American India Pale Ale: original post 2/3/2010

So my original gravity ended up being kind of low for this AIPA. The finished product is a beer with about 4% alcohol; definitely on the lower end of the spectrum. I think I added a gallon too much of water to my wort. That coupled with a sixty minute boil would account for this shortcoming. But, you know, this isn’t that big of a deal. If you like to look at things in a positive light, it will make for a good session beer. I tasted one recently, only a day and a half out from bottling and it wasn’t too bad. Once the carbonation kicks in I think it will be a real nice tasting beer. I have a sneaking suspicion though that American two row barley sucks in terms of sugar yield. This is up for future investigation.

Another issue I have about the beer was its extremely pale color. Not red-headed stepchild never-been-out-of-the-base

ment-pale, but more like the commi-slant-eye-gook shade. Yella. Next time, in order to combat this crime against democracy, I will use a darker grain than the light Munich I had employed before.

I also let the starter sit a day longer than I had previously done before. I was a tad nervous as to what the outcome would be. Would the yeast be viable? Would it do what it was supposed to do? Of course it did. Just like most living organisms on this planet, yeast is a hearty, diligent soul. No endangered species list for this strain. Panda’s can go suck it.

One last critique I have: my wort chiller sucks. I built it myself and it shows. I if could justify throwing the one I have away, I would. But I can’t, so I won’t. being a closed system, I use a drill powered pump to circulate a sink full of ice water through the copper coils. It works well enough. But I have too much tubbing between the chiller and the pump. This makes it hard for the pump to prime and ends up wasting a lot of battery power. I am pretty sure that if I cut out about 20’ of tubing, things will function a lot better. Alas, no one will find out until I chill my NEXT batch, the American Pale Ale.

Here’s the AIPA recipe:
INGREDIENTS
Domestic Two Row……………10#
Munton’s Pale Two Row……2#
Wyermans Light Munich……1#

Chinook Pellets, 11.5%....... 1 oz., 60 min.
Centennial, 9%…………………..1 oz., 10 min.
Centennial, 9%…………………..1 oz., 5 min.
Amarillo, 9%……………………….1 oz., flameout

Wyeast Smack Pack, 1056…..1pkg (w/ 2 pt. starter)

MASH
149˚F/90 min. (as per brewing classic styles)
Pre-boil Gravity: 1.030 + .0103= 1.040

BOIL
60 min.
OG: 1.045 + .0021= 1.047
FG: 73˚F @ 1.010= 1.016