On Saturday, January 29, 2011, Steve and I brewed a recipe he found on the Home Brew Talk forum that has apparently become quite popular. A poll showed that members of the forum have brew 3620 gallons of this beer recipe and was listed the second most popular brew recipe by Popular Scientist magazine.
I stocked up on the things I needed to complete this recipe from RebelBrewer.com and we were ready. This brew day we decided to attempt a fifteen gallon batch – the first for us ever. We usually do ten gallon batches and Steve does five gallon batches at his house. The recipe is a five gallon recipe so we calculated it for fifteen gallons.
The recipe:
24# Pale Ale Malt
6# Vienna
1.5# Crystal 10
3 oz Cascade 7% 60 mins
2.25 oz Cascade 7% 10 mins
.75 oz Cascade 7% 1 min
Steve invited a couple of friends, Tom and Bob, to brew with us. They are interested in brewing and wanted to see the process. They were a pleasure to have over. We talked home brew and sipped a few during the day.
We extended the boil about 10 minutes past the 60 minute mark to further reduce the wort volume. Got the Therminator flowing about 15 minutes before flame out. Forgot to throw in the Whirlfloc tablets at that time, so I threw them in with about five minutes remaining. Not sure how that will effect anything, but the smell was nasty and then finally cleared up.
Got the wort cooled down to below 70 degrees and we split it into three fermenting buckets. Steve took one home because I can only ferment 10 gallons in my fridge at a time. Checked the specific gravity: SG=1.056, a bit higher than the recipe called for I believe, but okay.
UPDATE: Kegged the beer on Saturday, March 6, 2011. FG=1012, right on target. Force carbed a keg of it and it tasted great. A little sweet flavor, nice and smooth. Should be a great beer.
