Just call it "a happy accident"?

[Beernik]

After a long period of sporadic brewing, I'm back to brewing regularly again. Yesterday, I was making an English Pale Ale. When I went to record the OG, I discovered the calculations I had been using in my planning were factoring in the OG from an old cyser (1.120). So when I went to record the OG for the PA (1.055), my IBUs jumped from 37 to 67.

My first inclination is to channel my inner Bob Ross and say, "We don't have mistakes here, we just have happy accidents." :fro:

But I did brew this one special for the open house of my wife's new tattoo & art shop. So I'm a little worried about making non-hop heads gag.

The recipe:
6oz. 60L Crystal
1oz. Black Patent
2oz. Chocolate
4oz. CaraPils
9.75lb. British 2 row

Mash 60 minutes at 150F
Boil 90 minutes

2oz 6.2%AA Progress (pellets) for 60 min
1oz 5%AA Kent Goldings (pellets) for 30 min
0.6oz 5.3% Kent Goldings (pellets) for 30 min
2oz 4.1% Fuggles (leaf) for 5 minutes

WPL 002 - English Ale

OG = 1.055
IBU = 67
ABV should be about 5.2%.

I suppose there are a couple things that I can do:
1. Leave it be and take something else for non-hop heads. I have a 6 month old smokey Wee Heavy that I can take. I also have a couple liters of that old cyser still in the cellar. I also have a couple bottles of a 6 year old Merlot.
2. I can try to balance the OG to BU ratio of this beer by adding a pound of invert sugar. That should up the OG to about 1.061 and the ABV to around 6%.

Thoughts?

 

[dmomo]

Could you split the difference and try 1/2 of each?

Maybe you could just buy a case of something safe like Sam Adams; Then push your own brew as "for the bold". Tattoo lovers won't want to think themselves anything less.

Good luck and cheers.

 

[weirdboy]

That sure doesn't look like a recipe for an English Pale Ale...more like a brown.


EDIT: ah nevermind I misread the quantities...


You could try doing a blend with the wee heavy and this beer to cut the hops down a bit, too.

 

[Beernik]

It's bottled, not kegged. So blending is out.

A couple cases of a local micro or even BMC isn't a bad idea. It's safe and not expensive.

Thanks.

 

[rockfish42]

I find over hopping less offensive with UK and Continental varieties. Give it a taste before bottling and then decide.

 

[bbrim]

You could brew a half batch of standard bitter and blend. Hear me out, it can be done even though you're bottling. Just rack the pale ale to your bottling bucket, bottle half of it then add the standard bitter to end up with 5G of a milder beer and a case of the good stuff for you. Or you could just make labels that say "Real men like it rough!" and damn the non-hopheads.

 

[Beernik]

Had my wife check that the beer wasn't oozing krausen out the airlock while I was at a 2 day conference. When I checked on it this morning, she had taped a sign inside my fermentation cupboard that'd said, "Beware of the leopard!"

True, I could brew a new batch for blending. But I don't think I can squeeze a brew day in this weekend and next weekend would only give me 3 weeks to bottle carb. I find I get significantly better results after 4 weeks.

I've also been thinking that most "Norms" won't object to double hopping with Progress, Kent Goldings, & Fuggles as bad as if it had been with something like CTZ or Simcoe.

I think I'll take this beer as-is, some 70 Shilling (It's the same as my Wee Heavy, just scaled down), some cyser, & a case of PBR. PBR in particular because I found out last night some known die hard PBR drinkers will be there.

 

[Beernik]

I racked it and pulled a sample. I'm hoping the FG drops a couple more points.

But the hops and bitterness are actually not overpowering. Strong, but not unbalancing. There it quite a bit of floralness that comes across the pallet from the Kent Goldings.

When I make this again, I think I'll up the British 2 Row by a pound and replace the Carapils with torrified wheat.

I for the open house, think I'm going to call it a Double Hopped English Pale Ale and call it good.