BC style pale ale - Your thoughts and advise please

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

DroolingNeoBrewery

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2012
Messages
152
Reaction score
3
Location
Coquitlam
This is my current draft of a BC style pale ale that I am going to brew for my office Christmas party. Will be doing 2 5 gallons batches as I can't do a boil large enough to do 10 gallons. I am hoping to be able to ferment for 10 - 12 days and keg/force carb and chill for 5 days and then be able to serve. This will also be the first time kegging for me.

Recipe: BC Pale Ale
Style: Special/Best/Premium Bitter
TYPE: Partial Mash

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 18.93 L
Boil Size: 21.67 L
Estimated OG: 1.047 SG
Estimated Color: 9.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 26.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 56.9 %
2.00 lb Maris Otter (4.0 SRM) Grain 28.4 %
0.50 lb Carastan 35L (35.0 SRM) Grain 7.1 %
0.03 lb Pale Chocolate Malt (275.0 SRM) Grain 0.4 %
20.00 gm Northern Brewer (Canada) [9.00%] (60 min)Hops 23.8 IBU
7.00 gm Fuggles [4.50%] (20 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
2.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
0.50 lb Turbinado (10.0 SRM) Sugar 7.1 %
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 2.53 lb
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Saccharification Add 3.16 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F 60 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min 168.0 F 10 min


Notes:
------
Malt forward BC style pale ale meant to appeal to a broad range of beer drinkers. This is a common style of beer here and will be familure to everyone.
Keeping IBUs down so as to not scare the Molson/Labatt and BMC drinkers.


Update:

Label for Kegs Made:

washooolabel2.jpg
 
Perhaps I should be more specific.

Do you think 2 weeks in the fermenter, and two weeks in the kegs under pressure @ 45 - 50F will be enough to make this beer drinkable?
Should I use some kind of clearing agent after the gravity stabilizes? Or drop the gravity a bit? I do a mild at 1.040 that is drinkable at 2 weeks, even though its just going into the bottles.

What about the hops? Most beer even craft beer up hear in Canada is very lightly hopped. The most well known IPA (Alexander keiths) has about as much hop presence as Budweiser. Unless they are fans of the local brew pub most people I work with don't know what hops taste like. (and the Nobel Pig seriously over uses Syrian Goldings, to the point were I wont use them in my own brewing)

NOTE: I know time is the best answer, I wanted to have more but I don't. It took time to find a CO2 supplier willing to fill my tank and not make me buy a 20lb exchange tank for 200 something bucks. Then I had to get a proposal together for the owners of the company I work for (already fans of my beer). Long store short all of the ingredients are paid for and some of the kegging equipment is paid for by my company the rest is going on my company line of credit at 0%.
 
As I am in Nelson BC I look forward to reading your recipe thoroughly. Let me say at the outset however that a couple of my employees have taken the "Serving It Right" course here and their descriptions of the liability chain that occurs if someone gives someone a drink and that someone goes out and kills someone else or themselves is so scary that I would never bring anything alcoholic to an office party for fear of winding up as an accessory to a manslaughter charge. Just sayin"!!!!
 
2.00 lb Maris Otter (4.0 SRM) Grain 28.4 %
0.50 lb Carastan 35L (35.0 SRM) Grain 7.1 %
0.03 lb Pale Chocolate Malt (275.0 SRM) Grain 0.4 %
20.00 gm Northern Brewer (Canada) [9.00%] (60 min)Hops 23.8 IBU
7.00 gm Fuggles [4.50%] (20 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
2.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
0.50 lb Turbinado (10.0 SRM) Sugar 7.1 %
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 2.53 lb
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Saccharification Add 3.16 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F 60 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min 168.0 F 10 min


Notes:
------
Malt forward BC style pale ale meant to appeal to a broad range of beer drinkers. This is a common style of beer here and will be familure to everyone.
Keeping IBUs down so as to not scare the Molson/Labatt and BMC drinkers.

Do you normally do partial mashes? I was just wondering because it would be easier to just up the malt extract and steep the crystal and chocolate.

The recipe sounds good to me, but I would probably up the amount of finishing hops and boil them for less time (maybe 10 mins instead of 20). I'm not a big fan of Fuggles, so I would probably just go with more Northern Brewer at the end. Just my $0.02. :)

Post a pic of a pint of this beer whenever you make it!

Cheers!
 
As I am in Nelson BC I look forward to reading your recipe thoroughly. Let me say at the outset however that a couple of my employees have taken the "Serving It Right" course here and their descriptions of the liability chain that occurs if someone gives someone a drink and that someone goes out and kills someone else or themselves is so scary that I would never bring anything alcoholic to an office party for fear of winding up as an accessory to a manslaughter charge. Just sayin"!!!!

Our office always supplies the liquor and the rides home. It will not be me serving the beer to any one. I am just making it, the company paid for all the ingredients. There is no reason anyone will be driving. Quite frankly those 10 g will be a drop in the bucket compared to all the coolers, shots, cocktails, etc being consumed.

We work hard, we play harder.
 
Do you normally do partial mashes? I was just wondering because it would be easier to just up the malt extract and steep the crystal and chocolate.

The recipe sounds good to me, but I would probably up the amount of finishing hops and boil them for less time (maybe 10 mins instead of 20). I'm not a big fan of Fuggles, so I would probably just go with more Northern Brewer at the end. Just my $0.02. :)

Post a pic of a pint of this beer whenever you make it!

Cheers!

I considered it but the way the price of extract works out makes this way is significantly cheaper. And yes I normally do mini mashes, they are very little extra work, save some money and if your using something other then just 2 row as the base malt provide a closer flavour to the all grain version.

I will post pics. Probably a link to the company blog. Going to take pics step by step from grain to glass for a company blog post. We're an e commerce company so any content gets search engine traffic, and etc etc I don't want to get into SEO nonsense that's what I do at work.
 
Having had some time to look it over I'd say your recipe is going to give you a nice version of BC Pale. I agree that a small amount of Maris Otter is going to up the chance of producing a nice rounded graininess.

The only thing I would do differently would be to perhaps replace the Fuggles with one of the Northwest variety of hops. Wilammette is close to Fuggles with more aroma. Or perhaps one of the citrusy strains like Simcoe or Citra.
 
Having had some time to look it over I'd say your recipe is going to give you a nice version of BC Pale. I agree that a small amount of Maris Otter is going to up the chance of producing a nice rounded graininess.

The only thing I would do differently would be to perhaps replace the Fuggles with one of the Northwest variety of hops. Wilammette is close to Fuggles with more aroma. Or perhaps one of the citrusy strains like Simcoe or Citra.

I was working from a recipe that used cascade as the finishing hop. But I don't like cascade or the other citrusy ones really. I never though of Willamette though.... damn I already got the ingredients. I know they grow Fuggles in BC to though and I quite like them.

Got all my ingredients and kegging stuff today in the mail (except the LME I'll get that tomorrow). Going to brew on Saturday.
 
Got the LME but ****ed up and took a container that's to small going to have to sub in some golden DME I have and up the Turbinado a touch to meet my OG.

Double brew day tomorrow. Plus cleaning kegs, really they couldn't even wash the pepsi out of the damn things?
 
That could end up a serendipitous mistake, with some additional complexity in the final product. Let us know.

Could be yup. Def made it cost more....

First batch in the fermenter, yeast pitched. OG 1.050. Second batch is coming to a boil.

Hydro sample was yummy! I think I hit my IBU's dead on.


Edit:

Done! 10.5 gallons in fermenters. Mild is kegged and under pressure.

Also I am never doing two batches in one day again.... Ow my... everything....
SWMBO I less then impressed too.... Fortunately she works for the same company and is already looking forward to drinking this beer
 
Finally got both kegged/carbing up here's the hydro sample from batch 1. Its not showing exactly right in the pic both batches finished at 1.008 and taste the same. They are nearly perfect, I think after carbing they will be perfect. But already very drinkable, and malty. Just like a good BC pale ale should be! Crystal clear.

washooo-hydro-sample.jpg
 
Washooo Pale Ale was a hug hit! The first keg was dead in 2 hours! The second was pretty much dead by midnight (about 3 hours for that one).

Sorry the only pics I managed to get are in those classy red solo cups (but you can see colour and clarity in the hydro sample anyway). Those beers in the cups had been there for about 10 minutes or longer. It had great head retention, an nice copper colour, and a nice lighter body. Very sessionable. Both my wife and I had a few glasses. Some people had much more then that.... The Picture of people is just at the start. About 6 in the evening. I had just tapped the first keg.

kegs of washooo.jpg


people drinking washooo.jpg


cups of washooo.jpg
 
This video is much later in the evening.

[ame="http://youtu.be/0nxXFVHRZv4"][YOUTUBE]"Gotta Sell a Chair"[/YOUTUBE][/ame]

This is the Vice President/Co owner/CFO of Wholesale Furniture Brokers (www.gowfb.com or www.gowfb.ca). The company I work for. I have no idea how much washooo he had had by this point....
 
BC is the only place I know (other than Japan) where people take their shoes off to walk on a hardwood floor. Congrats on your successful BCPA. You have certainly advanced the cause! I plan a version using homegrown hops early next year.
 
RobertRGeorge said:
BC is the only place I know (other than Japan) where people take their shoes off to walk on a hardwood floor. Congrats on your successful BCPA. You have certainly advanced the cause! I plan a version using homegrown hops early next year.

Thats because we dont want to track this in the house

image-4288767782.jpg
 
Dude is this place for real? The price on that sectional with ottoman is unreal


Yup we are for real. Have been in business for 10 years as of Aug 2012. The mark up on furniture on stores is insane. We only stock what moves fast, the rest we drop ship that's why we can do it so cheap. If you mention you found the site through the Washooo Pale Ale post and your user name I can probably get you a further discount too.


You have certainly advanced the cause! I plan a version using homegrown hops early next year.

That sounds amazing! What are you growing?

I haven't just added to the BCPA cause, but home brewing in general. Not everyone had had my beer before that party. Some were sceptical that home brew could be good, let alone amazing. Our office party's are open to all, so there where even some parents there. One old guy didn't believe it was home made, he kept trying to get me to give him the brand name. I switched many palm bay/premix cocktail drinkers to drinking my beer. And one girl who normally only drinks red wine was double fisted. Wine in one hand, Washooo in the other. "Its like candy!" she said.
 
DroolingNeoBrewery said:
That background in that pic looks familiar:p are you in the BC interior? Or slightly farther north?

You guessed it, kelowna BC up in black mountain
 
That sounds amazing! What are you growing?

I haven't just added to the BCPA cause, but home brewing in general. Not everyone had had my beer before that party. Some were sceptical that home brew could be good, let alone amazing. Our office party's are open to all, so there where even some parents there. One old guy didn't believe it was home made, he kept trying to get me to give him the brand name. I switched many palm bay/premix cocktail drinkers to drinking my beer. And one girl who normally only drinks red wine was double fisted. Wine in one hand, Washooo in the other. "Its like candy!" she said.

I have Nugget, Willamette, Golding and something I call Feral Fuggle. It is apparently the offspring of whatever hops they grew around here when the Columbia Brewing Company operated in Nelson. They've sprung up all over town, and I dug up a big piece of root from a notably robust plant downtown and planted it in my garden. There used to be a website that showed pictures of the various hop strains leaves and cones, and Fuggle was the closest. I also decided Fuggle because it was most likely common back then as a British hop.

For the BCPA I plan to bitter and flavor with a combo of Nugget and Willamette, and finish with the Feral.

I've converted a few skeptics to homebrew too. The days of dump-and-stir BC homebrewing are fading fast.
 
Back
Top