Pioneer Spirit: Brewing Toward Batch #7
With Anna leaving town on Thursday for the East Coast, I’ll have nearly all day to set up for my next brew day. It’s been longer than anticipated since finishing Batch #6, the Inspired Paso Ale. JC, my taste tester, gave it a solid review and told me I wasn’t giving myself enough credit — but there are still improvements I want to make, both to that beer and to the upcoming Batch #7: Paso Pioneer IPA.
The inspiration for this homebrew is an annual community celebration held every October to honor the area’s early settlers and thank the community. The highlights of the event are a parade featuring a large procession of antique tractors, horse-drawn wagons, marching bands, vintage cars, and mounted equestrian groups, along with a free bean feed, where locals cook hundreds of gallons of traditional homestyle beans in massive iron kettles to serve a free lunch to the public in the downtown City Park. True to its 1931 origins, the event features no commercial concessions or charges, relying entirely on local donations and volunteers.
What better way to truly be inspired by my town of Paso Robles — this will be my first Pioneer Day celebration.
As for the beer, it will be an all-grain American IPA featuring CTZ (Centennial, Tomahawk, Zeus) and Cascade hops. I’m revisiting two of the hop additions from the Inspired Paso Ale because I couldn’t get enough of that hoppy aroma when I tore the bags open. Looking ahead, the follow-up to Paso Pioneer IPA will be Citra-inspired.
The bulk of the diastatic power (DP) comes from Briess 2-Row Brewers Malt, with some Weyermann Munich Type I and Carapils (Dextrine Malt) for head retention. Next time, I’m skipping the Carapils altogether, as I did with the Inspired Paso Ale, and opting for wheat malt (or flaked) instead. For this batch, though, I decided not to change the grain bill, since it was already milled and shipped in one bag — I’ll brew with what I’ve got.
I’ve spent hours on the water calculations — probably longer than needed — but I’m feeling good about using the reverse osmosis water we have at the house. That means I’m starting with a clean mineral bill and will build a water profile specifically for this IPA. Adding calcium chloride, gypsum, and lactic acid (twice) should get me the pH I’m after during the mash and sparge.
I still have time to decide on the keg purchase, but I’m trying to avoid more bottles. That’s exactly where I went wrong with the Inspired Paso Ale — I initially forgot to prime the fermented wort with dextrose, leaving the beer under-carbonated. Flat beer is no fun to drink. Even cold.