Quarter Life Crisis Hoppy Red Ale
For my
40th birthday, I got
Jamil Zainasheff's and John Palmer's book Brewing Classic Styles
from the
SheppyBrew Beer Model. My sister also got me some cool
customized bottle caps. So, I wanted to use both those gifts to
brew a beer. The name I thought of was quarter life crisis as now
that I am 40, I figure my life is probably about 1/4 of the way
through.
Of course, it would have to be a pretty big beer with lots of
hoppyness,
and I came across the recipe "West Coast Blaster", which is Jamil's
interpretation of a "West Coast" American Amber ale.
I scaled the recipe down for my 2.4 gallon batches and tinkered with the ingredients based on what is easiest for me to find and my overall preferences. I scaled back a bit on the hops because I am (after all) not having a mid-life crisis or anything. I guess I'm just not really a west-coast kind of hop-head.
But, this is well over the OG, ABV and hoppy bitterness of a normal American Amber Ale. This is still a pretty bold ale. It turned out to be a new favorite.
Batch 2 is exactly the same recipe except it uses an ounce of chocolate malt instead of 2 ounces of pale chocolate. (the LHBS did not have pale)
Batch 3 is my all-grain version. Because all-grain always is lighter in color than my extract brews, I added more dark malts the compensate. Plus, I used Columbus for bittering at a higher alpha acid than the Nugget I had used previously. It is also a larger batch.
Batch 4 got modified a bit for more and higher alpha hops. I am hoping to brew this on my 43rd birthday. I added in some Chinook, which surprisingly is a hop I have not used previously.
Batch 5 was brewed shortly after my 51st birthday. I reduced the crystal malts. Other than that, the recipe was basically the same as batch 4 other than being brewed on my Anvil Foundry.
If you would like to read about QLC on my blog, follow this link.
| Quarter Life Crisis --- Batch 5 |
| Style | Red IPA | Batch Size | 5.50 gal | |||
| Type | All Grain | Boil Size | 6.57 gal | |||
| Brewhouse Efficiency | 68.00 | Boil Time | 60 minutes |
Recipe Characteristics
| Recipe Gravity | 1.065 SG | Estimated FG | 1.010 SG | ||||
| Recipe Bitterness | 59.9 IBUs (Rager) | Alcohol by Volume | 7.4 % | ||||
| BU : GU | 0.919 | ||||||
| Recipe Color | 16.6 SRM |
|
|||||
| Measured OG: | 1.065 | Measured FG: | 1.010 | ||||
| ADF: | 84 | Measured ABV: | 7.3 |
Ingredients
| Amt | Name | Type | # | %/IBU | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.61 gal | Denver, Colorado | Water | 1 | - | - |
| 10.00 g | Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash) | Water Agent | 2 | - | - |
| 12 lbs | Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) | Grain | 3 | 83.1 % | 0.94 gal |
| 1 lbs | Munich Malt - 10L (11.0 SRM) | Grain | 4 | 6.9 % | 0.08 gal |
| 8.0 oz | Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) | Grain | 5 | 3.5 % | 0.04 gal |
| 4.0 oz | Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) | Grain | 6 | 1.7 % | 0.02 gal |
| 4.0 oz | Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) | Grain | 7 | 1.7 % | 0.02 gal |
| 3.0 oz | Midnight Wheat Malt (550.0 SRM) | Grain | 8 | 1.3 % | 0.01 gal |
| 0.500 oz | Columbus [16.50 %] - First Wort 60.0 min | Hop | 9 | 36.9 IBUs | - |
| 4.0 oz | Sugar, Table (Sucrose) [Boil] (1.0 SRM) | Sugar | 10 | 1.7 % | 0.02 gal |
| 1.00 Items | Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) | Fining | 11 | - | - |
| 0.50 tsp | Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 mins) | Other | 12 | - | - |
| 1.000 oz | Cascade [5.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min | Hop | 13 | 3.5 IBUs | - |
| 1.000 oz | Centennial [9.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min | Hop | 14 | 6.1 IBUs | - |
| 1.000 oz | Chinook [11.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min | Hop | 15 | 7.8 IBUs | - |
| 0.500 oz | Columbus (Tomahawk) [16.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min | Hop | 16 | 5.6 IBUs | - |
| 1.0 pkg | San Diego Super Yeast (White Labs #WLP090) [35.49 ml] | Yeast | 17 | - | - |
| 1.000 oz | Cascade [5.20 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days | Hop | 18 | 0.0 IBUs | - |
| 1.000 oz | Centennial [9.00 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days | Hop | 19 | 0.0 IBUs | - |
| 1.000 oz | Chinook [11.50 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days | Hop | 20 | 0.0 IBUs | - |
Mash Profile
| Name | Description | Step Temperature | Step Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saccharification | Add 30.45 qt of water at 157.9 F | 150.0 F | 45 min |
| Heat | Heat to 156.0 F over 10 min | 156.0 F | 20 min |
If steeping, remove grains,
and prepare to boil wort
Started as West Coast Blaster from Brewing Classic Styles. Modified for my system and available ingredients.
Make a decent sized starter.
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp090.html
From Denver water, water salts put my water at:
Ca=112,Mg=8,Na=21,SO4=244,Cl=23,HCO3=104
Start Ferment as close to 60 as possible and let it rise to 65ish until heavy fermentation is done. Then, let temperature go to wherever room temp is (68 or 70).
Dry hop straight into fermentor at beginning of fermentation.
Brewing Record
| Brew Date: | Strike Temp: | |||||
| Mash Temps: | ||||||
| Pre-boil OG | (1.058 SG) | Pre-boil Vol | (6.57 gal) | |||
| Actual Mash Efficiency | Pitch Temp | |||||
| Fermentation | ||||||
| Day 1: | ||||||
| Day ... | ||||||
| Day ... | ||||||
1/17/2013 Thinking of brewing this up on or around my birthday. Think I might have to get rid of some beer to pull this off.
1/31/2013 Bought ingredients today. Decided to go with San Diego Super Yeast instead of US05. Should do a starter tonight.
2/1/2013 Starter is fermenting away.
2/4/2013 Brew day today went well. The mash temp was elusive, but eventually I got there. Everything else went just about perfect.
2/5/2013 Fermentation was active by last night, and even more so this morning. Temperature at 64ish.
2/6/2013 Fermenation still going really strong in both vessels. The gallon took a bit longer to start, but it is going good now.
2/8/2013 Fermentation has slowed down considerably. 68ish. NOTE ... I finally changed the recipe to San Diego Super yeast from US05. This pushed the expected ABV from 7 to 7.6.
2/9/2013 Racked into my smaller BB fermentor along with 1oz Cascade, 1oz Chinook, and .5oz Centennial. Sample was hoppy and delicious. The gravity is currently at 1.016, which puts this beer at 7.1% ABV. I expect it will get a bit drier in secondary, but I don't think it will get down to the Beer Smith estimated final gravity.
2/13/2013 Kegged tonight. Probably could have dry hopped longer to get slightly more aroma, but I am pleased with the sample. Also bottled up 3 bombers from the extra gallon. That beer was not nearly as good. 1.014 is my FG.
3/9/2013 Tried some of the bottles from the extra gallon. Not as good as what is one tap, but not bad at all.
3/12/2013 Transferred to another keg because the flow just was not right. Much better now.
4/6/2013 Emptied the keg tonight. So sad.