There has been so much going on for the last few months and it was time to make another batch of homebrew. We bought a new house and are in the middle of remodelling and just haven’t had any time to make beer. I went to Northern Brewer to pick up the needed supplies and found out that Simcoe Hops are having a shortage so I picked up Simply Select instead. I also used 11 lbs of Belgian Pale Malt and added 1 lb of each Weyermann CaraFoam and Munich I.
This is the first beer brewed at our new location. We needed a break from the construction anyway. We got setup early Easter morning and started our brew day. Coincidentally it was also the first day the golf course opened so we got to watch first timers hitting balls down to hole #1.
All went well on brew day, it was a nice mellow day hanging out in the new garage making beer. Look at the awesome color of the first runnings! I performed a vorlauf and added just under 3 gallons to the kettle. I next added 4.5 gallons of 186 degree water back to the mash tun and waited 15 minutes. After all the wort was in the kettle we came up 1/2 gallon short. There was only 6.5 gallons working its way up to a boil.
I received a new refractometer for Christmas and haven’t got to use it yet. I checked the kettle and found it was 1.060. Somehow I managed to get a picture of the refractometer.
I decided not to use the hop bag this time to see how this brew turns out. I just added the hops straight to the kettle and let them do their thing. Cooling also went much better this time for some reason? Who knows why, was it not using the hop bag, or the new water, or maybe it was the temp of the water from the ground? I also had gelatin looking cold break floating in the kettle for the first time ever. I grabbed a spoon and picked them all out.
I moved the beer to a safe 70 degree place and pitched the WLP001, now I just have to wait for two months to enjoy Mabel Pale Ale.
I wonder what it tasted like.