Doctor Duvel

I'm like a sommelier, but for beer.

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Location: Upstate New York, United States

Favorite Beers: Orval, Samuel Smith, Duvel, Hennepin, Oude Gueze, Chimay, Dogfish Head, Anchor Steam, and anything made by Trappist monks.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Planning a Pale

So, in preparation for my next, relatively pedestrian, brewing stint--no more Belgians or Lagers for a month or so--here's the pale ale plan, which will later start my barley wine. I think I'll order supplies from Northern Brewer which seems to have a quicker turn-around than More Beer, and a slightly nicer selection of malts--or go with my local guy. So this is my Shoals-Pale-Ale-inspired attempt at beginning to formulate a house pale ale that combines the vivaciousness of American hops with the tight elegance of an English maltiness--because it seems to me a lot of the British ones are thin on the lupulin, and that many of the American ones have one-dimensional, "throw together some 2-row and Crystal" kinds of grain bills. Thus the following rough plan:

Pause to swear at ProMash and jam in some numbers . . .

Infusion mash, possibly stepped
6 gallon batch, instead of 5

Grain bill:
9 lbs Pale Malt (get the good British stuff?)
13 oz Carastan 35L or appropriate substitute
12 oz Crystal 120L, or the closest I can get thereto
6.7 oz Wheat Malt

This is for a target gravity of 1051.

For a total of about 31 IBU's I'm thinking:

.5 oz Chinook--60 minutes
1.25 oz Cascade--15 minutes
some amount of both at shut-off
The question there becomes exactly how much hop aroma I want. The conservative move would be .5 oz of each variety. Could do 3/4 oz each, or give the extra 1/4 oz just to the Cascades so they don't get drowned out.

Ordering is easy. I've already got the wheat and the Chinooks. Fuckin' A. Should be a fun, uncomplicated brew day in a week and a half. Hopefully completely unlike making a double-decocted Pilsner. . .

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