SimCade Pale Ale

SimCade Pale Ale

A super-easy extract brew that smells and tastes AMAZING! The light Crystal with the Simcoe really allows the orange/tangerine/passionfruit characteristics of the hops to come through to the front. The 1272 yeast gives the beer a tart fruitness that in my opinion accentuates the Simcoe superbly. The Cascade dryhop just spikes the aroma that much more.

The ones I'm drinking now (2 months after bottling) taste the best. Don't rush this one once bottled. It tastes like a completely different beer than the ones I tried a month ago. SWMBO and a few friends have given this one raves so I decided to post this as my first recipe. This is a nice alternative for extract hop heads that want a nice, simple hoppy APA without the big bitterness of their IPAs.

WATER
5 gallon batch / 2.5 gallon boil. I used Chicago tap water filtered through a Brita water pitcher.

STEEPING GRAINS
1 lb. Crystal (20 lovibond)
.5 lb. Carapils

Steep in a grain bag for 20 mins. @ 165 degrees.

EXTRACT
Bring to a boil. Once boiling, remove from flame and add
1 lb. Light Dry Malt Extract

Stir in and dissolve. Once dissolved, return to flame and bring back to a boil. Once boiling add:

HOPS

1 oz. Simcoe pellets (11.9% alpha acid) 60 min

This is your only hop addition until you hit the 20 min mark. Then add the rest of your Extract. Remove from flame.

LATE EXTRACT ADDITION
5 lbs. Light Dry Malt Extract
Stir in and dissolve. Once dissolved, return to flame and bring back to a boil. Once boiling reset your timer for 20 mins. When you get to 15 mins, add:

HOPS
.5 oz. Simcoe pellets (11.9% alpha acid) 15 min
.5 oz. Simcoe pellets (11.9% alpha acid) 5 min

Cool your wort as fast as you can by your preferred method. Strain out your hops on the way to the fermenter by your preferred method and top off to 5 gallons. Aerate by your preferred method and add your fully swollen smackpack of Wyeast 1272.

Ferment for 10-14 days. (1272 is a bit slower than the 1056 and will usually slow down and pick up a few times. This is normal). Once done, rack to secondary.

Secondary for 3 weeks, then add dryhops.

DRYHOP
1.2 oz. Cascade pellets (4.9% alpha acid)

Dryhop for one final week in secondary and then rack to bottle or keg.


I'll try to post a pic by the end of the weekend...also, my calculations were done in Tasybrew, so might be slighlty off. If someone with BeerSmith wants to plug in the recipe and post it, please feel free...

Pics came out a little darker than the brew actually is. But here you go...

I'm going to try brewing this. I've got a ton of Simcoe hops and want to make a pale ale, so this looks like a good fit. Thanks.

Sounds tasty.
How did this turn out? One of your better pale ale's or just unique because of the all simcoe hops? How does it compare to the Weyerbacher Brewing Co. Double Simcoe IPA? Oh yeah one more thing, , do you think 6lbs of malt was too much or did it balance out because of the long fermentation time?
Thanks, just asking a few questions before I go shopping. Any advice is appreciated.

Turned out pretty great. Not the best Pale Ale I've ever made, but very good. I don't use Simcoe a lot so I really liked the "change of pace" this Pale Ale gave me. Basically I was tired of using Wyeast 1056 in nearly everything and wanted to try the American II yeast and wanted to sort of showcase a single high alpha hop. The cascade dryhop was mainly just because I had a pound of Cascade pellets to make use of. If I had more Simcoe at the time I would've probably dryhopped with it instead. Also went with the lightest crystal I could, again just because I wanted to make a pale ale alternative to my Cascade Pale Ale and my house IPA recipe both of which use 60L.

It's definitely not the most balanced Pale Ale in the world as the characteristics of the Simcoe are really at the forefront and the IBUs aren't really in line with traditional style, but that's pretty much what I was going for. I think 6lbs of DME worked out fine. The longer bottle conditioning made a big difference as the hops mellowed a bit over those weeks. It really did taste like a completely different beer at 6 weeks bottled vs. 3 weeks. So if you can stash it away and be patient with it, it'll pay off.

I think I'm brewing something similar to this again today. Though my local shop was out of 1272 the other day, so I think I'm using 1056. I've got a couple of different IPAs bottled right now and a Strong Red Ale in secondary that is a cross between Jamil's Evil Twin recipe and what I'm hoping is a Great Lakes Nosferatu clone...so everything I have on deck right now is quite hoppy and I'm just about out of my last batch of my Cascade Pale. So I think it's time for this one again and can crack 'em open right around June.

wow, thanks for the great reply I love the simco hops so I might have to give it a shot. My only problem is my patience level... I need to get a couple kegs going so I can let one sit for a while if it makes a big difference.