Brew Day. Iron Clad Pale Ale

Good Morning and Welcome Back.

Last week we here at the brew house endeavored to get Ocean House Coffee Porter correct in Batch 2. Readers will remember that your truly had made an error with his scale which had led to a very salty beer that was not drinkable. Batch 2 is off to a good start. We will be testing it today and will update the post when we do.

This week, we are going to visit an old stand by, Iron Clad Pale Ale (ICPA). Iron Clad is one of our “House Beers”. We have been brewing variations of this beer for two years with the current recipe in use for the last 6 months. ICPA is a medium bodied pale ale that is dark gold in color and approximately 5.5% alcohol. Hopping is balanced. Usually a single variety, in this case Cascade, does all of the work and gets all of the accolades.

Grain Bill
10#  Pale Malt
1#     Caramalt
.5#   Crystal 30
.25# Crystal 65

The pale malt is the backbone. It will provide most of the alcohol, allot of flavor and a bit of color. Caramalt will bring color and some flavor while also improving the head characteristics of the finished brew. The 2 types of Crystal Malt, measured by color with higher numbers being darker, adds flavor, aroma and color.

All in all, a simple bill that yields a wonderfully complex brew.

Hops

The hopping, as noted above, is one variety. Cascade is perfect for this as it has good bittering qualities and has wonderful aromas often cited as grapefruit/citrus and grassy. The additions will be:

1.5 oz at 60 minutes
1     oz at 20 minutes
.5   oz at 10 minutes
.5   oz at 5 minutes
1.5 oz at flame out.

The last addition will steep for 5 minutes before we start the chill loop.

Mash/Boil

Mash in will be at 153F. This will yield less fermentables than mashing at 150F, but will give more body to the beer.  Mash will  run for 60 minutes. We will mash out for 10 minutes. Run off will go for 45 minutes with the goal of 6.5 gallons of wort in the kettle with a gravity of 1.050.

Boil will run for the normal 60 minutes with the hops additions listed above. We will also add Irish Moss at 10 minutes to aid in clarifying.

Final Steps

After the boil and steep the wort will be chilled to 70F, whirlpooled, transfered to the fermenter, aerated and the yeast will be added. The yeast for this bath will be Fermentis SafAle S-04.

Fermentation should take 4 to 5 days. the beer will be racked into a keg and allowed to condition for 3 or 4 days in the cellar. At that time it will be carbonated and ready to serve.
Target tapping is October 15.

More on the Yeast
More on Cascade Hops

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