Back in the Saddle: Brew Day for the Inspired Paso Ale
Back at It, After 7 Years
It took 2,654 days to finally brew my sixth batch of homebrew. I’ll be honest with myself — it had been too long. Today was brew day, finally, a day to look forward to when it comes to starting that next beer. As mentioned previously, I picked up ingredients from SoCal Brewing Supply, located in Vista, CA, on my last trip south to Rancho Bernardo to visit my mom. I had never used this store before, but they had everything I needed to get that next batch brewed.
Wanting to return to an IPA, even though I usually favor a lager or pilsner, I saw they had an AleSmith clone, which made things easy on me. This would only be the second time I had brewed using all grain. Nuno’s Bearded Stout was my first all-grain brew, and it turned out good.
Prepping the Water Chemistry
I spent time prior to brew day working with a brew calculator, trying to nail down temperatures, times, and the amount of water. This time I also spent time dialing in the pH of the water. For the mash, I used all RO (reverse osmosis) water, before losing my patience with our RO system and buying 5 gallons of distilled water for the sparge. I also consulted a brewer at Cal Coast Beer Company about adjusting the pH of the water. While they use acidulated malt, I had planned on using lactic acid 88% and gypsum, but only ended up using the gypsum.
Setting the Mood
Brew day could have started the night before, but I didn’t feel up to washing all my equipment, so that was the first step of the day. Sadly, the real first step should have been cracking open a can of Bacon & Eggs from Pizza Port, their coffee-forward porter. This has traditionally been part of every brew day up until this batch. Red Bull would have to suffice.
Armed with my spreadsheet, my notes, and Danzig blaring on the speakers, I got brew day started. Things moved smoothly — I let the mash water heat up to a strike temperature of 164°F before pouring it into the mash/lauter tun (MLT), targeting a mash temperature of 152°F with 12.7 pounds of grain added.
The pH Snag
About 10 minutes into the mash is when I hit my first snag. I measured the pH at 6.39, but wanted to land at 5.3 for this IPA. I added 8 grams of gypsum to the mash once it was stirred in, and my pH dropped to 4.29 — over a full point low. I quickly added 1/2 tsp of baking soda, followed by a quarter more, to bring the pH back up to 5.30.
Lautering and Sparging
After 60 minutes I began the lautering and batch-sparge process. There are two types of sparging: fly-sparging and batch-sparging. The first method has you adding water to the top of the grain bed at the same rate the sugar water (wort) is transferred to your boil kettle. For batch-sparging, I took a sanitized vessel and poured the hot water down the walls of the grain bed. Not as efficient as fly-sparging, but I didn’t have the equipment for that.
The Boil
Once the wort was in the boil kettle, I figured I had roughly 7 gallons to start the boil with. I fired up the burner and waited for a slow, rolling boil to appear. Once boiling, I started a 60-minute timer and added 1 oz of CTZ hops, followed by 1 oz of Amarillo at the 10-minute mark. I now realize I forgot my Whirlfloc tablet for clarity.
At flameout, I dropped in the immersion chiller, which recirculated through a cooler holding 40 pounds of ice and water. Once the temperature dropped to 160°F, I added the final hop addition — 1 oz each of Amarillo and Simcoe — and let it steep for 20 minutes.
Cooling and Pitching the Yeast
After that, it was time to cool the wort down to between 66-68°F in order to pitch the SafAle US-05 yeast. The recirculating immersion chiller worked great — the wort cooled off quickly. I transferred it to my fermentation vessel, gave it a small shake for oxygenation, pitched my yeast, and added the airlock.
Wrapping Up Brew Day
Brew day was complete, with the exception of cleaning up all the equipment. All in all, I was happy with how things went. Even though I hadn’t brewed in seven years, I felt like I had more knowledge and was more in control, even when things went a little sideways. Using a hydrometer, I measured the wort at 1.047 SG prior to pitching the yeast — very close to the 1.050 I was hoping for.
Now it’s time to sit back and let the yeast work its magic as the wort turns into beer. The last step will be dry hopping with 2 oz each of Amarillo and Simcoe once fermentation is complete.