First AG was the best. Goin' back home

[Epimetheus]

We just opened the last bottle of our first all grain, capped 14 months ago. It was a simple American Pale Ale and no doubt is it the best batch I have made. After all that time it was golden crystal clear with no chill haze. It lost some of the floral aroma and kept all the hop flavor. So I am duplicating it to see if it could happen again.

I asked Nick at the LHBS "I am a beginner. I fell into this excellent local 2-row malt. Design me a simple American IPA or Ale, not many grains or hops" and this is what he created. Two grains. Two hops. Nothing extreme. I vaguely remember Northern Brewer's hops in there, but I don't recall how much or when. Very fragrant.

Flower Pale Ale

BIAB
65% efficiency
5.25 gallon batch
9 lb 2-row
2 lb crystal 30
1/2 oz Cascade 60 min
1 oz Amarillo 10 min
1 oz Cascade 7 min
1 oz Amarillo 5 min
Safale 05

Mash at 152F - 148F
OG about 1.050
IBU 35, a nice middle bitterness with much floral character
color 9.6 SRM
Est. ABV is 5.7 but really, I did not hit the OG so it was less, maybe 5.0

That's it, the whole recipe. Came out great on my under powered glass top stove.

 

[Dan]

65% mash efficiency. That's where I'm near most of the time. I do everything right but never hit the 80s

Thanks for sharing your recipe. Next brew I make will be your recipe!

Cheers!

 

[gometz]

65% mash efficiency. That's where I'm near most of the time. I do everything right but never hit the 80s

Thanks for sharing your recipe. Next brew I make will be your recipe!

Cheers!

I'm far from being an expert, but with my equipment (10g tun, 10g kettle, 3g and 4.5g hot water pots), I have been able to get 79%. Granted that time the recipe was designed for 70%, so the beer ended up too strong.

One thing that I have noticed has greatly helped my efficiency is doing thicker mashes actually (I also do a minimum of 1 hour). If I do 1-1.1 qt/lb, I can do a better sparge. The last three beers I had enough run off of the right gravity that I was still able to get some thin runnings (1.030 or so) for later starters or experimenting. In fact, if I include my thin runnings, my efficiency has been above 80% on 1 or 2 beers.