Becker's Pale Ale

[GravityBrew]

Good morning all!

I've been lurking around the forum for a while and I thought I'd contribute my pale ale recipe. I mainly use this as a base beer for secondary and kegging/bottling additions; apples and honey is a great combo to add to secondary. The volumes are increased by a gallon over final bottling volume to account for brewhouse loss when doing secondary and tertiary fermentations.


For 12gal, cut the entire recipe in half for a 6gal batch:


20 lb Marris Otter
2.5 lb Caramel/Crystal 20 (20L)
2.5 lb Caramel/Crystal 60 (60L)
1.5oz Fuggles - 60 min
1.5oz Mt. Hood - 60 min
1.5oz Fuggles - 15 min
1.5oz Mt. Hood - 15 min
WLP001 or US-05 for yeast, but any clean ale yeast will work.

Brew Notes:
Mash with 1.5 qt/lb (about 9.5gal of water) @ 152*F for 60 min
Boil 60 min
OG: 1.052-1.056
FG: 1.008-1.012
Age for about a month after it clears.

I also make a vanilla-smoked pale ale out of this by adding 1 lb (.5 lb for 5gal) of smoked malt in the mash and 1oz of vanilla extract/5gal at kegging/bottling.


Enjoy!

 

[Magic8Ball]

How are you adding honey and apples to the secondary. Sounds interesting.

 

[GravityBrew]

I really didn't want to give away my full apple honey recipe, but its too good not to share:

This is per 5/6 gal batch: Take a few pounds of fresh apples (cored, chopped, skins on) and a few pounds of honey in a 2 gal pot, fill it until the water starts floating the apples (about 1/2-3/4 of a gallon) and start boiling. Stir until all of the honey is dissolved then let it boil down for an hour or so -or- until the apples are mushy. Strain off the liquid (take the leftover apples and blend with a little half and half and vanilla ice cream for an awesome milkshake!) and you can either cool in an ice bath and add directly to secondary or take the liquid (should be about a quart) and boil that down until everything starts caramelizing and then add that to secondary.

Its a little involved, but it makes the whole house smell like fall and is totally worth the hassle. Play with the ratio of apples:honey for me its 2:1 by weight.

The other way to do it is take a can or 2 of frozen apple juice concentrate and 2 lbs of honey with a pint of water and boil everything for about 15 min and add that to secondary. I do this after apple season, when I get my 'is it christmas yet' craving.

Both ways are great, but using real apples gives a fresher flavor and you can control how tart/sweet the apple mix is. I also have a spice mix that I'll use to make a great christmas ale, but when I make that I do a secondary and a bottling addition.

Rack on top of the syrup, if you pour it in, you will hate your self for oxygenating the beer and your wife will hate you for the sticky floor. The yeast will go insane so make sure you have a blow off tube in place and bank on another 2-3 weeks of fermentation time. I cheat by having a lager fridge to crash cool/clear the beer so I will usually taste it at about 2 weeks in, crash, and let it 'cold age' until I'm ready to keg. It will be extremely drinkable at 3 months, but give it a full 6 to age around 65-70* and your hard work will pay off. I am going to brew a batch within the next few weeks and oak it for a month in late September if not October and try to have it bottled for the first snow fall (a tradition I've had for the last 3 years).

Good luck, I know you won't be disappointed.

 

[Magic8Ball]

Fantastic idea. If you took any gravity readings post syrup would you want to share that too? Looking forward to a fall APA (apple pale ale)

 

[GravityBrew]

To tell you the truth, I haven't taken gravity readings post secondary in a few years, once the base pale ale is done I let my nose and mouth guide this brew. If I had to guess, I'd say the final product will end up around 8%.

 

[Magic8Ball]

I like your attitude. It is the taste buds in the end that are the ultimate measure of your beer. Admittedly, if I don't take measurements I feel like Ive been running around with sharp scissors in my hand.

 

[GravityBrew]

I like your attitude. It is the taste buds in the end that are the ultimate measure of your beer. Admittedly, if I don't take measurements I feel like Ive been running around with sharp scissors in my hand.

It comes with experience, most of the time I go crazy taking measurements, time everything to the second, etc. But because I've brewed this beer 20 times or so, I know what it needs to taste like at all of the stages. I feel comfortable brewing it without keeping good logs.