J&J’s Rowdy Brew: Hopped-Up-On-Goofballs Hophead Pale Ale
On August 27, Reilly and I decided to kick off the homebrew 2005 season with a bang and brew two batches. Reilly had an itching for an Octoberfest that would be ready in time for baseball playoffs, and I had planned on brewing a big barley wine that would be ready around the time that the baby was born, but that was put on hold in favor of a very hoppy pale ale.
I had been researching the barley wine, and had a fear that the high alcohol content would kill off the yeast. The guy at Modern Brewer wasn’t sure if Nottingham yeast would die, but he was pretty sure that it would stale out. He suggested taking the yeast cake a recently fermented batch and just pouring the BW over that — a perfect amount of hungry yeast for the beer. Well, I was convinced, and that meant I needed to pick a different beer for the day’s event. I love hops, so:
Hopped-Up-On-Goofballs Hophead Pale Ale
recipe taken from Modern Brewer in Cambridge, MA
1 lb. Crystal 20L
1/2 lb. Biscuit Malt
7 pounds of John Bull Light malt extract Syrup
3/4 ounce of Chinook hop pellets (bittering hops for full hour)
3/4 ounce of Centennial hop pellets (flavoring hops for last 25 minutes of boil)
1 ounce of Centennial hop pellets (flavoring hops for last 15 minutes of boil)
1/2 tsp. of Irish Moss (last 15 to 20 minutes of boil)
1 ounce of Cascade hop pellets (aroma hops for last 5 minutes of boil)
Danstar Nottingham dry yeast
This was the second time that I had used hop pellets instead of hop flowers, and I totally forgot why: the mess! Even with the Irish Moss, the amount of pellet sludge that we have to strain out was unbelievable! Reilly’s Oktoberfest used flowers and we got that into the fermenter in about 3 minutes; it took at least 10 minutes to wade through all the sludge! And after all of that, even with the fine screened strainer, the gravity sample had so much particulate matter in it I don’t really trust the OG reading of 1.060. But, boy did it smell hoppy!
We bottled this past Saturday, with the help of my father-in-law (his first brewing experience). The final gravity seemed really low, at 1.014, but the sample tasted alcoholic and beery, so I’m happy.
ABV = OG-FG*0.129
ABV = 60-14*0.129
ABV = 5.9%!
I don’t trust this for two reasons:
1. I think the OG was off due to the hop matter suspended in it
2. Reilly’s Oktoberfest had about 1/2 lb. more grain in it, and produced a lower OG.
Maybe my yeast was just very hungry? I hope they didn’t get their fill because I decided to use their yeast cake for the barley wine.
We got 48 12oz. bottles and one 22oz. grolsch bottle out of the batch — it was the second batch we had bottled that day, and a few beers had been consumed, and there were a few bottles that were filled well past the overflow point.
We should break into these the first weekend of October, just in time for baseball playoffs and the full swing of football.