Standard Pale Ale - 1st Brew of 2011

Hello Everyone,
After a long blogging hiatus and nearly a nearly as long brewing hiatus, I am going to try and be a more responsible blogger and brewer. Isolated in what seems like the backwoods, I am finding my isolating existence in the Hudson River Valley to be a bit more time alone than I enjoy. I have yet to find any brewers in proximity to me to share in my trials and tribulations and long for the days of brewing with a friend and sharing some home brew with other like-minded folks. With that, I go it alone in 2011 and look forward to my future life in Maine, where perhaps I can brew with some other folks interested in brewing good home brew!

To the 1st brew of 2011!

I have enjoyed brewing pale ales for quite some time. I learned to like beer; drinking the Free State Breweries Copperhead Pale Ale and Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale. They are easy to brew in that the hop character hides a multitude of brewing sins. I have traditionally bumped up the gravity with additions of rice syrup solids or turbinado sugar, but for this one I wanted a quick fermenting, session quality brew, that is lightly hopped and that will quickly replenish my brew stash.

What's In a Name - New Year Pale Ale

What's In a Name - New Year Pale Ale		Style:	American Pale Ale
Type:	Extract w/grain		Size:	5 gallons
Color:	8 HCU (~6 SRM)		Bitterness:	27 IBU
OG:	1.047		FG:	1.010
Alcohol:	4.8% v/v (3.8% w/w)
Grain:	1 lb. Bohemian Pale Ale Malt
Boil:	minutes	SG 1.095	2.5 gallons
	6 lb. Light malt extract
Hops:	1 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 60 min.) 1 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 30 min.) 1 oz. Cascade (aroma)

This web page generated by The Beer Recipator.


Initial gravity weighed in around 1.048. Recipator says it should be slightly less, but who is counting. After a week in Primary Fermentation, I racked to secondary. Gravity reading was 1.015. I will keep this one for a week in secondary and hope the gravity settles in at a crisp 1.010-1.012.