baxter pale ale
brewed: 15/04/13
bottled: 04/05/13
subsequent batch info: superseded by the big bad baxter pale ale
ingredients:
2.2kg weyermann vienna
200gm weyermann carapils (dextrine)
5gm galaxy (pellets, 14.9 aa%, 40 mins)
8gm cascade (pellets, 5 aa%, 15 mins)
4gm galaxy (pellets, 14.9 aa%, 7 mins)
5gm cascade (pellets, 5 aa%, 7 mins)
11.5gm DCL yeast US-05 - american ale
0.5 tablet whirlfloc
process:
10L batch, single infusion, no sparge, mash in 65C for 60 mins, no-chill
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.010
%AbV: 5.1% (5.5% bottled)
ibu: 39
brewing notes:
what a great brew day! after my last mess up with my processes on the princess blonde, i really seemed to get a lot of my targets...and even better, wrote them all down. i should be able to predict more now about my losses and calibrate my set-up so i know what to expect for future brews. very exciting.
this beer was named after mine and my wife's new little puppy baxter. he's a champion.
22/04/13 - pitched tonight! no-chilling is amazing. a few drops spilled but still just a smidgen over 10L into the fermenter and he's now sitting happily in my fridge at 16C. even though 18C is closer to normal temperature ranges for US-05 yeast, i really really just wanted the hops and malt to come through in this one, as i've never used vienna malt or galaxy hops. am really excited to taste this baby soon.
tasting notes:
30/04/13 - had a taste and am about to crash chill it for a few days. VERY excited about this one. i love galaxy and i can certainly taste the combination of it and cascade. next time i might up the galaxy slightly higher but i can't wait to bottle and carb this one and have a proper test.
17/05/13 - so had my first proper taste of this baby tonight and i can say i'm pretty stoked. lots of cascade in there and just a hint of galaxy. i would probably increase the galaxy ever so slightly next time to increase the balance, but i'm pretty happy with this little guy!
30/05/13 - another taste test and the two hops have now synced beautifully. perhaps i just needed to wait longer, but it's in full swing now. very happy with how it's turned out. full feel and nice hop clarity of cascade and galaxy.
03/06/13 - tasted again tonight and the flavours have seemed to lessen somewhat. i think next time i'd like to up the 15 minute hop additions, as it feels like it's a very light version of what it once was. still a nice taste, except it's lessened a lot. i know that ales are drinkable much earlier on but i'd prefer it if the flavour stayed around a bit longer than it has. might also consider changing those additions to 20 minutes too.
07/06/13 - so i tasted some of the last baxter pale and realised (quite stupidly) that you're supposed to drink ales at a warmer temperature! i let one sit out after taking it out of the fridge and HURRAH! the tastes were back! feeling silly but relieved because i thought they'd already passed their best.
brew pics: