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Christopher's (Manny's) Pale Ale v3.0

My first attempt at cloning Georgetown Brewing's Manny's Pale Ale was a dismal failure. It was a drinkable beer, but not pale in color and nothing like a pale ale in flavor. The second version was more like a pale ale in flavor, but still a touch dark in its color. The family member who loves the real beer says this version is too "malty" (which I'm interpreting as the beer having too much Caramel malt or too dark of a Caramel malt). In this version, I'm switching from Caramel 60L to Caramel 40L and decreasing the proportion of the Caramel malt in the recipe.

Ingredients

2 pounds 2-row Pale Ale Malt
2 pounds 13 ounces 2-row Brewer's Malt
5 ounces Crystal 40L Malt
0.25 ounces of Summit hops pellets @ 17.5% AA (30 min.)
0.35 ounces of Cascade hops pellets @ 6.9% AA (20 min.)
0.45 ounces of Cascade hops pellets @ 6.9% AA (10 min.)
0.45 ounces of Cascade hops pellets @ 6.9% AA (5 min.)
1/4 tsp. Yeast Nutrient
1/2 tsp. Irish Moss
1 packet Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley Ale Yeast

Mash Schedule:

  • Dough In at 102F for 20 minutes
  • Mash Step 1 at 152F for 30 minutes
  • Mash Step 2 at 154F for 60 minutes
  • Mash Out at 175F for 10 minutes
Boil Schedule: 
  • 30 minutes: Summit hops pellets
  • 20 minutes: Cascade hops pellets
  • 10 minutes: Cascade hops pellets, Irish Moss, and Yeast Nutrient
  • 5 minutes: Cascade hops pellets

Recipe Notes:

  • The PicoBrew recipe editor misunderstood the 30-minute hop addition as indicating that I wanted only a 30-minute boil. I didn't catch this until the Zymatic began flooding the Summit compartment. (I see this as a bug, but it's been part of the Zymatic design and has never been fixed as near as I can tell. You have to remember to specify a 30-minute pre-hop boil if you do a 30-minute addition and no 60-minute addition.)
  • I didn't have as much Pale Ale malt as I thought, so I substituted 2-row Brewer's Malt to fill in the missing amount. I've no idea how this will impact the finished flavor.
  • My packet of yeast was almost six months old at the time I pitched it, so I'm concerned that it may not have enough viable cells to ferment the beer. If not, I'll pitch some Safale US-05 to do the job. Hopefully it will be close enough if I need to use it.
The PicoBrew recipe crafter estimates that the beer will have the following characteristics:
  • Original Gravity: 1.056 SG (actual was 1.055 SG)
  • Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
  • IBUs: 39
  • SRM: 6
  • ABV: 5.3%
  • Starting Water: 3 gallons, 16 ounces
  • Batch Size: 2.5 gallons (actual was about 2 gallons)
Post-Brew Notes

07/04/2018: The brew went fairly smoothly, although I did notice the temperature differential between the wort and the heat loop getting above 30F apart. That's fairly close to the 50F limit where the machine will shut down. I suspect that there may still be a blockage in the system that hasn't fully cleared yet. The volume produced and the gravity were lower than expected, either because of the initial issues with the mash temperature or the swapping of 2-row Brewer's Malt for 2-row Pale Ale Malt. Regardless, the resulting beer was close enough to the expected gravity. At the time the Tilt began logging (12:44am on July 5) it registered a temperature of 77F and gravity of 1.055 SG.

07/05/2018: There is no sign of yeast activity, so I pitched a packet of WLP001 California Ale Yeast into the fermenter to see if it would jump-start fermentation.

07/06/2018: The WLP001 also showed no activity after 12 hours, so I pitched a packet of Safale US-05 which I knew would take off. The gravity registered as high as 1.060 SG overnight but is down to 1.050 this morning.

07/07/2018: Gravity is down to 1.024 and the temperature is up to 74F. That's 55.9% attenuation and 4.3% ABV.

07/08/2018: Gravity has dropped to 1.010 SG and temperature down to 69F.

07/09/2018: Gravity has stabilized at 1.010 SG and the temperature has dropped to 68F.

07/10/2018: Gravity is still 1.010 SG and temperature remains at 68F. That's three days at the same gravity, so the beer can be bottled any time now. Since the original Manny's Pale Ale isn't clear, I'm thinking I may bottle this tonight or tomorrow night.

07/11/2018: Gravity has continued to hold at 1.010 SG.

07/12/2018: Gravity is reading as 1.009 SG today and 68F for the temperature.

07/15/2018: The beer was bottled today with three small carbonation tablets per bottle. Yield was 24 bottles.
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