American Pale Ale

Today was brew day for my 2nd batch.  I'm making an American Pale Ale with the goal of getting something similar to the Deschutes Brewery Mirror Pond Pale Ale.  

Shown below is my kit (and here's the link to the brewing instructions).

Changes I made:

• Reserve 1/5 of the Cascade hops for addition in the final 5 min of the boil to use them as aroma hops rather than bittering.
• Squeezed out the caramel malt bag into the wort (instructions say just let it drip dry)

And here it goes...

Fermentation Setup - Water -filled brew pot with carboy inside

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                 Day 1                                              Day 2

Day 3

Tasting

For this batch, perfect taste was achieved about 1 month after the bottling date.  Before that, carbonation was low and the flavor was too light - a little on the watery side.  The ones that I let sit for longer became darker and took on more fruity flavors with slight hints of banana and clove.  One month was the perfect time for a clean, refreshing, and fresh tasting Hefeweizen.

Moving the bottles from their conditioning location into the fridge stops the fermentation (yeast go dormant in the cold) and allows for storage at the ideal flavor without continuous change in flavor.

Conditioning

Now, I wait for 2 weeks while the yeast eats up the priming sugar, turning it into carbonation.  Using dark colored bottles and keeping it at a constant temperature somewhere between 60-75 F will help mellow out the flavors while it's carbonating.

Here it is... hiding from the light and staying warm.

Bottling

Today was bottling day.  I tasted it again - major improvement over the fresh wort, but still not something I'd describe as "good."  I'd describe it as watery with a bitter aftertaste, whereas the wort was strong and extremely bitter.















Lessons learned:

• Measure Final Gravity before adding the priming sugar
• I measured it after siphoning it into the bottling bucket with the priming sugar.  This should give me a higher FG (and therefore lower ABV) reading.  I got 1.018, which translates to 4.07% ABV.
• Make sure to have enough bottles ready for bottling day.
• This is the messiest step so far - have a towel ready.
• Place the carboy in a plastic milk crate next time before I transfer the wort into it.  This will make lifting the full carboy much easier.

P.S. Check out the new signs on my wife's wedding gift and craft page.

Fermentation

Something went wrong... I suspect a faulty airlock since it seems to have shot off the top.  I had previously been worried about the little bit of sanitizer spilled into the brew during the siphoning stage, but I think this shows my yeast is still alive and well.

1/2/13 Update - this appears to just be a sign of particularly vigorous fermentation, commonly taken care of by setting up a blow-off tube for the first few days.

Also, after talking to some homebrewers at work, I've learned that the later in the boil the hops are added, the less bitter and more aromatic the beer turns out.  (Longer boiled hops increase the bitterness). Next time, I'm adding my hops at the end, because this batch of wort was ridiculously bitter.  I'll re-test after fermentation and see if I need to add some finings (like gelatin or isinglass).

Lessons Learned:

• Early hops --> Adds bitterness
• Late hops --> Adds aroma
• Don't add the yeast to the wort until it's cool enough (60-75 F)
• Place the carboy in a bucket to regulate temperature - add ice packs as needed to prevent overheating and blowoff.
• Use a blowoff tube setup for the 1st day of fermentation.

1/5/13 Update - Still fermenting in the carboy.  I didn't see any bubbles in the minute that I was looking at it.  I think I'll leave it for 2 weeks, to try to let the yeast eat up any strange tasting byproducts of the fermentation process.  I realized that I'm making a German Hefeweizen, not an American one.  I've never tried the German style, but apparently, the flavor is described as having hints of banana and cloves.  Maybe a little extra fermentation and some finings will make it taste more like the Windmer Hefeweizen that I'm more used to.  I'll start taking gravity readings after day 12.  If it's stable 3 days later... time to bottle!