This April, I will be giving a presentation on American Ales, that is to say the styles of American Pale, Amber, and Brown ales. There's a lot of recent history to these styles, as they were first invented by American homebrewers and they were the first post-prohibition styles to be created by the American craft beer movement. My presentation will involve tasting three different professional samples that are all "classic" examples of the styles, as well as three homebrewed versions, to contrast how much "room" a brewer has for interpreting the style while still conforming generally to the BJCP guidelines.
As an aside, I plan on using this presentation as an excuse to teach everyone that cans are good for beer. As such, all three of my commercial examples will be canned craft beer (unless there's a great sale that convinces me otherwise). I plan on serving Caldera Pale Ale, Caldera Amber Ale, and Big Sky Moose Drool Brown Ale; but I may switch it up.
I will be brewing the brown ale at home in a couple weeks - and just 5 gallons. But I will be brewing 10 each gallons of pale and amber ale at the house of one of my new mentees from the Greenbelt Brewers Association mentoring program. Following are the recipes, and I will try to remember to post tasting notes and pictures of the brew days and finished beers in due time.
No Fail Pale Ale is intended to be a traditional approach to the American Pale Ale style, with just a little more hop aroma and flavor than usual, as well as the use of very smooth bittering hops. That being said, I expect this beer to come across as a more approachable pale ale than the professional example I expect to serve, Caldera Pale Ale. Since I am using this beer not only to teach about the style to my club, but to teach how to brew the style to my mentees, I decided to go for a Cascade-heavy recipe, since that is the chief hop in Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Caldera Pale Ale, and basically 9/10 craft brewed American pale ales. I am complimenting the perfumey grapefruit quality of the cascades with the "in your face" tangerine-orange peel flavor of Summit hops. The bitterness will be provided largely by the 15 min Summit addition, but also by a small dose of Magnum (an extremely smooth bittering hop) at 60 min.
Recipe: No Fail Pale Ale
Style: 10A-American Ale-American Pale Ale
Volume At Pitching: 11.00 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.046 SG
Expected OG: 1.054 SG
Expected FG: 1.011 SG
Expected ABV: 5.7 %
Expected ABW: 4.5 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 40.5
Expected Color: 6.6 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 79.5 %
Mash Efficiency: 78.0 % because this will be brewed on someone else's system and they don't know the efficiency, I listed 78% as a guess
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 60 degF
Fermentables
US 2-Row Malt 22lb 0oz (95.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 1lb 0oz (4.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
Hops
US Magnum (17.0 % alpha) 14 g Loose Whole Hops used 60 Min From End
US Summit (15.5 % alpha) 57 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 15 Min From End
US Cascade (5.7 % alpha) 85 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 5 Min From End
US Cascade (5.7 % alpha) 57 g Bagged Pellet Hops used At turn off
US Cascade (5.7 % alpha) 85 g Loose Pellet Hops used Dry-Hopped
Yeast: White Labs WLP001-California Ale
Mash at 152 degF for 60 mins
Undead Red Ale
Style: 10B-American Ale-American Amber Ale
Wort Volume Before Boil: 14.50 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 12.00 US gals
Volume Transferred: 10.00 US gals
Water Added: 1.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 11.00 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.049 SG
Expected OG: 1.054 SG
Expected FG: 1.011 SG
Expected ABV: 5.7 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 37.6
Expected Color: 11.5 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 79 %
Mash Efficiency: 84.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 58 degF
Fermentables
Canadian Pale Ale Malt 12lb 0oz (51.9 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Pale Ale Malt (Maris Otter) 5lb 0oz (21.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Munich Malt 4lb 0oz (17.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 2lb 0oz (8.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Carafa Special II 2.00 oz (0.5 %) In Mash/Steeped
Hops
US Magnum (17.0 % alpha) 14 g Loose Whole Hops used 60 Min From End
US Simcoe (11.0 % alpha) 58 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 15 Min From End
US Centennial (11.0 % alpha) 113 g Loose Whole Hops used 5 Min From End
US Centennial (11.0 % alpha) 113 g Loose Whole Hops used At turn off
US Centennial (11.0 % alpha) 85 g Loose Whole Hops used Dry-Hopped
Yeast: White Labs WLP001-California Ale
Mash at 150 degF for 60 mins
Futile Resistance Red Ale would have been a double-whammy learning experience, but I opted instead for a full-on traditional Red Ale. I plan to brew Futile Resistance, in the future, though, so I will leave the recipe here, along with my initial idea for the beer. I am not only teaching my mentees about the American Amber style, but I am also going to teach them about brewing with rye. That's because this beer will have a significant shot of rye malt. I am convinced that, after fining this beer and getting it clear, NO ONE will be able to tell from flavor or appearance that there is rye, but they will appreciate the extremely creamy nature of this beer, and learn that rye malt is what did that.
Recipe: Futile Resistance Red Rye Ale
Style: 10B-American Ale-American Amber Ale
Volume At Pitching: 11.00 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.046 SG
Expected OG: 1.056 SG
Expected FG: 1.013 SG
Expected ABV: 5.7 %
Expected ABW: 4.5 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 40.7
Expected Color: 12.0 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 76.4 %
Mash Efficiency: 84.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 58 degF
Fermentables
Canadian Pale Ale Malt 13lb 0oz (54.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Munich Malt 4lb 0oz (16.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Rye Malt 4lb 0oz (16.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 1lb 0oz (4.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 120L Malt 1lb 0oz (4.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Rice Hulls 1lb 0oz (4.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
Hops
US Magnum (17.0 % alpha) 14 g Loose Whole Hops used 60 Min From End
US Centennial (11.0 % alpha) 85 g Loose Whole Hops used 15 Min From End
US Amarillo (8.5 % alpha) 57 g Loose Pellet Hops used 5 Min From End
US Amarillo (8.5 % alpha) 85 g Loose Pellet Hops used At turn off
US Amarillo (8.5 % alpha) 85 g Loose Pellet Hops used Dry-Hopped
Yeast: White Labs WLP001-California Ale
Mash at 152 degF for 60 mins
No comments:
Post a Comment