This is my first all grain brew and it was influenced heavily by two things- 1) I had a bunch of hops left over from some previous brews and 2) I expected that my first brew on the new equipment wouldn't come out very well. What I ended up with was a VERY pale colored ale with a fruity hop flavor, a decent amount of bitterness, and a slight aroma.
In my fetid little mind the grain bill was derived from John Palmer's "Lady Liberty Ale" in the How to Brew book - in reality it's nothing like it, so I guess I just made this one up. The hop bill was derived from whatever I had left in the freezer.
Ingredients:
- 9.5 lb 2-row
- 1lb 20L crystal
- 1lb Munich
- 1 oz Chinook hop pellets (11.1% AA) @ 60 min
- .5 oz Sterling whole hops (7% AA) @ 30 min
- .5 oz Vanguard whole hops (4.6% AA) @ 30 min
- 1oz Willamette whole hops (4.3% AA) @ 5 min
- 1/6 cup gypsum
- 1 tab whirfloc
- SafeAle US-05 dry ale yeast
- Munton's KreamyX for priming
I got the following gravities:
pre-boil: 1.041 post-boil (OG): 1.043 Final (FG): 1.008
If I crunched the numbers correctly the hops should have yielded 61.5 IBUs and my efficiency was low at around 60%... oh well first run on the new all grain equipment.
60 min Mash schedule, single infusion targeting ~152 F in the mash tun (cooler):
started with 3.5 gal @ 162F for 45 min, and added another .5 gal @ 160 with 15 min left. Heat loss from the cooler/grain made the mash temp right above 150F, so pretty perfect.
I added the gypsum pre-boil... this was dumb and I should have added it pre-mash. Oh well- live and learn. No doubt that would have helped with my efficiency.
All in all this brew came out just fine. I ended up modifying my mash tun a bit after this brew to try to make flow-off of the grain bed more consistent for higher efficiency- in later brews this seems to have helped. I'll stash this recipe away for the next time I want a super light beer to use up hops :) It seems to work for that.
