and into the primary....

[scottie]

first brewing attempt is in the primary. it is an american style pale ale, a recipe that i got, but i went a little more aggresive with cascade hops than the recipe called for, hopefully will tun out well. my wife is now completely convinced that i am nuts after she found me huffing fumes from the airlock in my closet!
i do actually have a question, though. living in palm beach florida, the ambient temp is relitively warm and i had a difficult time trying to cool the wort to the specified temperature, it took longer than i would have liked. i do not have a wort cooler, i just used a sink of ice water. would a wort cooler be a wise investment? any suggestion on what style would be economic? or would sticking with an ice water bath work just as well?

 

[Pappers_]

if you are doing extract, partial boil (say 3 gallons), then cooling in the sink is just fine.

 

[scottie]

what should i expect with the extra hops that i added? i added a half ounce extra with the bittering hops and another half with flavoring hops. will it just be a flavor difference?

 

[beerthirty]

I would suggest an IC, they can be built very inexpensive and allow you to do full boils. You can expect your pale ale to be closer to an IPA. More bitter and more flavorful. When I started playing around with hops I kept the same bittering additions and only changed or increased the flavor and aroma hops. This way I was able to tell what different hops brought to the table. It won't matter what hops are used for bittering because the flavor and aroma are driven off in the boil.

 

[scottie]

thats good to hear, i was hoping to get it to be a little closer to an ipa, but still keeping pale ale characteristics. i wanted to go for something a lot of people would enjoy beofore trying a recipe just for me, im thinking of something similar to stone ruinition ipa, one of my favs.
this weekend i also bought a 6 pack of sierra nevada's new Torpedo IPA, which i found delicious.
i would like to brew an extra bitter ipa along those lines next, along with an amber lager for everyone else to enjoy.

 

[NicotineRush]

scottie, I'm in Vero Beach. It's difficult for us here in the south to ferment at a decent temp with our high temperatures. I bought a used refer for 50 bucks and a temp controller for it. (99 bucks) Makes a HUGE difference!.

ps. there is a great recipe for cloning Dogfish 60 IPA in the recipe section. I'm making it this week.

 

[Jamo99]

The immersion chiller's effectiveness has a lot to do with your water temperature. If you do make yourself an immersion chiller, you may want to make a second smaller one to use as a pre-chiller. Water source to pre-chiller submerged in ice water, then to your immersion chiller submerged in your wort.

If you are doing partial boils and using the ice bath method, slowly stirring (don't splash while wort is still hot) the wort while it sits in the ice water will improve the heat transfer.

 

[WBC]

Listen to the guy in Vero Beach. He is right on about temperature. Try his beer and you too will be convinced.