This is an all grain recipe for a Pale Ale. I call it E.K.G.PALE ALE. It is what I think the Brits might come up with if they attempted to make a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone.
I use a double decoction mash method, however that is the brewers choice.
The original gravity...1.054. Finished gravity...1.010.
The yeast is Wyeast 1056 American Ale cultured up from a previous ale.
The grain bill is as follows:
7 lbs. Muntons pale ale malt
2 lbs. Briess American 2 row pale ale malt
1 lb. Vienna malt
1 lb. Muntons English crystal malt.
The hop bill and schedule is as follows:
1 oz. Fuggle....90 min.
1 oz. East Kent Goldings....60 min.
1 oz. Fuggle....30 min.
1 oz. East Kent Goldings....10 min.
1 oz. East Kent Goldings....dry hopped in secondary
Other kettle ingredients:
2 tbs. gypsum in mash water
2 tbs. irish moss added last ten minutes of the boil.
The following is the procedure that I use. Tempuratures are in degrees F. :
Add cracked grains to 3.5 gal. of 140 degree H2O in 5 gallon s.s.kettle.
Temp stabilized at 122 degrees and held for 30 minutes
Preheat 5 gal. insulated water cooler with 140 degree H2O.
Slowly raise temperature of grist with bottom heat to 140 degrees, sturring constantly. Don't aeriate wort, just gently stur.
Add grist to tun and cover. Rest for 1 hour
Remove 8 quarts of grist and return to kettle. Bottom heat this grist to 150 degrees and hold for 15 minutes. Raise temp again to 160 degrees and hold for 15 minutes. Raise to a boil. Return decoction to the tun, sturing it in slowly. (NOTE. While doing decoction be careful not to scorch the grist. Add heat slowly and stur constantly, being careful not to aeriate it as well).Temperature now should be stabilized at 150 degrees. Rest at this temperature for 1/2 hour.
Repeat the decoction as before. This should bring the grist ot a temperature of 160 degrees. Rest at this temp until you have heated 3.5 gallons of H2O to 170 degrees. This is the sparge water.
Sparge as you normally would. I use a rotating wand connected to a bottling bucket elevated above the tun. First collections are recirculated through the grist several times until the runoff is somewhat clear. I stop sparge when runoff drops to 1.010. Be sure to cool the test wort to 60 degrees while taking gravity readings.
I use a 10 gallon SS brewing kettle and add H20 to the 7 gallon level. I monitor the evaporation rate and add H20 if necessary to wind up with about 6 gallons of wort. By the time I remove the hop bags and rack off the wort from the trub, I come up with a bit over 5 gallons. After the rack from primary to secondary, the finished volume is very close to 5 full gallons of beer.
Boil for 90 minutes and hop as per schedule above.
I let the wort sit for several hours after cooling with the chiller, and carefully siphon it off into the fermenter. Pitch yeast and ferment at 65-70 degrees until gravity drops to 1.030. Rack to secondary and add dry hops. Ferment out to 1.010. Bottle or keg.
This is a great tasting beer and appeals to even those who don't usually drink anything but commercial, run of the mill beer (swill).
Enjoy
Bob Decker
TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL FERMENTATION.
Use the freshest yeast possable. Yeast is very sensitive to temperature extremes an dlight. Keep refrigerated and use within a month or so from manufacturers date.
Use a starter using 1/2 cup dried malt extract and about a pint of water. Boil the slurry and cool it to 70-75degrees before pitching yeast. Let slurry sit at 70 degrees until it is at full krausen. Generally 36 to 72 hours. For higher gravity beers, double the pitching rate for every 0.008 increase above 1.048.
Select the correct yeast for the style of beer you are brewing, and the temperatures you will be fermenting at. Remember that less flocculant ale yeasts produces drier beers, and they are more extery and fruity. More flocculant ale yeasts produce maltier clearer beers. In lager strains, the more flocculant yeasts produce clearer, fuller bodied beers and ferment best at 48 degrees or above. Less flocculant strains produce drier, colder fermenting beers. These cold fermenting beers take much longer to drop bright.
Ferment at correct temperature. You will culture your yeast at 75degrees and introduce your yeast culture to the wort while both are 75degrees, but then adjust fermentation temperature.
Next is aeration. Lack of it increases lag time and prolongs fermentation. This will result in higher finish gravities, and off flavors. Cooled wort (75 degrees) is not in danger of oxidation from vigorous aeriation. The CO2 produced by fermentation will purge any oxygen. Highly flocculation yeasts need more aeration and the lower flocculation strains require less.
Keep your temperature constant especially with high flocculators.
Don't rack prematurely. Doing so will result in high final gravity. 90 percent of the sugars should be attenuated before racking into your secondary.
Good luck with your ferments.
Gentlemen,.... start your yeasts!!!!!