Homebrew: Malty English Pale Ale
It’s the break between Christmas and New Year in Sydney and despite average highs reaching the high twenties or even early thirties we had a cool day. Having withdrawals from brewing I had to take a chance despite the forecast for the next few days soaring back into the high twenties.
This beer partly came about because I was running low on ingredients and partly inspired by the malt forward taste of Marston’s IPA. I found Marston’s quite mild hop wise, which is good, because I think I’m sick of drowning my beers in hops.
Ingredients
- 1 tin pale lager mix
- 200 grams brown sugar
- 500 grams marris otter
- 100 grams amber malt
- 200 grams crystal malt
- 50 grams Carapils
- 200 grams flaked maize
- East Kent Goldings (EKG) , Amarillo and Citra hop pellets
- Re-used Nottingham yeast
- Salt, gypsum and irish moss
Mash schedule was 60 mins @ approx 65 degrees centigrade with 3 litres of mash water and 4 litres of sparge water.
Hop Schedule
- 60 mins – 10 grams Amarillo + 10 grams EKG
- 20 mins – 25 grams EKG + teaspoon of gypsum + 1/2 teaspoon salt + teaspoon irish moss
- Dry hop in secondary with 10 grams of Citra hops
Fermentation
The original gravity of the wort came out at 1040 so it should be a light beer of 4 – 5%. After a day in the primary there were no bubbles coming out of the airlock so I panicked and threw in a pack of dry yeast from a Munton’s Stout kit. I’m sure it’s a decent quality yeast. A few hours later it was bubbling away merrily and all activity had ceased a couple of days later.
Secondary
The specific gravity at time of transfer was 1008 and there was a slight yeasty and sulfuric smell to the beer which I haven’t smelt since the last time I brewed a beer in the height of summer (it wasn’t very good) so I’m a little worried but some time in the secondary off the dead yeast should hopefully allow that smell to filter off. The 10 grams of Citra yeast was added to a hop sock and thrown in during the transfer.
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