Hallertau Horizon
It's time to use up some of the hops that I've got left over from the summer's lager brewing and to do so I've planned what should be a floral and hoppy extra pale ale that I'm calling 'Hallertau Horizon'. I'll be using Magnum for bittering (I've got loads of that) and a heavy dose of a Sapphir and Hallertau Mittelfruh combination for flavouring. That will use up all my Sapphir and I'll still have 50g of Mittelfruh left over that I can use for a lager when summer comes around.
Yeast starter day
It's Monday and I'm planning to brew this Saturday so I'm getting the starter on today. It will need a couple of days in the brew fridge on the stir plate and then another couple of days chilling to settle out the yeast.
I made up a 1.5 litre of starter with Ashbeck water and 150g DME. I added the saved back Wyeast American Ale II from my Citrust Twist APA overbuilt starter. When the starter has fermented out I will decant off 500ml to put in the fridge for my next brew and the remaining litre will go into the beer on Saturday.
Brew day
Let's start off as usual with the recipe. I'd originally planned to use just Mittelfruh and Saphir hops for flavouring and aroma but then noticed that I had a half-finished pack of Target in the freezer that I had no other plans for. They were a 2020 crop and still smelled nice and 'hoppy' so I decided to include them as a zero-minute aroma addition. Hopefully that will turn out to be a good idea.
Recipe Specifications
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Recipe: Phoney Peroni No.3
Date: 10 September 2023
Batch Size (fermenter): 24.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.042 SG
Estimated Color: 6.5 EBC
Estimated IBU: 37.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Finished water profile: Ca:58, Mg:12, Na:9, SO4:77, Cl:76
Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type %/IBU
29.55 L Tesco Ashbeck Water -
2.50 g Calcium Chloride (Mash) Water Agent -
2.50 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash) Water Agent -
2.10 ml Lactic Acid (Mash) Water Agent -
1.20 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash) Water Agent -
4.500 kg Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner (4.0 EBC) Grain 100.0 %
0.50 g Calcium Chloride (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.50 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.30 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Sparge) Water Agent -
0.30 ml Lactic Acid (Sparge) Water Agent -
20.00 g Hallertau Magnum [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 23.2 IBUs
10.00 g Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 2.3 IBUs
10.00 g Saphir [4.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 2.4 IBUs
16.00 g Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 2.7 IBUs
16.00 g Saphir [4.10 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 2.8 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 7.0 mins) Fining -
24.00 g Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 2.2 IBUs
24.00 g Saphir [4.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 2.3 IBUs
30.00 g Target [8.90 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) [124.21 ml] Yeast -
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 4.5 kg
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Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 24.55 L of water at 70.5 C 65.0 C 60 min
Sparge: Dunk sparge with 5L of 75C water.
As usual I prepared my water and measured out the grains the previous night. I set a timer on the boiler for 5:35am and got up at 6:00am to find the water about 20 minutes from ready which gives me time to grind the grain ready for the mash.
After the 60 minute mash I rinsed the grain bag for 10 minutes with 5 litres of 75C water. Pre-boil gravity was 1.038, right on target. The rest of the procedure went by the numbers and I collected about 24 litres of wort into my stainless fermenter.
The OG was spot-on the predicted value of 1.042 and the wort was of course very pale since it's made up of 100% pilsner malt. My immersion chiller got it down to 22C so I was able to pitch my yeast starter immediately. The brew fridge is set to 20C and hopefully fermentation will start by tonight.
Starting early means finishing early and I was all done, including washing up by 10:45am.
Kegging day
I kegged this one after the usual two weeks in the fermenter, by which time it had cleared up nicely.
Final gravity was 1.005 for an ABV of 4.9%. The corny keg was fined with gelatine and I got a couple of bottles from the remainder of the fermenter. The keg was purged with 5x15psi shots of CO2 and then left to carbonate and condition.
Tasting notes
I'm quite a few weeks into this keg now and there are some times I like this beer and some times I think there's just not enough maltiness to it and being an extra-pale ale flavoured with Hallertau hops it's very close to being a lager without actually being one. If you see what I mean.
So it's a decent enough ale but I've done better and I don't think I need to do this one again.