West Coast American Pale Ale

Brew Day: 10/07/14

Extract small batch kit from Northern Brewer. This should be a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone.

1.25 gallons of water. Heated to 162, took off heat, put lid on, and steeped grains for 10 mins. Down to 158. Got to use my new digital thermometer. (added 1/4 gal of water later, see below)

Grains:

1.6 oz US Crystal 60L

Brought to boil. Boil time: 55 mins (was supposed to be 45, but added 1/4 gallon of hot water to pot after 1st hop addition to bring volume up, hopefully getting better hop utilization)

1.5 lb Gold LME - 55 mins

3.5 grams Centennial hops 10.4% AA - 55 mins

3.5 grams Perle hops 7.1% AA - 20 mins

1/2 whirlfloc tablet - 15 mins

7 grams Cascade 6.5% AA - 0 mins

Cooled via ice bath down to 92 in 20 mins. Aerated wort by pouring out of kettle through double mesh strainer into 5 gallon bucket, cleaned out strainer, then out of 5 gal bucket through strainer again into 2 gal bucket. Right around 1 gallon. Put lid on and inserted airlock (to keep bad stuff out) and placed out on balcony (outside temp 57) for 1 hour to finish bringing temp down. Pitched yeast at 65. 3/4 packet of US-05 yeast. Put in temp controlled chest freezer at 62. Nailed the OG right on!

OG 1.053 (13.2 brix)

est. IBU 34.7

est. FG 1.015

est. SRM 8.2

Bottling Day: 10/20/07

Straight to bottling, no secondary on this one. Lots of hop trub in the bottom so I only got eight 12 oz bottles. You know quality > quantity anyway. Didn't get any photos, but just imagine 8 full bottles of beer.

Checked the gravity and it came in at 1.013 so that's 5.25% ABV. Put 1 fizz drop in each bottle. I'll give it 2-3 weeks to carbonate before tasting.