Inspiration Pale Ale

Based on a true trailblazer in the US Craft Beer Scene - Dale's Pale Ale, first brewed in Lyons, Colorado by Dale as a side project at his now infamous Oskar Blues BrewPub, this is a big American Pale Ale that found its way into cans and is a very popular drop in the US.  Tasted it loved it and love the work of Oskar Blues with their REEB moutain bikes, craft beer in cans and love of good tunes, brews and life in the Colorado mountains - what is there not to love.  Time to pay some homage and try and home brew something inspirational like Dale & the gang!

Brew Day: Sat 27th Apr 2013

Ingredients:
MALT
4.5Kg Simpson Maris Otter
2Kg Best Munich
400g Simpsons Crystal
HOPS
20g Northern Brewer 2012 Harvest 10.6% Alpha Acid (AA) @60mins
20g Cascade 2012 Harvest 6.7% AA @30mins
10g Columbus 2011 Harvest 13.9% AA @30mins
20g Centennial 2012 Harvest 9.2% AA @15mins
20g Cascade @5 mins
20g Columbus @5 mins
YEAST
Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

With a 6.5Kg grain bill and enough hops to knock your socks off, we targetted 70% efficiency using brew in the bag and to aim for 6.5% abv and 65 IBU with trusty help of my BrewersFriend.com and Ryan Vine who travelled all the way over from Ringwood to join in the fun on brew day and of course have a few brews while we are here!

Mashed in @70 degrees Celsius and temperature dropped rapidly to 65C then settled for most of the mash @64C. We mashed off for 10mins @72C before straining and draining using the good old trusty ladder.  It was outdoors brewing weather so all activities were on the back porch - New Orleans style with some good tunes in the background and some past brews enjoyed in between tasks!  Not sure if we will have any wild yeasts join the party but suspect not.  No sparge.  Just a gravity strain and drain of the grain.

Boil took slower and longer to reach than the 35C hell brews days for Westside Pale Ale indoors and we used the full hop quotas pretty much in line with the programme to the letter/time clock.  When it came time to chill the wort and fill the fermenter we netted off 22L and took a SG of 1060 - bang on target - thanks Ryan.  Pitched the yeast and it was bubbling by bed time @32C.  Used Nick's trusty temp regular and the fridge to bring down to 20C by Sun night - thx Nick @no. 27 - neighbourhood collaborator homebrewing at this best!

Wrapped up a good day's brewing with Mrs D fine Pork Noddles, bathed and put the kids to bed and then proceeded to have a coffee before a Pale Ale vertical tasting - a great day's brewing.  Thanks Ryan from #Ringwood for joining the #WeFo action and to Nick for the loaner on the temp controller.  Looking forward to seeing little Dale develop over the weeks ahead ;-)

Fermented Sat - Thu week @18 degrees Celsius and racked on Thu 9 May adding the remaining 44g of Centennial I had left into the secondary fermenter and left @ 18C until Mon 13/5 when I turned the temp controller down to 3C and then on Sat 18th May turned it down to 4C.  Bottled on Sat 25 May with a FG of 1012 and bulk primed with 186g of light golden dried malt extract.

Tasted from the bright beer fermenter and must say it was looking good for 4 weeks old.  Quite smooth in terms of body and not to astringent but some definite strong hop character and ability to dry the sweetness of the palate.  Hoping the flavours continue to develop and round out nicely in the bottle over the coming two weeks.  Special thanks to Ryan for all the help on brew day and Nick for the loan of the temp controller - definitely going to get one of those now!

cheers