Orange Pale Ale ala Rain in Blood

[Moose_MI]

So my wife really likes Rain in Blood from Dark Horse. It's a pale ale with a lot of blood oranges that give a lot of flavor. I have a lousy pallet but for me it's a little sweet, mild maltyness, very light bitterness, lightly creamy, hazy, orange pale ale. The only specs I have from Dark Horse is 5.5 ABV and 11 ibu.
I'm not interested in cloning but I'm taking some inspiration from this and the Blood Orange Heffe in the forum recipes to see if I can please SWMBO....here goes...


Orange Pale Ale
Method: All Grain
Style: Fruit Beer
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.25 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 6.8 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.039 (recipe based estimate)
Efficiency: 75% (brew house)

Original Gravity: 1.050 Final Gravity: 1.011 ABV (standard): 5.15% IBU (tinseth): 25.11 SRM (morey): 6.93

Fermentables
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
6.5 lnb American - Pale 2-Row 37 1.8 68.4%
0.5 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 40L 34 40 5.3%
2 lb American - Wheat 38 1.8 21.1%
0.5 lb American - Victory 34 28 5.3%
9.5 lb Total

Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
1 oz Cascade Pellet 6.4 First Wort 15.54
0.5 oz Amarillo Pellet 8.6 Boil 5 min 3.44
0.5 oz Amarillo Pellet 8.6 Whirlpool at 180 °F 15 min 6.13
1 oz Amarillo Pellet 8.6 Dry Hop 5 days
Show Summary View

Nottingham yeast

1oz orange zest in whirlpool at 180F

After 2-3 days of primary add 8oz of Torani Blood Orange syrup

I'm going to give this a go next weekend and fully expect to have to tweak it over numerous attempts. I'm just trying to keep from this 1st run being undrinkable or missing some obvious improvement that more experienced folks would suggest.

I look forward to suggestions from your experiences

 

[Kerrbrewer]

Have never done a fruit beer before but my Sig other keeps hinting. The grain bill and yeast look good. Most of my research shows the amount of peel is probably right. I would be very interested in knowing how it turns out.

 

[Moose_MI]

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement! I've ordered and received the Blood orange syrup and plan to give it a go this weekend. Nice to have a little validation of the recipe basics!

I will update as I go....

 

[Kerrbrewer]

Great. My girl wants a grapefruity drink. Thinking about trying the sparkling cider approach. Over prime with juice and pasteurize before bottle bombs

 

[Moose_MI]

I brought everything up from the basement to the garage brewery and got my grain milled. All set to brew this baby in the AM. Will also be 1st batch to go into my new fermentation chamber.

 

[Moose_MI]

5.25 gal at 1.045. A little lower than the 1.051 I would have got with my normal 75% efficiency but my sparge was a bit off today. Pitched hydrated pack of Nottingham and she's resting comfortably in ferm chamber at 60F.

You could really smell the orange from the zest. Curious to see how much of that remains after fermentation

Cheers!

 

[Moose_MI]

I'm about 2.5 days into primary fermentation and airlock activity is steady but has slowed so I just added 9oz of Blood Orange Syrup. I used one of those plastic syringes for giving kids medicine and just squirted it through the airlock grommet. I do not like opening the lid of the fermenter unless absolutely necessary.

Note....Do NOT spill this syrup on anything...it stains almost instantly!

Cheers!

 

[Moose_MI]

Ok...10 days of primary and she's done at 1.011

Good bit of orange in the nose. Most of the "blood" color fell out in the yeast so probably not a good candidate for saving the slurry . I think there is a lot of orange in the color and I can taste the orange. This might be really good. I will give it a couple days of 30 psi and then drop it down and see how it's doing this weekend. Cheers!

 

[Moose_MI]

1 more pic...

 

[Kerrbrewer]

Make sure to post how it turns out moose I may try something similar

 

[iijakii]

Lookin good! So you think the syrup worked well?

 

[Moose_MI]

I'm feeling pretty optimistic at this point. I certainly don't think it will be terrible. Will know more this weekend once it has carb'd up a bit

Stay tuned to this bat channel!

 

[Moose_MI]

Ok...2 days at 30psi and 2 days at 10psi. 20% wheat explains some cloudiness and it's only been 4 days in keg so interested to see it change. Taste is good...I'm sort of reluctant to describe it because I have a lousy pallet and I think it will change a lot. My wife said she tastes a lot of citrus and would like to see it mellow a little which I think is a good possibility.
So I'm happy and excitd to see how it progresses from here

 

[Moose_MI]

This beer is getting good! I'm not getting a pillowy head like I want but I think my second regulator is a little off so I'm gonna bump it up a couple psi. Still waiting for a tap to open up on my 4 way manifold off primary. Wife noticed a DISTINCT improvement over the last 5 days. Cheers!

 

[iijakii]

How's the orange comin through?

 

[Moose_MI]

I get tired of reading people describe their own beers....everybody thinks there baby is beautiful.....that said....I just took the glass to my wife again. My wife is not one to compromise...if she doesn't like something she will tell you..even if you poured your heart into it. Her words. "To me...it's perfect....I mean I deffinetly get the orange but it's not overpowering".

For me .... I'm not sure I could drink this all night but it's still young and fruit beers are not really my thing...but at 7 days since packaging I'm really happy.

 

[Moose_MI]

Here's a pic of glass #2...I'm going to hook my other keg back up after this or I'm not sure I'll ever empty it

Had wife taste again..."I get a little something in the back of it..it's good....I would drink this whole glass"

Winner!