#8 American Pale Ale

Hurray for brew day! Today's brew is going to be an American style pale ale. I decided it was time I went for something different than what I had been doing, and see how I did with a more transparent style. It's still going to have quite a bit of hop character, but with the lack of roasted malts, and excessive hopping, I'll be brewing something that shows off flaws a lot more apparently.

So the final verdict on version 1 of the Imperial Black Ale is that of success. I certainly think it has a long way to go, but I think it has a whole lot of potential, and those who have tried it love it. Once version 2 is ready to drink, I'll see where we're at. As far as the scotch ale, it was fantastic. I had a pint last night with my dinner, and was beyond pleased. Next time I plan on adding a bit more hops to balance out the sweetness, and eliminating the smoke malt (though it is tasty) to be more within style.

The addition of my chest freezer with external thermostat has been amazing. I keep it at a constant 65 degrees, though I can lower it for lagering. But it's nice to have a dedicated space in the apartment for fermentation. I've also started yeast banking. I don't want to turn this in to an unnecessarily long post, but I'm freezing vials of yeast that I collect from starters I make, and freezing them in vials with a freeze shield solution. I take them out, thaw them, and make starters a week or so before I plan to use them. It'll save me money :)

So back to the pale ale. I am quite excited about this beer. I love simcoe hops, so I'm using them throughout, except for a dash of amarillo at the end for some citrusy aroma. Simcoe has a very pine/evergreen type flavor and aroma, so it's nice to balance it out with something else for more dimension. I'm switching to 90min boils for my more pale beers to break down DMS (a substance that causes a vegetal type off flavor).

So on to the recipe.... (i'm just going to copy all the info from now on so it's easier to copy)


90 min boil
Est Original Gravity: 1.055 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.32 %
Bitterness: 38.9 IBU
Est Color: 9.3 SRM

Grains
30.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 73.17 %
4.00 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 9.76 %
4.00 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 9.76 %
3.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 7.32 %

Hops
0.07 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 16.4 IBU
0.07 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (30 min) Hops 12.6 IBU
0.13 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (5 min) Hops 3.9 IBU
0.13 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (5 min) Hops 6.0 IBU

There's imperial black ale version 2 in the new fermentation chamber