CS1 - Zane's APA 5.5%

[Ralph]

So this was an Epic Pale Ale clone. Recipe was hashed together out of the various versions you can find around the internet. Went something like this. There are more IBU than calculated. The hot whirlpool definitely adds some bitterness.

Cascadian Pale Ale

American Pale Ale

Type: All Grain	Date: 13-02-2013
Batch Size (fermenter): 35.00 l	Brewer: Zane
Boil Size: 45.57 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: Zane BIAB
End of Boil Volume 34.32 l	Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 31.00 l	Est Mash Efficiency 81.4 %
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50):
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 7.00 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 1 - 7.300 kg Gladfields Pale Ale (5.9 EBC) Grain 2 81.2 % 0.900 kg Caramalt (30.0 EBC) Grain 3 10.0 % 0.495 kg Crystal Pale Bairds (95.0 EBC) Grain 4 5.5 % 0.300 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 5 3.3 % 16.00 g Cascade US [5.60 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 6 6.6 IBUs 30.00 g Cascade US [5.60 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 8.9 IBUs 0.70 g Compac CG (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 8 - 71.00 g Cascade US [5.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9 9.9 IBUs 1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 mins) Other 10 - 90.00 g Whirlpool 1 for 20 min Cascade US [5.60 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs 90.00 g Whirlpool 2 Add after 10 min, whirlpool for 10 min. Cascade US [5.60 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 12 0.0 IBUs 1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 13 - 115.00 g Cascade US [5.60 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs 115.00 g Cascade US [5.60 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 15 0.0 IBUs
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.055 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.053 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.1 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 5.1 %
Bitterness: 25.4 IBUs	Calories: 499.8 kcal/l
Est Color: 17.2 EBC
Mash Profile
Mash Name: BIAB, Light Body	Total Grain Weight: 8.995 kg
Sparge Water: 0.00 l	Grain Temperature: 12.0 C
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C	Tun Temperature: 12.0 C
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE	Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Saccharification Add 51.1 l of water at 68.3 C 64.4 C 90 min Mash Out Heat to 75.6 C over 7 min 75.6 C 10 min
Sparge Step: Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
Mash Notes: Brew in a bag method where the full boil volume is mashed within the boil vessel and then the grains are withdrawn at the end of the mash. No sparging. This is a light body beer profile.
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Keg	Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 86.48 KPA	Carbonation Used: Keg with 86.48 KPA
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 7.2 C	Age for: 3 days
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage	Storage Temperature: 10.0 C
Notes
Based on Epic Pale. 1053SG. Brewed 13/2 ferment at 18 deg. Took while to get active airlock, but went well once going. Dry hop 115g added 17/2, temperature turned up to 20 deg 18/2. Dumped dry hop out cone 19/2. SG at 1016... 2nd dry hop added 25/2. SG still at 1016. 28/2 turned down to -1 deg in morning. still at 2 deg in evening. Dropped hops out bottom of conical. 2/3/13 Kegged. Used inline filter to take out any floating hop bits. FG at 1014 Samples from fermentor tasting good.

[Crusader-Rob]

Looks I'm the first to take a beer from the swap, thought I'd have a sunday night beer, with tea. This is a very good, very close clone to what is commercially available,

Prominent Hop Aroma, and hop flavour, pours out very clear, from the 100% US Cascade. Very good beer,  The only thing I'll say is the head retention on this, it didn't seem to last, but i notice similar on the actual beer.

Could be closer to the real thing than the CYBI clone around, would be interesting in a 3 way taste test, from your recipe the CYBI recipe and the commercial version.

By the way Zane thats good efficiency from BIAB, apart from milling your own grain, is there anything special you do??

[Ralph]

Yep. Head retention does not seem great on this. Might be the amount of hop oils messing with the foam tho? Cant say I have ever bought a bottle of Epic Pale Ale, and I may have only had a pint or two of it on tap quite a while back... so my recollection of whether it is true to form or not is not great! 

BIAB efficiency. Crush is the standard grain crush that I was using for a mash tun. I could probably grind it finer and get even better efficiency but I have been too lazy to change the grind on the mill. I think doing BIAB with the full volume of water does get good efficiency and I have the bag on a rope with a pulley above the pot. At the end of the mash I just lift the bag up and let it drip into the pot. I think this recovers a lot of wort that you would otherwise lose.

[Crusader-Rob]

Might be an idea to grab a bottle of epic? Campare the two for yourself?

[oliver]

Caramel, toffee, orange aroma. Smooth prominent bitterness, balanced with the malt. Finishes dry with a nice lingering hop flavour. Thin, persistent head. Nice light amber colour, really clear apart from a little chill haze. Beautiful beer all round :)

[Paul Fraser]

Getting to the end of this at the moment.

Appearance - slightly undercarbed, I had to pour hard to get a decent head. Thick head subsided slowly. Light amber colour which was brilliantly clear.

Aroma - nice level of soft hop aroma. Clean malt character in the background with the hops leading.

Flavour - again, nice clean malt character balanced beautifully with the hops. Pleasant bitterness with a dry finish.

Overall - a great beer to drink, very more ish. Bit more carb would complete it.

That is me rating your beer as it stands, but I also have a pint of Epic in front of me for comparison. I love Epic pale ale and have bought many bottles. Before comparing I would have agreed with Rob and guessed cloned but there is a noticeable difference.

Colour ever so slightly darker in Epic. Clarity and head are all bang on.
Epic is more carbed
Aroma has bit of difference, mostly malt but perhaps hop aroma too
Flavour- Epic malt seems a bit richer but both equally balanced.

Go buy one and try for yourself.
Excellent beer though Zane.

[Ralph]

Yeh, the carbonation thing is a bit hard to get right pouring bottles from the keg... All the bottles I have done from the keg have been a bit undercarbed at the moment. When pouring a pint it is spot on though! 2L Riggers turn out better, but bottles that have been left to sit tend to carb down a bit, probably due to the headspace in the bottle?

I really am not worried if it is a perfect clone or not, much more interested in making tasty beer, and as far as I am concerned it is tasty... and I would brew it again. It was interesting to grab a clone recipe to try brewing instead of my usual method of chucking a recipe together based on what I felt like at the time.

[Paul Fraser]

For sure. I gave you my evaluation of your beer, not as an Epic clone. I thought it was interesting to do the side by side and give you my comments on that also as a side thing. I am amazed on the amount of hops you used as it is so well balanced. I have a bunch of US Cascade thanks to Finney so I might try something similar. I'm sure you will hone down the bottle carb thing.

[Ralph]

Yeh, US Cascade is often quite low in AA% compared to many other hops and remember that is a 35L batch not a normal 23L. If you convert it down to a 23L the hop numbers probably look more normal but there are still a shiteload of them.

[Paul Fraser]

Ah yes so it is. That makes more sense then.

[Mike]

Zanes APA

Appearance: Nice colour, good clarity, slightly verging towards a nice amber colour in my big bottomed tasting glass (10 or so SRM? shrug). Looks appealing. Poor head and head retention but is from the keg so to be expected.

Aroma: Nice hoppy nose, slight sweet hop character - maybe peaches or straw (slightly old hops? Cascade is usually sharper than this in my experience).

Taste: Fruit character, fruit/citrus, bitter, pine needles, good malt profile for an APA, sits back and supports the hops. As it warms up more malty sweetness comes through.

Mouthfeel: Nice body, suits the APA. Tongue coating bitterness, lip smackingly bitter. Very dry, big hop finish, quite grassy on finish - too long a dry hop? As with others I noticed the low carbonation, but I assumed this was from the keg bottling and me leaving it too long, either way it didn't detract from the beer. 

Finish: A lasting citrus bitterness, coating the tongue. 

Overall: A nice, dry, quite thin (in a good way) APA. An achievement for a homebrewer, this is something you could find in a supermarket, and quite a hard style to nail the clarity/hop bitterness etc for. Only flaw in my opinion is the slightly grassy/sweet hop aroma/flavour, and it may be slightly too bitter for a session beer (not for me though!). Then again it is an Epic clone so what do you expect! 

[Mike]

Just saw the 2x 3 day dry hops, which obviously isn't too long...maybe some were left on the surface/in suspension after the first dryhop was drained, or maybe the grassiness is coming from somewhere else. Either way it is a minor concern.  

[Ralph]

yup and the 2 x dry hopping would have taken a total of 7 days... which is the sort of time many people hop for anyway. I actually do not know about the quality of the hops - they were bought from http://www.yakimavalleyhops.com/ and I assume stored correctly, but the film they are packed in does not look like barrier film, and not all the bags had a vacuum... Anything else I have bought has been in proper barrier film and had a vacuum, which makes me a little suspect.