Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Hop Frog Garden Pale Ale



Time to brew another garden grown fresh (or almost fresh - snap frozen) Hoppy pale ale with some first year old #WeFo Cascade whole hop cones at flame out.

Gladfield Malt Bill

  • 4.5 Kg Gladfield Ale Malt (78%)
  • 0.5 Kg Gladfield Wheat Malt (9%)
  • 0.25 Kg Gladfield Biscuit Malt (4%)
  • 0.25 Kg Gladfield Red Back Malt (4%)
  • 0.25 Kg Gladfield Light Crystal Malt (4%)

Hops

  • 20g East Kent Goldings 2013 4.6% A/A @75 mins
  • 20g Centennial 2013 8.2% A/A @75 mins
  • 20g East Kent Goldings 2013 4.6% A/A @10 mins
  • 20g Centennial 2013 8.2% A/A @10 mins
  • 70g Cascade 2014 ??? A/A Whole Hop Cones @0 mins (flame out)

Yeast

  • Fermentis Safale US-05

Water

  • 5g Calcium Sulphate and 5g Calcium Chloride in the Mash Water.

Mash

  • Planned for an infusion Mash @64 degrees Celsius with 18L of Water and Sparge with 16L to hit a combined wort in the kettle of 26L.

Brewday

Got off to a flying start on Sun 13th July with Malt (aka Mazzy - age 5 ) & Hop (aka Lola - age 3) assisting Dad with milling the malt into a new malt catcher using the trusty Chinese Barley Crusher.  Many huffs and puffs later - might use the drill next time we were off to mash into the Rubbermaid esky/chilly bin.  The Crown Urn had brought the water to strike temperature at 75C but I lost a good 15C by the time I empty into the Rubbermaid (lost 5C) and then added grain (lost 10C) so starting mashing (step style) at 60C before adding additional hot water to lift it to 64C with a few lid lifts and stirs to keep me occupied.
Sparging was going really well right up unto the point I realised I had the Urn tap on and was pouring valuable first wort through the deck on hallowed soil below - arrggghh!!! When will I learn the error of my ways.  Continued to sparge until clear runnings and 26L in the Crown Urn. With the heat cut out switch removed (thx Graeme @Crown Industries) I was able to get to boil and hold it (only vigorously with lid on though) and hit all my timings on hop additions including the whole Cascade hop cones at flame out.  Immersion chilled the brew and racked off to 28C and pitched yeast before transfer to fridge in the shed for rapid chilling to 18C with some ice packs and fridge on full bore.  Was down to 18C by night fall and have since adjusted the Keg King temp controller for 18C primary fermentation.

Cleaned up wrapped up and enjoyed a tub, scrub and couple of delightful Belgium Misfits from @Boatrocker - a truly top drop at the end of an every improving slowly brew day!