Epic Pale Ale clone

[Steve Hinton]

Recipe taken from "Can You Brew It".

Not sure how "cloned" my attempt is. I overshot the SG by 8 points! But more my fault than the recipe so here it is. Feel free to chime in :)

55L preboil

40L post-boil

75% efficiency

OG 1060 (should be 1052)
FG 1010-1012
IBUs 23.2 (True IBU is 45 aprox)
SRM 8.3

8.6kg Golden Promise 80%
1.1kg Baird's Caramalt 10%
360g Carapils 3.3%
720g Fawcett Pale Crystal 6.6%

Strike Water 30L - I added 48g of PH5.2 Stabilizer

Mash temp 68.5C (I hit 66.7C)

70min mash

Sparge Water 38L @ 80C

PreBoil Gravity 1050

90 minute boil

14g US Cascade 6.2%AA at 75m
28g US Cascade at 30m
68g US Cascade at 10m (plus finings - I used koppafloc)
85g US Cascade at 0m
Wait ten minutes
85g US Cascade - hot whirlpool for 10 more minutes

Cool to 18C and pitch, raise to 20C after 24 hours

Wyeast 1272 American Ale II - I used WLP051 instead - two vials into a 3L starter hand swirled frequently for 24 hours, then cold crashed for 9 hours before decanting 2L and pitching 1L yeast slurry split between two fermenters.

114g US Cascade dry hop dose 1 at 20C for 5 days - i just chucked pellets loose into the fermenter
114g US Cascade dry hop dose 2 at cold crash 4C for 5 days - chucked in loose again

I packaged 37L (18L into bottles and 19L into keg) at 2.4 volumes of CO2 stored at 20-22C

 

[Mark Weusten]

OG was 1050

[Mark Weusten]

Bottling this tonight, anyone have tasted theirs yet?

[Sam DT]

Only while bottling (last night) - full-on hop hit but should hopefully mellow out a bit in the bottle...

As for the WLP001 & 007 experiment..

Recap: Mashed at 77, 45L across two fermenters, took about 20 minutes to ramp from protein rest to mash temp.

Gravities:

001: OG:1.052, @9 days 1.010, @bottling (21 days) 1.008

007: OG:1.052, @9 days 1.014 (stirred), @bottling (21 days) 1.012

So looks like 67 works well for 007 but would shoot for the full 68.5 if I try with WLP 001 again.

Taste wise they were quite different (as you might expect with a 4 point difference in gravity) - 007 was relatively mellow where as the 001 was quite harsh. Looking forward to having a proper glass or three in a few weeks time.

[Mark Weusten]

Just finished bottling mine. Tasted smooth but is quite thin with not much of a malt profile, hops are there but mellow. Hopefully develops more flavour in the bottle.

[Peter Smith]

I am brewing 40+L tonight of EPA how do people feel the recipe is coming out?   I am thinking of doing a really big whirlpool in addition to the 0min flame out thinking cooling to 67C then a 30 min pump whirlpool of 100g (40l batch)  do you think it needs this?   

We have a fresh batch of EPA in beer fridge at work, I think its hoppier then it was a few months ago....

[Mark Weusten]

I think those additions would work. I would mash higher than 65 on my next attempt

[Peter Smith]

1272 is pretty hungry yeast was thinking maybe try to sit at 68C, as I am after  more of a session beer for BBQ keg drinking , was going to aim for 1.048/9

[Mark Weusten]

I tried this from the mini keg on Sunday. I am quite stoked with how it came out, this is a great recipe. For my palate next time I would mash a bit higher for body and increase the dry hopping amounts. My first GF beer and best beer also.

[Steve Hinton]

I've only got 2 bombers left :-( Saving them for our next APA brew session.

If I brewed this again (or should I say when!) I will adjust recipe to hit 1.052 and mash at 68.5. Mine was a bit malt forward and a bit thin on the palette but I can put that down to the extra 8 points and lower mash temp.

Still a very drinkable beer even if not a great clone.

[Peter Smith]

EPA Beersmith file - going for 46L 1.051 ish 68mash more ibu and a bit of wheat , gladdies PA,   as long as elements fire, etc etc etc...    and a touch of med/dark crystal  

 

[Peter Smith]

Interestingly I got quite low sparge extraction out of that batch,  the initial run off was 1.060 but I only got out enough wort to end up with 36L in the fermenter before the sparge runoff droped to 1.010...      I vorlaufed for a good 15mins and got the clearest wort ever seen at the Smith household.    all in a 60L fermenter on garage floor and it was sitting at 18-19C last night well under way, no delay with live a 700ml pitch of live  1272 slurry and oxygen.   Managed to get another 2L from wort recovery method in a 10l carboy... still ditched 4L of thick trub, there was 375g of cascade in that

 

[Sam DT]

I came in lower than expected as well but only by about 5 litres (scaled to target 49-50,

Will be interested to hear how you go with the hops - mine was initially quite full on but after two weeks in the bottle my 007 seems to have scrubbed out a bit and was a little bland, will try the 001 tonight, hopefully the lower sugars push the hops forward a little. 

If I'd followed the BS hop age calculator (which I didn't) I should have upped additions by about 30% which I'd probably do next time / get some fresher hops.