National Homebrewing Day - 'Big Beer' Event

[adagiogray]

CBC (Columbus Brewing Company), one of our local Columbus, OH microbreweries celebrated National Homebrew Day by giving out free wort and inviting folks to come out, setup, and brew up a batch using the wort, and do their own tweaks as far as yeast and hops. They also gave my brewing buddy and I a most excellent tour of the facility.

The suggested use is a pale ale recipe that called for WLP002 English Ale Yeast and 3.5oz Goldings with a 90 minute boil. They used 50% Pils and 50% Maris Otter for the mash, and they guessed the OG at about 1.052ish.

Well, here were my tweaks... I used WLP005 British Ale Yeast, since the LHBS ran out of the WLP002 that was bought up all the other festival goers. I used 3 oz of Kent Goldings leaf and 0.5oz of Fuggles pellet, both lowish (4.4ish) alpha acid hops.
I also decided to up the ABV and OG by adding 4 lbs of cane sugar to the boil, and tossed in Whirlfloc 15 mins before the end of boil. After the wort cooled, I took an OG reading before pitching and aeration - it was 1.086 - yowza! If I end up with a FG somewhere in the 1.012-1.014 range, I'm estimating this to finish up at about 10%, and if I dry hop it, not unlike Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA.
I also didn't make a starter, I went according to the White Labs recommendations on the label and pitched the tube directly. With that high of an OG, I'm sure a second tube or a starter wouldn't have hurt, but I figure the ferment will eventually get going.

Any other thoughts on where this will end up? I'm kind of excited, as this will be my first pale ale.

 

[adagiogray]

I underpitched by a *lot* with only one tube of WLP005, but less than 24 hours in this bad boy was bubbling furiously (almost *too* furiously - I think it's gonna pop my airlock!), so I'm hopeful this is still going to rock on down from 1.086 to target gravity.

 

[sonetlumiere85]

That's gonna be a sweet, boozy, one-dimensional beer. Good luck!

 

[bknifefight]

I wouldn't have added that much sugar. Hopefully it tastes good but it could give you cidery flavors. I wouldn't compare this beer to DFH 90 Minute in any way except maybe alcohol content. Your hops make it anything but an IPA.

 

[adagiogray]

Yeah, I know it's a long stretch from DFH, and the hop choices were low AA - I was thinking of dry hopping with something like cascade, but that this point, I'm already over $20 in the batch with hops alone.

I figured the wort was free, so I thought I'd try an off the wall thing with it. I just hope it ends up pale ale-ish or tripelish, and not malt liquor with a hop nose.

 

[asidrane]

CBC (Columbus Brewing Company), one of our local Columbus, OH microbreweries celebrated National Homebrew Day by giving out free wort and inviting folks to come out, setup, and brew up a batch using the wort, and do their own tweaks as far as yeast and hops.

This is a great idea, I would love for Kelso, Brooklyn Brewery or Six Point to do something like this.