Hell yeah! It’s brew day! Paso Pioneer Ale
I was up and working in the “brew house” by 6:30 a.m. Okay, to be completely honest, I was running back and forth between the garage and the kitchen. Such is the glamorous life of a homebrewer.
Right now, I’ve just added the strike water to the grains, and the mash is sitting at 152°F for 60 minutes. Before I even started, all of my equipment was cleaned, rinsed and sanitized. Everything. Because there’s nothing quite like spending hours brewing a beer only to have something go wrong because you didn’t clean properly.
It’s even worse when you’re bottling. Every single bottle needs to be cleaned, rinsed and sanitized—roughly two cases, or 48 bottles. And then there are the caps!
Water Matters
While I won’t say these are my only concerns today, I’ve spent a lot of time working on the water profile for this beer. I’ve put more thought into water chemistry with this batch than I have with any of my previous beers, so I’m really hoping I can taste the difference in the finished product.
The more I read on Brewer’s Friend, however, the more I realize there are plenty of different opinions when it comes to brewing water. For this batch, I’ve added gypsum, calcium chloride and lactic acid to the mash. Now I’m just waiting to test a sample and see where everything landed.
So far, everything else has gone smoothly, much like my last brew day. That’s always a good sign.
Paso Pioneer Ale
Today’s beer is Paso Pioneer Ale, my attempt at a 7.1% ABV West Coast IPA brewed with CTZ and Cascade hops.
The goal is grapefruit and zesty citrus, backed by floral and piney notes. I’m hoping there isn’t much sweetness from the malt underneath it all. With this hop combination, there shouldn’t be, but ultimately, I’ll have to wait until fermentation is finished—and the beer is in the glass—to know if I got it right.
That’s the fun part.
This is also an exciting brew day for another reason. I’ve finally finished a recipe that I created completely from scratch, from the grain and hop bill all the way through the water profile. This is the first time I’ve really put all those pieces together myself.
Now we’ll see if I’ve learned anything from the six batches I’ve brewed previously.
There’s always something to learn with brewing, and every batch gives me another opportunity to figure out what worked, what didn’t and what I might do differently next time.
For now, though, it’s brew day. The mash is resting, the process is underway and there’s a long afternoon ahead.
Next up—and still very much in the planning phase—is the Estrella Pale Ale, which will be an all-Citra beer.
But that’s a beer for another brew day.
Cheers!