Screwys Recipe #57 - Screwy Pale Ale (All Grain)

This time around I added another pound of Crystal 60L and removed a pound of Marris Otter but I left the 1/4 pound of biscuit malt unchanged. My 5 gallon mash tun allows me to mash 11 pounds of grain with a 1.25 thickness in just under 4.5 gallons of space, leaving me more than enough room to tune the mash temperature up or down as/if needed.

Size 5.00 gallons: Estimated IBU=59, SRM=14, OG=1.062, FG=1.015, ABV= 6.0%

I pitched Safale S-04 dry yeast directly into the 70F wort right after aerating it this time. I soaked the packets and scissors in One-Step too as an extra precaution against infection.

Recipe:

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9.0 pounds Marris Otter Malt (UK)

1.75 pounds Crystal 40L

0.25 pounds Biscuit Malt (Belgium)

1 ounce Yakima Magnum (pellets)

2 ounces Kent Golding (UK) (pellets)

1 ounce Cascade (pellets)

1 - Safale S-04 Dry Ale Yeast

Aerate, pitch at 70° F and ferment at 68° F until final gravity is reached

Raise to 70° F over 2 days and rack to secondary fermenter

Cold condition secondary fermenter for 1 week at 34° F

Keg at 30 psi for 2-3 days and serve at 34° F

Infusion Mash at 156° F for 60 minutes.

Boil for 60-90 minutes.

Ferment at 68° F (18.8 °C).

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Directions:  

Infusion Mash: (Soak mash tun in 8 quarts of 180° F water for 20 minutes to pre heat it)

Heat 21 quarts of filtered water to 173° F

Pour 14 quarts of 173° F water into mash tun

Mix in 11.0 pounds of crushed grain mix at 67° F

Pour the remaining 173° F water to fill mash tun to 4.50 gallon mark

Stir water and grain mixture and adjust to 156°F and mash for 60 minutes

Fly sparge with 168° F strike water to set mash bed to 168° F

Lauter for 30 minutes adding 11.5 quarts of sweet wort to both 12 quart pots

Full Wort Boil: (Split these quantities between both boil pots)

Add 1 ounce Magnum hops with 60 minutes remaining to boil

Add 2 ounces Kent Goldings (U.K.) hops with 20 minutes minutes remaining to boil

Add 1/4 tablet WhirlFloc with 9 minutes remaining to boil

Add 1 ounce Cascade hops with 7 minutes remaining to boil

Use wort chiller to cool wort to 70° F

Primary Fermentation:

Pour wort through strainer to remove excess hop and grain debris

Fill the Mr. Beer fermenter with wort to just above the 8.5 quart mark

Aerate wort and pitch 1 package of Safale S-04 Dry Ale Yeast at 68-70° F

Ferment to final gravity, raise to 70° F over 2 days

Secondary Fermentation:

Cold condition secondary fermenter for 1 week at 34°F

Keg/Bottle:

Keg and force carbonate at 30 psi for 2-3 days at 34°F

Bottle prime and carbonate at 70° for 7-14 days

After lautering off a little over 5 gallons of wort I took a gravity reading of almost 1.020 proving to myself that they were still plenty of sugars available to be drawn off from my 11 pounds of grain.

I got to use my new auto-siphon to transfer moving my cooled wort into the fermenters, it worked perfectly too. All this time I had spent pouring from the boil pots into the Mr. Beer fermenters was soon forgotten as using an auto-siphon was so easy to do. I placed my cooled wort on top of the sink attached the auto-siphon to the side of the pot and pushed the tube down to the bottom of the pot, all without spilling a drop.

This tool was so easy to use, clean and sanitize I still can't wait to use it again the next time I brew. I just fill the tube and tubing with One-Step and let them soak before connecting the tubing and transferring the cooled wort.

I was able to transfer all the clear wort out of the boil pot and into my fermenters leaving only the trub behind. The clear plastic allows you to see the wort and stop the siphoning at any point.

By the end of brewday there was a nice layer of krausen on top of both fermenters a sure sign there was  plenty of yeast activity.

I pitched the dry yeast right on top of the cooled wort after aerating it. About a minute later I aerated the wort again mixing the yeast up and spreading them around the entire keg to mix thoroughly with the wort. A quick starting fermentation is always a good sign that this fermentation will go well.

  After 10 full days of fermentation at 70F the hydrometer reading was 1.019 pretty close to the estimated final gravity of 1.015 so tomorrow I'm going to transfer them to corny kegs, give them a little gas and let them condition out for another 4 weeks or so before drinking.

Sanitized the corny kegs then racked the SPA to them today. Gassed them with 10 psi to set the lid seals and purge the O2 out of them. I'll let them condition in my office for another 3-4 weeks before tapping in. The samples I tasted form both kegs when filling were great, this is going to give me something to look forward too in the coming weeks.

I put one of the corny kegs in the refrigerator on June 20th and gassed it with 30 psi of Co2, it had been conditioning for a little over 3 weeks. A few days later I drew off a couple of glasses to see how it tasted and it definitley needs more conditioning time.

SPA Sample After 24 Days

(June 23, 2011) When I drank it there was not much hop flavor or aroma present, this one could definitely have benefited by some dry hopping, I may drop a sanitized muslin sack with .5 ounce of Cascades into each of the kegs in another week or so and let them sit for another week. The beer also had a biscuit finish and an slight alcohol bite that warmed the stomach a bit as it went down.

I have to let this one condition out  for a few more weeks before I try it again as 4 weeks after brewday is just too soon to be drinking this beer. The other keg is conditioning in the basement where the temperature is still below 70F and I'll tap this one in four weeks to see how it tastes.