

this is going to be my first all grain.

got all the necessary goodies today.

only dfference is ill be using WLP001.

super excited!

JohnnyO
Fermentation creates heat so yes a mild ice bath and or swamp cooler is a way to keep the temps down. You really want to be under 70˚ for the yeast to do it's job without producing off flavors. That being said I brewed for years fermenting at room temps in the 75˚ range and liked them but now knowing better, my beers have improved.

So...this is a great beer. But...anyone else thinking this would make a nice palette to play with? Anyone add anything to this like a fruit or a spice? Bitter orange? Grains of paradise? I know it is perfect as a pale ale, I'm just thinking what else could I do with it?

Well.. sampled my first batch of this brew last night... and it was my first bad-batch of beer. Very, very estery, and not at all in a good way. As John Palmer says in his How to Brew site "sometimes a beer comes along that could flag down a troop of monkeys."

I posted to this thread a few weeks ago that my fermentation took a long time to start. Used Nottingham and just didn't take off. Not sure if I had a bad batch of yeast, or if a wild yeast took over. My fermentation temps should have been pretty good. We were out of town for a few days, but ambient temp didn't get above 70 during that time. Not sure if anyone has other thoughts as to possible causes.

I'm planning to try this recipe again to see if I can avoid this problem next time! Gotta get back on that horse!

Sent this to the keg today.
SG - 1.050
FG - 1.010



Needs to clear a bit, not sure I'll be able to wait as long as Ed says to.....

Easy recipe, inexpensive, and a good beer to boot. I am going to brew this beer every other brew.

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.

I think it could be bad because of 3 possible reasons;
- I used tap water for this. First time used tap water and not store bought spring water (even for AG).
- Despite swamp cooler could have fermented at a temp too high.
- First yeast I pitched was bad and nothing after 72 hours, so I had to pitch a second packet.

Does anyone know what efficiency this recipe is for the original recipe?

Brutus Brewer said:

Does anyone know what efficiency this recipe is for the original recipe?

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You must have missed it right?

"This recipe is calculated at 75% efficiency."

I did, thanks

Richie said:

- Despite swamp cooler could have fermented at a temp too high.

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What temperature was the room at?
The swamp cooler will bring the fermenter temp down some but if it's too hot in the room, it won't be enough.

Memorex88 said:

What temperature was the room at?
The swamp cooler will bring the fermenter temp down some but if it's too hot in the room, it won't be enough.

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The room temp was about 76-78. I figured the swamp cooler brought it down to around the 68 required. I don't know how i managed to take Ed's pale ale recipe and end up with something which looks like a witbier!

Richie said:

The room temp was about 76-78. I figured the swamp cooler brought it down to around the 68 required. I don't know how i managed to take Ed's pale ale recipe and end up with something which looks like a witbier!

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Ya it should have been darker regardless of the temperature.

I am upgrading to 10gal batches and I felt nothing would be better than BCB Haus Pale Ale. I bought 2 kits from Brewmasters Warehouse and I am almost finished tricking out my keggle. (SS Valve and Syphon Tube)
I just doubled everything in Brewsmith and updated my equipment profile.
Is it as simple as doubling the recipe or is there some other tweaking that I should know about?

Cheers!

Breaking in the new brewery with this baby right now! thanks Ed!

I did this as my second extract brew. I finally bottled this one after 2 weeks in primary and 3 in secondary. Finished at 1.020. Tastes very estery -- bananas and other off flavors, nearly hoegaarden flavors. I don't know if it will all mellow out and be drinkable in a month.
Would there be a more appropriate style to call this beer, knowing it fermented at 75-80º?

I'm not ready for all grain yet, but I'm going to retry this as a PM and do a full boil on my new bayou burner

I'll be brewing this for the first time tomorrow (mini mash version). I'm hoping to brew a harvest version after this, on the day I harvest my hops... just thought I'd try it first to make sure I like it. How could I not, eh?

The mini mash went flawlessly (love that technique) and I'm half way through the boil. "Working from home" on a Friday has never been better.

Hello all,

I've been a long time forum lurker, but first time posting. So, I made the switch from PM/Extract to AG a few weeks ago and decided to brew this as my first AG batch. I usually keg my batches, but I bottled this so I could give some to a friend. The beer turned out 'excellent'. The only thing I did different was add another addition of bittering hops, which gave it an extra bite at the end.

Also, this beer turned out very golden in color, which looks great BTW. Thank you for the recipe, I'll be making another batch of this soon.

Made this lastnight. I hit 1.040 on my OG and also came up way short on my wort when I drained into my brew kettles. I ended up boiling/cooling another gallon so I could get the amount up to 5.5 gallons. I wonder if that is why I came up low in my OG..?

I've brewed this recipe several times and it is consistent, very economical and delicious! I was thinking of doing a fall spice beer, maybe a pumpkin ale, and thought that this recipe might be a good starting point. A little lighter than typical pumpkin ales, but I think if the spices were held to a minimum, it might turn out really good. Thoughts?