Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale #1

Saw the recipe for this recently when founder Ken Grossman visited my class. He had a slide show and posted his first 8 or so Pale Ale recipes. I should have wrote it down, but I know the first ingredient was 8 1/3 lbs of LME. I know that it was from Blue Ribbon extract (later called/bought by? Pabst). There were a total of 2 oz hops, but the handwriting was a little sloppy and I wasn't able to write it down in time.

It's always great to see good breweries starting where most of us started.

I'm a little tipsy right now, so if this thread is irrelevant to you, I apologize. I just thought it was cool.

That's pretty cool. I would be interested to see how the recipe for SNPA has evolved from the original.

FWIW, here is the extract recipe for the 1982 original Pale Ale:

OG 1.051
FG 1.016
IBU 38-40
7 SRM

6.5 American light LME
8 oz American crystal malt
1 oz Cluster hops (60 min)
1 oz Cascade hops (30 min)
3/4 oz Tettnanger (or Santiam) hops (30 min)
1/2 oz Cascade hops (1 min)
1/2 oz Tettnanger (or Santiam) hops (1 min)
1/4 tsp powdered Irish Moss
Wyeast #1056

copied from Microbrewed Adventures by Charlie Papazian

I can post the AG recipe too if anyone's interested.

I guess I may have been looking at a different version of the PA. IIRC, it called for 8 1/3 lbs LME, but this could have been PA #2-#7. They changed the recipe so much from the starting point, but I would want to see what the first beer they came up with to spark the idea.

DrunkbobSanspants said:

I can post the AG recipe too if anyone's interested.

Click to expand...

yes please

I was actually at the brewery today for lunch. My sons in college in Chico, and we go there several times a month. Great place.

ruffdeezy said:

yes please

Click to expand...

5 gallon recipe

8 lbs. 2-row American pale malt
8 oz. American crystal malt
3/4 oz Cluster hops (60 min)
3/4 oz Cascade hops (30 min)
1/2 oz Tettnanger (or Santiam) hops (30 min)
1/2 oz Cascade hops (1 min)
1/2 oz Tettnanger (or Santiam) hops (1 min)
1/4 tsp powdered Irish Moss
Wyeast #1056

honestly that seems like way too many ingredients from the recipe I saw... His first recipe was:

LME
Hops
Hops
Hops
OG
FG
Quick notes about the process.


It was very simple and certainly didn't have irish moss in it

As far as I remember, it was dry yeast, not liquid yeast too.

Recipe I use,

10lbs 2-row
1lb 60L
.20 oz nugget 60 min.
1 oz Pearl 60 min.
1 oz Cascade 20 min.
1 oz Cascade 10 min. aroma
1 oz Cascade or Centennial dry hop 7 days (pellets and no bags)
1 whirlfloc at 15 min.
1Tbl 5.2 stabilizer mash 60 min.
1056 with 1250ml starter
mash 153 60 min. double batch sparge= 1.053 OG @ 80%
IBU 41, SRM 8.8, 7.25 boil, 6.00 gal to fermenter
I grind my own grains to get the 80% eff.

This tastes real close.

By the way, this isn't for the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone. This was for their first example of SNPA. It's what got them started. I want to know THAT beer.