Sometimes things just come together. When you have young kids like I do that rarely seems to happen because the kids control your life. I was supposed to brew a beer for my club’s sensory training progam call Beer on the Fly. Basically, a club member brews a beer that they like or are want to improve and bring it in for the club to taste together. As a group we describe the beer and provide feedback for the brewer. Due to a quirk in the schedule I was going to have 4 months to brew this beer rather than the normal 2 months. Everyone was excited for the chance to try a bigger beer that there is normally not enough time for: barleywine, Russian imperial stout, etc.
I forgot.
About 1 month before the meeting I remembered that I was supposed to brew the beer. Well crap. I stopped by the homebrew shop after work and started to make up a beer. I didn’t have any of the recipes I had in my Beersmith library because I didn’t have time to make it home and back before the shop closed. So I came up with a true beer on the fly.
Recipe Specifications -------------------------- Boil Size: 6.72 gal Post Boil Volume: 5.72 gal Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal Bottling Volume: 5.50 gal Estimated OG: 1.056 SG Estimated Color: 4.6 SRM Estimated IBU: 46.8 IBUs Brewhouse Efficiency: 85.00 % Est Mash Efficiency: 85.0 % Boil Time: 60 Minutes Ingredients: ------------ Amt Name %/IBU 8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 80.0 % 1 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) 10.0 % 1 lbs Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) 10.0 % 0.50 oz Horizon [14.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min 32.5 IBUs 1.00 oz Mandarina Bavaria [7.40 %] - Boil 15.0 min 8.8 IBUs 1.00 oz Mandarina Bavaria [7.40 %] - Boil 5.0 min 5.5 IBUs 1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs 1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs 1.0 pkg Northwest Ale (Wyeast Labs #1332) [1.5L Yeast Starter] Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Electric Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs ---------------------------- Name Description Step Temperat Step Time Mash In Add 4.47 gal of water at 160.1 F 152.0 F 60 min Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 2 min 168.0 F 10 min Sparge: Fly sparge with 4.17 gal water at 168.0 F Notes: Citra and Simcoe were whole leaf in the Hop Rocket
I went with a simple malt bill mostly out of laziness. I didn’t want to have to individually bag a bunch of different grains in small amounts in case I changed my mind on something. Mandarina Bavaria was a hop that I had never used before. It is supposed to give a citrus profile with an emphasis on oranges. The Northwest Ale yeast was something else I had not tried before because why not. I was making it up anyway.
The brew day was uneventful. It had been awhile since I had a day like that so I almost didn’t know how to handle it. Normally I would do a dry hop with a beer like this, but I wanted to see how much hop character I could get just using the hop rocket at the finish.
The beer was received well by the club. I received good feedback on the malt bill. The general consensus was that there was enough going on to add a little depth while still letting the hops take center stage. I am definitely going to do experiment some more with this grain bill.
The hops turned out very well. This combination provided very nice mixed citrus. The hop rocket did enough without a dry hop. I may continue that for pale ales, but it wouldn’t be enough for an IPA. The bitterness in this beer is a little high for a pale ale, but being in hop country makes it not seem too bad. If I was going to compete with this beer I would probably want to dial that back a bit.
Overall, I was very happy with this beer. That was elevated by the fact that I made up the recipe on the spot at the homebrew shop and it all came together as I envisioned. Easily my most successful original creation (at least on the first brew). I will probably keep this one in my rotation and perhaps play with different hops on top of this malt bill.
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