Today is my second attempt at a harvest ale. The batch from last year worked out well, and I hope to add some of what I’ve learned since then to this year’s batch.
The grain bill is simple. It is 11 pounds (85%) of Crisp Maris Otter and 2 pounds (15%) of Crisp Light Crystal. At 71% efficiency, that should give me an original gravity of 1.058 for my 6 gallon batch. Mash target is 152 °F. For my system, I believe that means I want a mash tun strike temperature of 166 °F and a kettle strike temp of 175 °F.
I am building the water up from distilled. My target profile is Martin’s Pale Ale Profile. The liquor recipe I came up with gets me fairly close and should leave me with a mash pH of 5.2 for this recipe. The calculated finished water profile is Calcium: 165 ppm; Magnesium: 18 ppm; Sodium: 25 ppm; Sulfate: 300 ppm; Chloride: 55 ppm; Bicarbonate: 183.5 ppm. I use 5 gallons for mashing and 3.5 gallons for sparging. The recipe uses Gypsum (CaSO₄), Epsom Salt (MgSO₄), Canning Salt (NaCl), Calcium Chloride (CaCl₂), and Pickling Lime (Ca(OH)₂). The pickling lime is not used in the sparge, but Gypsum and Calcium Chloride are substituted to maintain the Calcium as well as the Sulfate to Chloride ratio. For the mash, 7.8 g Gypsum, 3.4 g Epsom Salt, 1.2 g Canning Salt, 0.7 g Calcium Chloride, and 2.1 g Pickling Lime. For the sparge, 8.2 g Gypsum, 2.4 g Epsom Salt, 0.8 g Canning Salt, and 1.0 g Calcium Chloride.
For the hops, I am going to use an ounce of US Magnum (14.5% AA) at 60 minutes. When the boil is complete, I will convert my mash tun to a hop back, fill it with 3 pounds of fresh hops for a 20 minute hop steep before cooling. The amount and technique is based on a recommendation from Jamie Floyd of Ninkasi Brewing from a presentation he gave at NHC 2012 in Seattle called Brewing Beer with Fresh Hops. In it he described a batch he made where he used 1,000 pounds of fresh hops in a 60 barrel batch. Since a US beer barrel holds 31 US gallons, that works out to be 8.6 ounces per gallon. If I round it to a half pound, that translates to 3 pounds for my 6 gallon batch. The notes I took from the technique description were, “Put hops in mash tun, drain kettle over those hops, steep, drain and squeeze from there. Acts like a giant hop back. Rake to expose lupulin to wort.” I’m not exactly sure what that last comment means, but I’ll do my best. He also said he doesn’t bother dry hopping with fresh hops because he doesn’t think it’s amazing and he worries about the risk of oxidation.
The yeast is Wyeast 1450 – Denny’s Favorite 50. I made a 2 quart starter 2 days ago and crashed it yesterday.
11:00 The flame is on. Gretchen and I just spent the last 2½ hours picking hops. While we got negligible amounts of Centennial (<1 oz) and Columbus (~1 oz), we got a great haul of Chinook (1 lb, 1 oz) and a mess of Cascade (~4 lb). Today, we’re using all of the Centennial, Columbus, and Chinook, and enough of the Cascade to bring the total up to 3 pounds.
There was a heavy fog this morning while Gretchen and I picked. At the moment there is a gentle rain falling and the turkey family just walked through.
11:27 Slightly overshot my kettle strike target. Temperature is 178 °F. I’ll wait for it to cool to 175 °F before transferring to the mash tun.
11:30 Transferring.
11:34 AM Transferred. Mast tun strike temperature is 167 °F.
11:36 AM Doughing in.
11:44 AM Mashing at 155 °F.
I decanted the small beer off of the starter. I sampled it to make sure there were no signs of infection. It was actually quite good. I don’t know whether the yeast is to credit or whether I just had a hankering for a small beer, but I swear, I could drink that. It was just 6 ounces of extra light Pilsen DME in 2 quarts of water, boiled for 15 minutes, and fermented at room temperature with Denny’s Favorite 50. BeerAlchemy suggests a starting gravity of 1.028 SG and a finishing gravity of 1.007 SG. Quite dry with an ABV of only 2.7%.
12:44 PM Mash complete. Ending temperature 155 °F.
12:46 PM Vorlauf and lauter. The gravity of the first runnings was 1.079 SG (1.072 SG at 104 °F). Collected 3⅜ gallons.
12:58 PM Lauter complete. Sparging. 175 °F. 162 °F.
1:12 PM Started heating the first runnings to the boil to make up some time.
1:18 PM Collected 3½ gallon of 1.032 SG (1.025 SG at 106 °F) second runnings for a total of 6⅞ gallon boil volume. Boil gravity is 1.055 SG (1.050 SG at 97 °F) for a brewhouse efficiency of 77%.
1:35 PM Boiling. Waiting for hot break to subside.
1:38 PM Added bittering hops.
2:23 PM Added chiller and Irish Moss.
2:28 PM Added yeast nutrient.
2:38 PM Flame out. Draining to hop back. Crudzo! I’m guessing it was 6 gallons. Original gravity is 1.063 SG (1.055 SG at 111 °F). My brew log calculations also indicate that, given my previous measurements, an original gravity volume of 6 gallons would correspond to an original gravity of 1.063 SG, so I think I’m good.
2:47 PM Steeping.
3:13 PM Draining back to kettle. Temperature is 183 °F.
3:25 PM Collected 5½ gallons from the hop back. Chilling.
3:58 PM Chilled to 68 °F. Draining to carboy.
4:16 PM Drained. Rockin to aerate.
4:21 PM Aerated.
4:39 PM Pitched. Fermentation chamber set for 65±1 °F. Cleaning up.
5:28 PM Cleaned up.