I’ve been doing a lot of IPAs lately, and decided to mix things up a bit with an American pale ale for my next hop-forward beer. The December 2017 issue of Brew Your Own had a clone recipe for Dale’s Pale Ale (by Oskar Blues Brewing), which is one of my favorite beers. I particularly like the malt body with it, so riffed off the recipe to come up with my own version. My other requirement was to focus on piney-type hops, so I bolstered the Cascade core with a hefty Simcoe late addition and dry hop. My hope is to turn this around pretty quickly, because I’m likely going to be out of my Thanksgiving IPA in a matter of days!

Old Pine Pale Ale

• 9 lbs. California Select 2-row brewer’s malt (Great Western)
• 1 lb. Golden Promise malt (Simpsons)
• 0.75 lb. Victory (biscuit) malt (Briess)
• 3 oz. 80°L caramel malt (Briess)
• 2 oz. Cascade whole hops (5.5% alpha), 60 minute boil
• 2 oz. Cascade whole hops (5.5% alpha), 10 minute boil
• 1 oz. Simcoe hop pellets (13.6% alpha), 5 minute whirlpool after flame-out
• 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
• 1 pkg. California Ale yeast (WLP001), prepared in starter
• 3 oz. Simcoe hop pellets (13.6% alpha), 5 day dry-hop

Target Parameters

• Infusion mash to hit target of 152°. Batch sparge.
• Claremont tap water, with addition of RO water and mineral adjustments to hit target of 98 ppm Ca, 22 ppm Mg, 24 ppm Na, 196 ppm SO4, 48 ppm Cl, and 167 ppm HCO3.
• 1.055 s.g., 1.012 f.g., 54 IBU, 7 SRM, 5.7% abv

Procedure

• Three days in advance of brewing, I prepared a 1.5 L starter (to produce enough yeast for the pitch on this batch as well as to have enough to save for later).
• For the mash water, I added 2 gallons of RO water to 1.67 gallons of tap water, with mineral additions of 5.9 g gypsum, 0.6 g table salt, 4.8 g epsom salt, and 1.4 g CaCl. I also added 4.5 mL of phosphoric acid (75%) to balance out the pH.
• I mashed in with 3.67 gallons of the above water at 165°, to hit a mash temperature of 153°. After 50 minutes, I added 1 gallon of tap water at 185°, let sit for another 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the first runnings. I added another 3.6 gallons of tap water at 185°, let sit for 10 minutes, vorlafued, and collected the remainder of the runnings.
• In total, I collected 6.65 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.045. This equates to 75% efficiency.
• I brought everything to a boil, adding the various hops and Whirlfloc at the appointed times. After 60 minutes, I added the final hop addition, let sit for 10 minutes, and chilled down to 77° before transferring to the primary fermenter and pitching the yeast.
• Starting gravity was 1.052, just a touch below the predicted. A slightly more vigorous boil probably would have brought things more into line. Even so, I’m not terribly worried; it’s well within overall parameters.
• I brewed this beer on 2 December 2017, and am fermenting it at 66°.