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| Pavlov's? Because it looks so good you'll drool. |
Name: Pavlov's Belgian-Style Pale Ale
Style: Belgian Pale Ale
Gallons: 10 split
Yeast: Whitle Labs 550 Belgian Ale & White Labs 575 Belgian Style Ale Blend
Grain Bill: Pilsner, Aromatic, Munich, CaraVienne, Flaked Oats
Hops: Amarillo, Czech Saaz
Additions: Local Honey
The Plan
It has been a few weeks since I got a brew fired up in the Roadhouse. The itch needed to be scratched. In a first ever attempt, we (my brother and I) decided we would take the brewstand on the road. It was something we had talked about and were curious how much time, work, and effort it would be. Surprisingly it really was not that bad. Thankfully we put casters on the frame so pushing it around was no problem. Once you take the keggles off and detach a couple of houses the frame is easy enough for two people to pick up and slide into the back of a truck. Arranging the keggles so that bulkhead and dial thermometers did not get bent or broken was of the highest concern. We switched out the 100lb gas tank to a much more easily movable 25lb tank. Lastly we loaded up the
The Brew Plan
I have been drinking a lot of pale ales and IPAs lately and I’ve really been digging some of the Belgian style brews. I really like the balance of the malt with the spicy characteristics the yeasts lend along with the slight hop bitterness. So I whipped up a recipe and hit the brew shop. The grain bill was built fairly close to a traditional Belgian Pale model. The majority of it was Pilsner with a good amount of Aromatic (for color and malty aroma), a touch of
The Good
The move went smooth. Reassembly was just as easy. Really aside from set up, the start up was uneventful and I think the change of scenery maybe helped make it seem far easier. Used a single infusion mash, which made for an easy start. The sparge went smoothly. I've really seemed to hit a stride with sparging. The boil went excellent. Did a 90 boil to really build a nice color to the brew and from all accounts that looks to have worked out great. No boil over’s. Was close a couple of times but a watchful eye is key. Almost bought some Fermcap, but surly it has to add something to the flavor? I rather like to think less is more when it comes to adding chemicals. Hop additions went fine. Used a couple of really big tea balls to contain the whole leaf hops and that really helped keeping the machine sediment free. Although I'm a bit concerned that there will not be as much hop bitterness because of possible non full contact between hops and wort. Something about seeing hops flouting around your boiling wort makes me happy, but cleaning up is much easier this way. Cool down was good and no plug ups. Pumps worked great, priming the hoses are key. Somehow managed to not leave a ball valve open while switching out hoses, so no mess to clean up or hot wort on my crotch. So perhaps I do have the ability to learn. Either that or the 100 monkey theory is true. Anybody else have this same thing happen to them this weekend?
The Bad
Was a little off with mash temp at the start. Started out great but I must have had heat on a little to high and got a spike a few minutes in to the initial mash in. My brother showed me a good trick to get it down. He used the air gun to cool the hoses that was recirculating the mash. Within a couple of minutes he brought the temp down to exactly where it should be. With a slight temp adjustment, everything went on as normal. Cool down seemed to go a bit longer than normal, but with weather temps increasing this is to be expected. I swear one of these days I'm going to run it through the therminator before the cooling unit and see how long it takes. Its been awhile since I used a White Labs tube of yeast. I forgot those suckers can gush when opening. Lost a little on the first pitch.
The Ugly
Not to much to complain about on my end. My water quantities were a little off, to much in this case, I thought. Ended up being a gallon short when I thought I was way over. Need to do some remeasuring and marking on the keggles. Dumped the grains into a container and left them in the garage over night. Those grains sour fast, and you know it quickly. Makes me want to try a sour mash sometime tho. I really need to do better with taking pictures to make available for the blog. Equipment wise, the thrumometer I bought didn’t seem to work worth a shit. The directions said it was rated for temps up to 140 degree, which didn’t make me happy. I was hoping to use it as a permanent part of my rig, to monitor boil and cool down. Really it wasn’t more than a square pipe with barbed hose ends and a terrarium thermometer taped on the outside. Blah. I could have made that, and done a better job. Buyer beware. Also the temp gauge wasn’t reading as accurate as my digital hand gauge, actually by quite a bit. I'll give it another shot but I'll be sending it back I feel.
Overview
Great day. But really any day brewing is a great day. The beers are bubbling away nicely and I'm going to temp control them in a day to try to get a nice fruity/spice balance from the yeast. Tried my brothers Whiskey Soaked Oak Chipped IPA, which I helped brew with him. I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, but in a good way. After having had the Great Divide 18th anniversary Oak IPA I was expecting a lot of wood taste. But that wasn’t the case.
Next Up
I'm thinking a Berliner Weisse for the coming summer months. Any suggestions?
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