Successfull Brew Day - First APA

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Bosium

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
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Location
Essex, UK. Formerly Cape Town, ZA
Hi All,

I haven't taken pictures whilst brewing for ages, so thought I'd whip out the ol' camera and snap a few for my brew day yesterday in case anyone was interested.

It's a modfied version of Edwort's Haus Pale Ale, my first APA ever (what with me not actually being in the USA)

Recipe: (Apologies for the metric'isms)

Gary's Haus APA (24.5L, 76% efficiency):

4.0kg Maris Otter (70%)
1.2kg Vienna Malt (21%)
250g Flaked barley (4.5%)
250g CaraMunich (Crystal 45) (4.5%)

Hops (All cascade 8%AA):

35gm First Wort Hopped, boiled 45 mins (24.4 IBU)
30gm 15 mins (10.3 IBU)
30gm 5 mins (4.1 IBU)
Will dry hop for a week with another 30gms when done.

OG 1.053
IBU 38.7 (beersmith, tinseth formula)

I used 2x dry packets of Notty, fermenting at 14.C (58.F). I know that's very low but I'm trying to achieve a super-clean beer.



Unfortunately, my new-design hop strainer's siphon didn't work too well, so I strained the crud at the bottom of my kettle to get another 3L of wort. I boiled it for 5 mins, chilled and added to the primary fermenter before hitting the sack at 01:45am, sheesh. Got 23L in the fermenter, so I am happy. Hopefully the airlock will be bubbling by the time I get home this evening, but at 14.C it might take a while longer.

Any comments welcome!
 
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Beautiful photos! What kind of heating elements are those in your plastic bucket? No problems with burning (or melting) of the plastic?
 
Thanks! Those are 2.4kW kettle elements, the bucket is made of polypropylene which is stable up to 130degC, so it works great. It's just about as rigid at boiling as it is at room temp, and it heats up really quickly with the twin elements. Theres absolutely no off taste at at all and I can do a full 27.5L boil (about 7 US gallons). They're fairly common in the UK, I actually bought it already made and simply added the second element.

The only problem with it is that you can't use hop pellets. When they disintegrate in the boil they coat the element and the elements overheat and turn off. Works fine with whole hops though, and the strainer keeps almost all of the break out of the fermenter.
 
Well, I had some trouble with this brew clearing, but it was my own fault for not adjusting my brewing water. I live in the UK now in Essex, and the water is fairly alkaline. My mash pH must have been too high and I think I extracted tannins from the grains.

Anyway, I fermented for 3 weeks, four days at 14.C (57.F) and then raising a degree a day until reaching 18.C (64.F). I used two packs of Notty, and I had no problem at all with the fermentation. The low temps gave me the almost lager-like clean taste I was looking for.

After primary, I racked onto 30g of cascade 8%, and left for 9 days at room temp before crashing to -1C (30.F) for another 12 days. The beer still had plenty of haze, so I added triple-strength commercial grade isinglass which actually dropped a lot of it out. Isinglass DOES work on chill haze up to a point, as long as the beer is cooled until it throws the haze before you add the isinglass.

I kegged it up and got it on the gas, this is my first beer I've kegged. After experimenting with high pressure and shaking, etc, I managed to get it to drinkable carbonation level by Saturday night. Sunday was much better though, and I have burped the headspace and reset the reg to serving pressure now - I've set it to give me around 2.5 volumes CO2.

Anyway - the colour is a nice copper / orange, and it is actually almost crystal clear above about 3 deg C. The H&G isinglass definitely helped a lot, I used it at -1 so it took a lot of the haze away. Also the beer pours with a beautiful creamy, white head this simply won't go away right until the last sip. I absolutely love flaked barley, I will probably try and sneak some into just about every beer I make from now on.

As for the taste, I have to say that this has to be one of my finest beers yet. It's got a deep, toasted malt flavour from the MO and vienna malt, with just enough crystal sweetness, and the bitterness, while powerful, is very smooth and soft and not harsh at all. There is almost zero yeast character, which is what I was trying to achieve. The hop flavour is incredible, and the aroma is pronounced. The beer also has an almost moussy mouthfeel to it, I think the flaked barley definitely helps here. All in all, everything works together perfectly and it is the most balanced, delicous, drinkable hombrew that I can ever remember brewing. I had about six pints of it over the weekend, I don't think it's going to last long! This will be a regular in my fridge from now on.

The pics don't really do it justice, my glass was frosty from the condensation and I couldn't quite get the camera to focus:

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First off GREAT pictures. Second of all, its a great beer. Third, OMG YOU GOT BENT OVER ON THOSE CASCADES. I thought 2.99 an oz, but 4.99 pounds and oz is CRAZY. Also is your boil kettle a plastic bucket. If so I respect that and +1 respect point by me.
 
Thanks!

FreakinA - the cascades were £4.99 for 125g, so about 4.5 ounces. Very cheap by hop standards here, cheaper even than english hops! And at 8% AA they go pretty far. Altho to be fair I used the whole 125g in this batch. Yes the boiler is a plastic bucket - it's a special type of plastic which is rigid up to 125 deg C, and does not leach anything into the beer, I can do a full boil of 27.5L in it. They're very common here in the UK - you buy them off the shelf here but I pimped mine with a hop strainer and an extra element to get the boil on quicker. The one caveat with using them is that you can't use hop pellets, as the pellets coat the element and cause it to overheat and shut down - learned that the hard way. Works absolutely perfectly with whole hops tho, and the whole cones and the strainer work together to keep 99% of the break material out of the fermenter.

Man I can't tell you how good this beer tastes. I *love* that grapefruit cascade hop flavour! I am tempted to try another USA hop for my next batch, maybe Amarillo?
 
Thanks!
Man I can't tell you how good this beer tastes. I *love* that grapefruit cascade hop flavour! I am tempted to try another USA hop for my next batch, maybe Amarillo?

I have never tried Amarillo, but it has quite the cult following here.

Loved the pics. It is always interesting to see how folks in different countries do things.

Eric
 
Oh, so not such a bad deal on the hops afterall. I got about 5lbs (2.26) shipped to my door of 4 kinds for 48.98! It takes up my whole freezer and now I am aromizing the sheet out of all my IPAs and PAs. I hope the APA tastes great. Got a good British PA or ESB for me to try?
 
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