Firestone Walker Pale 31 / Pale Ale Clone

[dtwhite]

Yesterday I google searched for "pale 31 clone" and this thread came up... turns out I'm the brother in question in the OP.

1) I will be brewing this soon for old times
2) The only feedback I got from the author is to use WLP002 for a more accurate flavor, but it was otherwise good stuff
3) Firestone has tweaked their Pale 31 recipe quite a bit over the years and this is more representative of the old-school version that was literally the first "hoppy" beer I loved. Threshold shifts and all that. Anyway, that makes it all the more enticing.
4) Pale 31 used to be a blend of the Mission St. Pale Ale that Firestone made for Trader Joes and Double Barrel Ale, and they no longer made the former. So this is even more of an approximation, but the ingredient names still match what is on the website (sans CaraPils).

 

[Shenanigans]

must give this one a try sometime soon

 

[cladinshadows]

Trying to keep the tradition alive here with a post every few years saying “oh yeah I should brew that again and report back!” Well, this time I’ll report back.

I've got a 2.5 gallon batch of this fermenting happily at an initial temp of 17C. Will ramp to 19C for a day or two and then 20C to finish. Hopefully this batch will come with me on a trip to Paso Robles this coming weekend for a nice side-by-side with the real deal straight from the source.

Full discussion and recipe to come!

 

[Shenanigans]

Trying to keep the tradition alive here with a post every few years saying “oh yeah I should brew that again and report back!” Well, this time I’ll report back.

I've got a 2.5 gallon batch of this fermenting happily at an initial temp of 17C. Will ramp to 19C for a day or two and then 20C to finish. Hopefully this batch will come with me on a trip to Paso Robles this coming weekend for a nice side-by-side with the real deal straight from the source.

Full discussion and recipe to come!

Good stuff.
Please report back

 

[cladinshadows]

So not everything went the way I wanted for this side-by-side. Most importantly: we didn’t actually do a side-by-side. However, I did have some of the real deal at the Firestone-Walker brewery-restaurant and I will relay what I’m going to change for my next attempt to get it closer based on what I interpreted from my taste.

When I brewed this I ended up going a bit off the rails with the hops. I threw in some Citra and Simcoe and almost doubled the IBUs. I’m from Southern CA so what do you expect. Because of that, for this assessment, I’ll focus on the malt bill and other parameters because the hops were never going to be on target. Here’s what I did:

OG = 1.049
FG = 1.009

GRIST (% by weight)
49% Pale 2-Row
33% Maris Otter
12% Light Munich
6% Carastan 35L

MASH
100% RO water w/ Brewcraft Burton Water Salts added
Mashed at 149F for several hours

BOIL
Whirlfloc and yeast nutrient in the boil

YEAST & FERMENT
Vitality starter of WLP002 pitched at 62F. Allowed to reach 68F on day 3.

RESULTS
I brewed this beer 7 days before it was consumed, so it still had some diacetyl, etc. Ignoring that, the real thing is much more 2-row dominant. The color on the homebrew was maybe 1-2 SRM high when compared to Pale 31. Next step would be to replace some of the Maris Otter with 2-Row for a cleaner malt impression. I think the munich and crystal were right. Next time I’ll do:
70% Pale 2-Row
12% Maris Otter
12% Light Munich
6% Carastan 35L

WLP002 at a moderate temperature is definitely the way to go to get the character of the commercial version.

Hops are predominantly citrusy, so stick with cascade and centennial. Citra and Simcoe don’t seem right.

Here's the beer at 8 days:

https://i.imgur.com/WKS8N0P.jpg

 

[Shenanigans]

Looks good.
Thanks for the report.
I might give it a shot with the original hops and 1318 as I find wlp002/1968 too finicky.
I'll also use Pale ale and caraamber instead of the 2-Row and Carastan.
Might be next year but I'll report back