Hail to the Spring

Yesterday I brewed a batch of pale ale with a nice, springy hop schedule. I haven't made a successful basic pale ale yet, so hopefully this comes out OK.

The Recipe:

9 lb 2-row pale malt
6 oz Crystal 60°
6 oz Cara-Pils

7 AAU (14g @ 14.5% AA) Columbus @ 60
5 AAU (26g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 20
5 AAU (26g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 5
5 AAU (25g @ 5.6% AA) Challenger @ 0 (flame-out)

Whirlfloc tablet @ 15

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale

Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 12.5 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 165-190° water and collected 6.75 gallons for the boil.

O.G.: 1.048
Est. IBU: 42.2

I went and bought a drill yesterday morning to obviate the need for hand-cranking my new grain mill and used it for this batch. It was easy-peasy, and I even managed to get 77% mash efficiency -- even without adjusting the gap on the mill itself. I also tried to be a little less wasteful when draining the mash tun, so perhaps that contributed to my improved efficiency. That 76-80% efficiency range is what I'd really love to inhabit in the long run.

I pitched ~200mL of yeast cake I harvested from batch #39, Two Bails Cream Ale. It was only harvested 15 days prior to pitching, yet fermentation has been pretty slow to occur. I've got a very thin 1/4" layer of kräusen going on right now, a little over 24 hours after pitching. Hopefully it all comes out OK in the end.

I also kegged up batches 40 and 41, both IPAs, yesterday. Both of them finished pretty clean and taste pretty good. They should serve as solid spring beers as well. I harvested their yeast cakes as well for future use.