Mistake Pond Pale Ale

I was brewing up a Deschutes Mirror Pond clone Sunday and made a couple of mistakes. The first will definitely affect the beer, the second I'm not so sure...

While at the LHBS, I was trying to remember what hops I had in the freezer and mistook columbus for cascade in my brain. I was pretty bummed when I got home but went ahead and used them for bittering and threw in some glacier and sterling as late additions. So much for the clone...

The second mistake was a bit more boneheaded. I misread my thermometer right before doughing in (somehow thought the Celsius side was Fahrenheit and doughed in to 135 degrees). It took me a half hour to get my **** together and get a gallon of boiling water in to bring it up to 152. After an hour at 152/151 I sparged and nailed my gravity.

I was trying to hit 149 for an hour. What should I expect with the half hour at 135 then 1 hour at 152?

somehow thought the Celsius side was Fahrenheit

Click to expand...

Never done that before! (just kidding, I've done it a time or two )

You might not notice much difference with the rest at 135. You were at the high side of a protein rest. Some people say this will help the sparge, some say it will affect head retention, some people say other things about it, but in my experience it doesn't change much.

152 is a good mash temp. It just will be slightly sweeter and fuller bodied than if you mashed at 149.

Overall, I think your beer will come out good. The Columbus hops might not be as "gentle" as Cascade, but you have the chance to experiment with different hops, which is is good thing

152 is my standard mash temp (i prefer sweeter beers). The 135 for a half hour is what scared me. I wasn't sure what the results of that would be. Can anybody say "unintentional step mash"??

I finally decided to be careful with my transfer to the fermenter and kept nearly all of the cold break and hops out. Going to be using the cake to pitch a 1.100 peanut butter cup imperial stout on the 20th and am happy that I won't have that additional mess in the fermenter.

Well I am partial to columbus but that sounds pretty good.

If it was a fully modified malt you may loose a little body by starting out at a very low temperature and bringing it up over 30 minutes. I would say you would be ok though.

"unintentional step mash"! i did the same thing last weekend. i ended up doing an unintentional decoction mash for the heck of it! maybe i'm too firm of a believer in the fact that it will probably be good anyway.

Please post the recipe if it comes out great. I have had a few mirror ponds, and I would like to compare it to my current "firerock clone".
Always looking for some adjustments to make a great beer.
I just made an IIPA that I started at 133F, stepped up to 140F, then 153F, that along with other brewing chores really made the session work instead of play. But I wanted a full body, but not sweet "big beer".
I'm always looking for possible grains, hops and mash temperatures to make my dream beer.

Below is the recipe that I ended up with (without the mash temp mistakes)

Mistake Pond

Batch size 5 gallons
Boil size 6.1 gallons
Boil time 60 minutes
Grain weight 10.95 pounds
Efficiency 70%

Original gravity 1.058
Final gravity 1.019
Alcohol (by volume) 5.0%
Bitterness (IBU) 39
Color (SRM) 10.5°L
Yeast White Labs WLP002 English Ale

Grains/Extracts/Sugars
10.95 pounds
Pale Ale 38ppg, 3°L 10 pounds 91.3%
Crystal 70L 34ppg, 75°L 0.75 pounds 6.9%
CaraPils 33ppg, 1.5°L 0.20 pounds 1.8%

Mash
60 minutes, 7.0 gallons
Strike
Target 149°F 3.3 gallons
Sparge
Target 170°F 3.7 gallons


Boil
90 minutes, 6.1 gallons
Columbus hops
13%, Pellet 0.5 ounces 85 minutes
Columbus hops
13%, Pellet 0.25 ounces 45 minutes
Columbus hops
13%, Pellet 0.25 ounces 15 minutes
Sterling hops
7%, Pellet 0.5 ounces 5 minutes
Glacier hops
5%, Pellet 0.5 ounces 0 minutes

Ferment
14 days @ 65-68°F