homebrewing

Scarecrow Pale Ale Recipe

Posted on by mrwesleyjohnson

I’ve been brewing quite a lot, but haven’t posted in a long ass time. Back to it: Pale ale time! I love a good pale ale, one of the first beers that made me fall in love with pale ales was Golden Tuna from Half Acre (now called Tuna session ipa). I would pound 20 oz pints at the taproom and they were fresh, balanced, flavorful, and easy to drink.

Last year I was in Denver for GABF and I went to TRVE brewing and had a pale ale called Scorn. That beer took me back to how I felt drinking Tuna and I wanted to brew something similar – a clean, dry hopped pale ale. I found the recipe for Scorn here, It’s got a clean pilsner malt base, some vienna for sweetness, and some wheat for body and mouthfeel. Since I have lots of hops, I’m switching the combo of citra & mosaic for sabro & cashmere. Let’s gooo!

Scarecrow Pale Ale Recipe

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
3 gal 60 min  ~38.38 IBUs 3.52 SRM 1.053 1.011 5.57 %

Grain

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Briess Pilsen Malt 4.8 lbs 78.1
Weyermann Barke Vienna .8 lbs 13
Rahr White Wheat 8.7 oz 8.9

Hops

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Vic Secret 5.9 g 60 min Boil pellet 19.6
Sabro .6 oz 15 min Whirlpool pellet 14.5
Sabro 1 oz 3 days Dry hop pellet 14.5
Cashmere 2 oz 3 days Dry hop pellet 7.2

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
US-05 Safale 78-82% 64-82°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Mash 151°F 60 min

Water

Calcium Magnesium Sodium Chloride Sulfate
90 12 16 74 143

Fermentation

Step Time Temperature
Primary  TBD 68°F (temp controlled)

Brewed: 3/3/20 | Actual OG: 1.056 | Actual FG: TBD| ABV: TBD

Water: Minneapolis tap water, campden added, 2.2g gypsum, 1.4g calcium chloride, 1.5g epsom salt

75% efficiency| Mash ph: 5.6 (adjusted) | whirfloc/yeast nutrient @15

No comments yet

Jalapeño Business Pale Ale

Posted on by mrwesleyjohnson

I had a really tasty beer with Serrano peppers from Headflyer Brewing, it was crisp, fruity, and full of pepper flavor and aroma with very little to no heat.  They describe it as “a combination of light heat from Serrano peppers paired with the citrus backdrop of pineapple” and it was bangin! This reminded me of some habanero peppers I put in vodka to make a tincture a while ago. When using peppers, a lot of people suggest using tinctures so you can start with a little and adjust the flavor\heat. I’ve also heard of using peppers in the boil to get deeper flavor. After some research on how to go about using the peppers, I wanted something easy drinking with nice pepper flavor so I settled on a Jalapeno Pale Ale.

To get the pepper flavor I wanted, I used them in the boil and also made a tincture to dose at kegging. For the boil peppers, I split and roasted them in the oven for about 20 minutes and threw them in the for last 15 minutes of the boil (1 deseeded). I ended up using all of the tincture at kegging to get maximum pepper flavor. Halfway through the keg I threw in a chopped jalapeno I froze in case I needed more. It added some nice spice and fresh pepper flavor. I wanted to use fruity hops, since it paired well in the beer that inspired this recipe so I used El Dorado and Citra hops. I’m quite pleased how this beer came out and it’s all gone as I write this. Check the recipe.

Jalapeño Business Pale Ale

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
3 gal 60 min  35.15 IBUs 7.32 SRM 1.047 1.010 5.17 %

Fermentablesgrains

Name Amount %
Pale Ale Malt 4 lbs 72.7
Red Wheat 1 lbs 18.2
Crystal 40L .3 lbs 5.5
Golden Naked Oats .2 lbs 3.6

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
El Dorado 3 g 60 min Boil pellet 14.4
El Dorado .5 oz 8 min Boil pellet 14.4
Citra .5 oz 5 min Boil pellet 13.1
El Dorado .5 oz 3 days Dry hop pellet 14.4
Citra .5 oz 3 days Dry hop pellet 13.1
jalapeños
Split jalapeños (1 deseeded) before roasting.

Other

Name Amount Time Use Form
Jalapeño peppers 2 each 15 min Boil Spice
Jalapeno tincture ~1.5 oz 0 days Keg Spice

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
American Ale Yeast US-05 Fermentis/Safale 74-76% 64°F-82°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Mash 150°F 60 min

jalapeños in the boil

Water

Calcium Magnesium Sodium Chloride Sulfate
129 2 12 109 151

Fermentation

Step Time Temperature
Primary  10 days Ambient (~68)

Notes

Brewed: 4/4/19 | OG: 1.046 | FG: 1.008 | ABV: 5%

Water: Minneapolis tap water,  campden added, 2.5 g gypsum, 2 g calcium chloride

70% efficiency| Mash ph: 5.1 (adjusted) | whirfloc/yeast nutrient @15

No comments yet

Blueberry Muffin IPA Tasting

Posted on by mrwesleyjohnson

😋Appearance

Dark blue, indigo, wine-like color with a light pink head.

Aroma

Jammy and fruity, bright fresh, deep blueberry, and light sweet malt. faint hops.

Mouthfeel

Medium mouthfeel that’s lightly creamy with nice, lightly prickly carbonation.

Taste

At first you’re hit with a fresh, deep blueberry flavor and it washes with lightly sweet malt and finishes with blueberry essence and light hoppiness. The blueberry is the star here, but some light, sweet malty flavors are present.

Notes

This beer is really tasty! It has a light malt backbone that really let the blueberries shine. The flavor is unmistakably fruity and juicy and it drinks quite clean. It could be more muffin-like, but the flavor is so pleasant and fruity you don’t miss it. If I were to brew it again and wanted more muffin, I’d up the victory and Munich malt and maybe even add another “bready” malt in there as well. Overall, a very good beer.

Check the recipe here.

No comments yet

Enigma Oat Coat Tasting

Posted on by mrwesleyjohnson

Beer

Appearance

Golden/orange/light honey color, light haze.  Stiff white head that dissipates slowly.

Aroma

Stone fruit, melon, pineapple, berry, light spice, sweet malt, oaty, crisp.

Mouthfeel

Medium mouthfeel, light body, but a little creamy, nice crispy carbonation.

Taste

Starts with light sweet malt and oat flavors, then washes with tropical, fruity, and lightly dank hop flavor. There’s a tiny hint of spice and it finishes with light clean bitterness that doesn’t linger. 

Notes

I’m really digging this beer, and I <3 enigma hops. It drinks really clean, like a pale ale, and it has great aroma and mouthfeel. This beer could work with other hops as well. The oats add a nice mouthfeel and flavor and It’s supremely drinkable. It cleared quite a bit in the keg, but the flavors were stable for the life of the keg.

Check the recipe here.

No comments yet

Blueberry Muffin IPA

Posted on by mrwesleyjohnson

Infected!

In my early days of brewing I found a post on Homebrewtalk about a Blueberry Oatmeal IPA and I tweaked the recipe a bit and brewed it. Everything was going well until I added fresh blueberries to the secondary and that’s when I got my first infection! Ever since I’ve always used frozen fruit and haven’t had any issues.

I rarely brew the exact same beer twice, but I often make tweaks and brew a similar recipe which brought up the Blueberry Muffin Ale. For this beer I used a base of 2 row, a bunch of oats (malted and flaked), a little Munich malt for some clean maltiness, and added some victory malt for that biscuity, toasy, bready component. I added a dash of maltodextrine for mouthfeel and mosaic hops later in the boil for aroma. I then added 3 lbs of blueberries for 7 days in the secondary and opted out (forgot) the dry hop. It was nice to revisit the idea of this beer and add what I felt the recipe needed. Check it out!

Blueberry Muffin IPA

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
3 gal 60 min 42.87 IBUs 7.6 SRM 1.065 1.015 6.53 %

grain

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Rahr 2 row malt 5 lbs 62.5
Fawcett Oat malt 1 lbs 12.5
Flaked Oats 1 lbs 12.5
Munich malt 10L .5 lbs 6.3
Victory .5 lbs 6.3
Maltodextrin (3% fermentable) 2 oz 1.7

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Enigma 4 g 60 min Boil pellet 17.8
Mosaic .5 oz 15min Boil pellet 13.1
Mosaic .5 oz 5 min Boil pellet 13.1

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
English Ale Yeast S-04 Fermentis/Safale 74-76% ~68 (Ambient)

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Mash 153°F 60 min

Water

Calcium Magnesium Sodium Chloride Sulfate
116 2 14 52 183

Fermentation

Step Time Temperature
Primary 14 days Ambient (~68)
Secondary 7 days Ambient (~68)

Blueberries in the secondary

Notes

Brewed: 12/17/18 | OG: 1.062 | FG: 1.008 | ABV: 7.74%

Water: Minneapolis tap water,  campden added, 3.3 g gypsum, .6 g calcium chloride to mash

70% efficiency| Mash ph: 5.3 (adjusted) | whirfloc/yeast nutrient @15 | +.65 abv for fruit |15 sec pure O2

Tasting notes to follow.

No comments yet