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Sunday, July 15, 2007

Brett Pale Ale

I did this one about a month back, recently tried the first bottle, but I want to give it a few more weeks to settle down before posting a review. I had my worst efficiency ever (54%), which necessitated 1 lb of light DME being added to the boil. After I brewed this batch I traced the problem to too wide of a gap on my mill, since tightening it I have had brewhouse efficiencies around 70%, which I am fine with.

Fermentation was a bit hot on this, in addition the pitching temp was high due to the 80 degree water that my chiller is now running on. Both of these problems have since been dealt with as I have a temperature controlled chest freezer!

Brett Pale Ale

Recipe Specifics
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Batch Size (Gal): 4.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 10.88
Anticipated OG: 1.063
Anticipated SRM: 7.1
Anticipated IBU: 41.4
Brewhouse Efficiency: 54 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Extract
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4.50 lbs. Pilsen (2 Row)
4.50 lbs. Golden Promise
1.00 lbs. Generic DME
0.44 lbs. CaraVienna
0.44 lbs. Wheat Malt

Hops
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0.75 oz. Magnum @ 45 min.
0.50 oz. Cascade @0 min.
1.00 oz. Crystal @0 min.
0.50 oz. Cascade Dry Hop
1.00 oz. Crystal Dry Hop

Extras
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0.50 Unit(s)Wirlfloc @ 15 Min.(boil)

Yeast
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WYeast 5110 Brettanomyces anomalus

Water Profile
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Profile: Pliny the Water
Profile known for: Great big IPA's

Calcium(Ca): 76.0 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 13.0 ppm
Sodium(Na): 9.0 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 133.0 ppm
Chloride(Cl): 56.0 ppm
biCarbonate(HCO3): 26.0 ppm

pH: 8.29

Mash Schedule
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Sacc Rest @ 152 for 60 minutes

Notes
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Brewed 6/02/07 with James

Mashed with 2 gallons of distilled, 1 gallon spring water (plus mineral adjustments). Fly sparged with adjusted spring water. Collected 5.75 gallons pre-boil, 1.032 gravity was way too low, so I added a pound of extract. Flameout hops were added after cooling had been running for a few minutes. The chiller only got it down to 84 before I pitched onto the cake from the 1st Brett A beer. Fermented at ambient DC apartment temperatures.. that is to say in the mid-high 80's most of the time.

6/11/07 Gravity down to about 1.007 after correcting for temp and hydrometer. The beer is clear with an almost artificial orange color.

6/24/07 Transferred to secondary with loose dry hops. Flavor is a bit rough, hopefully the hops will help.

7/01/07 gave it a few days at 55 to help settle the hops and Brett out.

7/07/07 Bottled with 2.5 oz of corn sugar. 3 gallon yield.

2 comments:

  1. So what was the end result?

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  2. Surprised I never posted a tasting of this one, probably because the rubbery flavors never died down. The fermentation was just too hot/variable for the Brett A.

    I still think the idea of a hoppy 100% Brett beer is still a good one (see Superfriends IPA and Lawsons Finest Funky Sunshine). I just added 1.5 oz of Summer Saaz dry hops to a keg of funky saison which has improved after just a couple days.

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