Princess Pale

[ucflumberjack]

this is one for my gf, although judging by the taste of the wort i dont think shes goign to like it very much..... its a little darker than i wated, probably from using to much and to dark crystal. no biggie...

1# 40l crystal
5# pale 2-row
2-2.5# DME
.25oz. chinook(40mins)
2oz. cascade(20, 15, 10, 5, steep)
wyeast 1056
2 tsp. irish moss

i mashed it in my handymasher at 148 for an hour, then sparged with 165 degree water(about a gallon). once i got it to a boil i threw in the chinook hops. 20 mins until the end i thew in about an ounce of the cascade hops and the irish moss, then at ten minutes left i tossed in a random portion of the remaining cascade hops every few minutes until the end, then the last bit was tossed in to steep for a few minutes. after that i filtered out the hops and added cold water to 5 gallons. let it sit to cool, aerated, pitched. i did use some nutrients, 1 tsp. fermaid-k, then after lag phase was over it added 1 tsp DAP, and 1 tsp. fermaid-k. its chuggin along rather slowly, i should have made a starter. it should be fine though.

 

[ucflumberjack]

fermentation has picked up, still not as fast as the stout, but again, no starter, thats what i get for not listening to the manufacturer... smells great though!

 

[ucflumberjack]

its done fermenting so i racked it to the secondary to sit a week or two before i bottle it, its laready pretty clear though. finished at 1.01

 

[akueck]

why the secondary? ales are fine in the primary for at least a few weeks, probably a month would be fine. save yourself some work. leaving it in primary will also make sure the yeast is done doing it's thing.

 

[ucflumberjack]

well i figureed if it was down to 1.01 it would be fine. it was pretty mcuh done fermenting, no activity in the airlock. i just wanted to make sure it clears up nice as its the first pale ive done and i want it to be pretty.

 

[akueck]

Even after the gravity stops dropping, the yeast is still working. Some of the byproducts of fermentation (e.g. diacetyl) will get cleaned up by the yeast at the end of fermentation. Moving the beer off the yeast too soon might leave some of these compounds behind.

In my short experience most beers don't really need a secondary. Big beers and dry hopping are two notable exceptions (though I've dry hopped successfully in the primary after activity stopped). The couple of beers I have used a secondary on were super duper clear in the carboy, but not any clearer in the bottle than any others I've done.

Totally your choice, but it's a lot less work to just let it be. ;D

 

[ucflumberjack]

bottled with a little under a cup of honey, maybe .9-.8. 40 bottles.

 

[ucflumberjack]

smells great, tastes exellent. at first you taste some slight maltiness id assume from the crystal, then its all hop flavor to the finish and the after taste. its good though, it reminds me of a beer i had from dogfishhead, not sure which on it was though. next time ill use marris otter just for comparison, possibly english ale yeast and different hops, possibly traditionally english hops?