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Test Pale Ale 1.0

Recently, I have struggled to get the desired final volume out of the Brewie+ system. To try and resolve that issue, I've decided to brew a couple of recipes and babysit the mash and sparge process to see where the problem is occurring, as well as double-checking my calculations to ensure they are correct.

The first test was this Pale Ale recipe.

Ingredients

5 pounds of 2-row Pale Ale Malt
1 pound of Munich Malt
4 ounces of Flaked Corn
0.75 ounces of Mandarina Bavaria hops pellets @ 9.2% AA at 10 min.
0.60 ounces of Citra hops pellets @ 14% AA at 5 minutes
1/4 tsp. Yeast Nutrient
1/8 tsp. Brewtan B in the mash water
1/4 tsp. Brewtan B in the boil at 10 min.
1/2 tsp. Irish Moss in the boil at 15 min.
1 packet of Lallemand Nottingham dry ale yeast
9.2 liters of mash water
3.2 liters of sparge water

The mash schedule began with a mash in at 104F, followed by 20 minutes at 140F, and 40 minutes at 158F. Mash out was 15 minutes at 168F.

BeerSmith estimated the following qualities for the beer:
  • BJCP Style: 18.B Pale American Ale
  • Batch Size: 2.5 gallons (actual was 2.5 gallons)
  • Original Gravity: 1.054 SG (actual was 1.054 SG)
  • Pre-boil Gravity: 1.034 SG (actual was 1.047 SG)
  • Final Gravity: 1.011 SG (actual was 1.013 SG)
  • SRM: 5.8
  • ABV: 5.5%
  • BU/GU Ratio: 0.656
Boil schedule:
  • 90 minutes: No addition
  • 15 minutes: Irish Moss
  • 10 minutes: Brewtan B, Mandarina Bavaria
  • 5 minutes: Citra
  • 0 minutes: Chill to 68F
Fermentation schedule is to place this in the corner of the basement with an ambient temp of 60F and leave it there. (In practice, this worked well. The beer never exceeded a temp of 62F throughout the brew.)

Post-Brew Notes and Observations

03/09/2019:  Thanks to carefully measured water, the beer came out very close in gravity and volume to the expected values. I had to add a little water to hit 2.5 gallons, at which point the gravity also hit my target value of 1.054 SG.

03/17/2019:  The beer has stayed within a degree of 61F throughout fermentation. Gravity is down to 1.013 SG, which is within a point of the expected final gravity.  I expect to bottle the beer within the next day or two.

03/19/2019: The beer was bottled with 5-6 small carbonation tablets per bottle. Yield was 24 bottles.
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