Oct meet-up recipe - Opel Astra Pale Ale

[Dara]

Hi,

Can't remember if Garry said this smelt like his old ascona or cortina or capri or Astra or something else from the 80's with four wheels, furry dice, graphic equalizer and a cat sleeping in the engine bay. Anyway here's the recipe from the other night:

Malts:
Marris Otter         5.8Kg (94.3%)
Biscuit         0.2Kg (3.3%)
Crytstal 80      0.15Kg (2.4%)
Mashed at 67degC for one hour to give a bre-boil  gravity of 1.048 SG(around 27L of wort).
Finished with 23L @ 1.056 SG after 1 hour boil.

Hops:
Centenial      First Wort   25g   (11,5% AA)
Cascade      First Wort   15g   (10.0%  AA)
Perle         60min      6g   (9.4% AA)    5.3 IBU
Citra         20min      20g   (14,8 AA)   16.9 IBU
Citra         10min      30g   (14,8 AA)   15.2 IBU
Amarillo      10min      15g   (10.9 AA)   5.6 IBU
Citra         0 min      30g   (,8 AA)      0 IBU
Citra         Dry Hop   12g   4 days @22degC
Amarillo      Dry Hop   15g   4 days @22deC
Citra         Dry Hop   12g   6 days @22degC
Amarillo      Dry Hop   15g   6 days @22deC

First wort hops were added and left steep for about 18 hours (I mash at night then lauter, leave overnight and boil next day).

Overall I was aiming for aournd 40 something IBU's with  excluding the first wort hops.

For flameout hops I added these after chilling the wort to just below 60degC added the hops then did a steep for 10 mins. I poked the hops around a bit with the wort chiller out of boredom. People might call this a whirl pool but I'd say more of a lazy river.

I split the dry hops 50/50 and added them in two stages (taking out the first lot before adding the second).  This is what I've tended to do but I'd say I could have left them in longer and got a lot more out of them as they seemed to have a lot of aroma after taking them out.

Chilled the lot to 22degC and pitched with US-05. Fermented at 18-22 for about 10 days. Brought it up to 22 for dry hopping. Then bottled and carbed to 2.3 Vols CO2.

When doing it again I'd tone down the first wort hops a bit. The difference, I think, is they give a very smooth bitterness  but slight grassiness due to the large amount of vegetation in the boil so would probably half them the next time. 

Dara

[Dara]

Oh ya, the final beer finished at 1.010.

[Garry]

Ha!   

It was an '87 Opel Corsa. The cat would sleep on the bonnet and píss into the vents near the wipers. When you turn on the heater you'd get a beautiful citra aroma in the car! If only I knew what citra was at the time.

Great beer Dara, thanks for sharing