Triple C

Whew! I'm just gonna go out on a limb here, and say that not many people around these parts are brewing much these days. It is HOT!

Nope, nothing brewing here--too hot!

But that rare and endangered species, the August Brew was back in season at my place weekend before last.

I strapped a few frozen drink bottles to my head and brewed this lil pale ale I call 'Triple C', for the hops. Nothing special probably. Just something to keep the dream alive. This was going to be a '15 minute pale' experiment: boil for only 15 minutes with massive hopping, and see what if any off flavor problems came up.  But it's so damn hot and muggy, I just wanted to get something I can depend on in the fermenter and call it good for a bit till the weather cools. So reg'lar 60 minute boil here, but stuck with the intense late hopping.

Don't it shine

Triple C Pale Ale
Vol=23L
Boil=60min.
Final vol=20L
Grain
3.5 kg Maris Otter pale ale malt
1.0 kg Rye malt
.11 kg Crystal 40L malt
Hops
10 g Centennial (8.3) @ 60 min
60 g Centennial (8.3) @ 15 min
22 g Cascade (7) @ 10 min
60 g Crystal (5.6) @ 0 min
1 Whirlfloc tablet
Yeast
2-liter starter, 2nd generation WLP001 California ale

OG=1.052
FG=1.009
ABV=5.3
SRM=6.6
IBU=47

Mashed one hour at 65C, with two sparges, 74C and 76C respectively.


Now, I've only just racked it to the secondary fermenter (after 10 days in primary at 18-22C) to let it clear up for a couple of days, but the sample I just took looks terrific, and tastes promising. Let's judge it according to some of its attributes.

• Appearance: Pale golden honey color, hazy; no head.
• Aroma: Malty, fruity, resiny hops; slight alcohol smell
• Flavor: Light and very dry! Lovely complex hops (piney/citrussy/floral); slightly malty, with an intense bitterness; it lingers long in the back of the palate, and gets shot out through the nose with the alcohol after-burner. Not as bad as it sounds, but I hope it does lay back into the mix after a couple weeks of conditioning.
• Mouthfeel: No carbonation, so it's mighty thin, but not watery. I can tell this will be a really nice summer thirst quencher once it's conditioned and carbed.
• Overall impression: I pitched the yeast starter at high Krausen (after the yeast have multiplied, when they're at the height of their voracious feeding frenzy), and they took off with an unabated vengeance that didn't subside for a week. I think I pitched a little too much though, as it over-attenuated, drying it way out, and it ripped through the sugars too fast, running the alcohol up a bit too high for the modest amount of body this has, and adding fusel alcohols--the bad kind--to the mix. We'll see though. All the harshness (and there isn't that much, mind you) could mellow out after a few days conditioning.

So that's what's going on in the old brewery. Don't know when I'll be brewing again, hopefully in September at least once. It's really hot, and chilling the wort was a major pain in the butt. I have some projects to keep me busy though, such as building my stir plate, and getting the parts I need to add my pump into the equation (yeah, that pump! I promise I'll have it in action before a year is up). I also need to order more base malts, and this time I'm going to get a 25Kg bag of Pilsner malt, so I can do my first ever lager, most likely a Bohemian Pilsner. Can't wait!