American Pale Ale

For our first brewing adventure, we decided to get a kit from American Brewmasters' in North Raleigh. We don't want to start picking ingredients until we're comfortable with the process and have acquired more of the equipment we'll need to have a fully-functional set up. We chose an American Pale because we both like Pale Ales, because it was one of the cheaper kits, and because it had Oregon hops and we LOVE Oregon! According to the website, it was inspired by Shipyard's Export Ale.

Hoppity Hop Hops! @ Rogue Farms, Oregon 2011 - Photo by Ali Sears

Ingredients:
6.6 lbs light malt extract
8 oz Wheat Malt
8 oz Crystal 40 L Malt
1.5 oz Bittering Hops - Willamette
0.5 oz Flavoring Hops - Cascade
1.0 oz Aromatic Hops - Willamette and Cascade
American Ale Yeast

We used both Willamette and Cascade Hops but didn't write down which one we used when. The aromatic hops should have been 0.5 oz of each. I'm fairly certain we had 2 packets of Willamette Hops so I'm guessing the above breakdown is what we used.

First off, we sterilized everything we would need pre-boil. This isn't necessary as any contamination will be killed during the boil, however we really wanted to be sure we were being as clean as possible. We also don't have a large enough pot to have as much water as we would like in the actual  boil process, so prior to starting brewing, Landon sterilized everything and boiled 2 gallons of water which went straight into the primary fermenter.

We started the actual brewing process by bringing 2 gallons of water up to 155°F. That took quite a while, even on our gas stove. We used a meat thermometer to monitor our temperature until we get a digital candy thermometer. Once it reached the desired temperature, we added the Wheat Malt and Crystal Malts to a muslin bag and added that to the water. Basically, we made malt tea. The water stayed between 150° and 155° the whole time, but required a lot of babysitting. We discarded the used grains this time, but in the future we want to make bread, etc. to eliminate waste and make tasty food!

Steeping Grains - Before

After the steeping, we added the liquid malt extract. It tastes a lot like molasses, but lighter somehow.

Steeping Grains - After

Once that came up to a boil, we added the first set of hops -- for bittering. When we added the hops, the mixture foamed up and smelled DELICIOUS! It really started to seem like beer at that point.

Hoppity Hop Hops!

After 45 minutes, we added half of the flavoring hops. At the 1 hour point, we took the wert off the stove and added the rest of the flavoring hops and all the aromatic hops.

Looks like we're making green beer!!

We put the boil pot in an ice water bath to cool it down so it wouldn't kill the yeast. While it was cooling, we rehydrate the yeast in warm water. You've got to be really careful with yeast and heat. It dies at about 120°F, which I can attest to through my time making bread and ...other things.

Ice Bath.

We stopped taking pictures at this point, because, you know, what good brewer doesn't drinking while he's brewing (hmm- in retrospect, Sunday Funday + Sunday Brew Day are not such a great idea come Monday). Actually, we stopped taking pictures after we added the hops -- the ice bath picture is actually from making ...something else. Once the wort was cooled off, we added the yeast, then mixed it all into the 2 gallons of water in the primary fermenter. We added more boiled water to top it off at 5 gallons.

We measured the specific gravity. Landon did it and his notes say 44% and 14. I'm not sure what that means right now because he's doing homework but I'll find out soon and let you know. 

Right now the wort is chillin' in our spare bath tub fermenting it's little heart out! We're really excited to see how it comes out! It so hard to drink crappy (but cheap!) beer for the next few weeks while our beer does it's thing.