Nostalgic Pale Ale

I've been thinking a lot about beer lately.  What to brew, what to try, what to do next.  My thoughts took me back to what got me interested in craft beer in the first place.  Circa 2000 was an exciting time for craft beer even in Kansas.  A typical discussion involving beer snobs would go,

Beer Snob: "I have to go to Europe to get great beer, American beer is no good"
me:  "what about Boulevard or Free State ... New Belgium or Sam Adams"
Beer Snob:  "well besides those"

Needless to say the stereotype remained that American's did not appreciate good beer or make good beer but the truth had changed - American Craft Beer brought a person who appreciated beer pride.  I could have a Grolsch, maybe a Warestiener, or a tasty, citrusy pale ale.  And really, for me at least, it was the pale ale that I kept coming back too.  The first pale ale I tried was Free State's Copperhead.  Monday's at Free State a few beers were $1.50 a pint (amazing college student deal, I think they are 2 something now) and I knew I liked ales from trying Bass Ale.  This beer took me by suprise.  It was like bitting into a grapefruit it was so citrus tart and bitter.  I kept drinking my pint and ordered another knowing I loved craft beer but not knowing why.  I know better now.  Cascade hops are awesome and American.  California ale yeast are steady and forgiving.  Ales ferment at ambient tempertures.  Most homebrewers start brewing pale ales and most craft breweries have a pale ale as one of there flagship brews. Nowadays, the craft beer sub-genre is strong and relevant internationally and cannot be denied.

All this reminiscing made me want to make another pale ale.  There are so many good pale ales and IPA's out there that it is almost futile trying to make a unique one.  I really like Red Chair NWPA by Duschutes and generated a recipe based on it (yeast type main switch as I wanted to harvest some WLP001),





Brew Day went well.  Had good help from Jeff and Steve and a few homebrews.  Used filtered tap water for the sparge and strike water.  Did a single infusion at 153 F with pretty good temperature consistency throughout the pot.  Collected 7 gallons of wort which was 1035 at 135 F which should have given 1050-1055 OG but wound up with 1060.  Batch was scaled to 6 gallons but probably only collected 5.5.

We also transferred a couple of gallons of Black Magic IPA to the "party pig," kegged the saison, and bottled the rest of the Belgian wit.  Ended Brew day with a night at BBCB Compass Bank Stadium watching the Dynamo beat Montreal (3 to nil if I remember correctly).  Stopped by Flying Saucer Sugar Land for some ... pale ales!.

 Fermentation started steady the next morning.  Not aggressive like the belgian wit ales and saison's we've been brewing.  I was out-of-town the next weekend so sampled 9 day's later with yeasty smelling 1020 IG beer.  This was a bit higher than I wanted.  I could visibly see yeast agglomerates moving in the sample vial and a bunch of carbonation spewed out the sample port.  I sampled again 4 days later at 1012 IG.  Harvested yeast and lowered fermentation temperature down to 58 F (14 days later).