Patrick Henry Pale Ale (3-gallon/11-L All-Grain Recipe)

February 21, 2014 by 1 Comment
496px-Patrick_henry

“Give me liberty or give me . . . you know, what, liberty will great. I’ll stick with liberty.”

With small batch brewing taking off in popularity and readers of this site enjoying the article about my simple 3-gallon (11-L) all-grain brewery, I decided to post a series of all-grain recipes scaled to 3 gallons (11 L). I’ve already posted my porter, and here’s my pale ale. (For reference, see the 5-gallon (19-L) recipe, or countertop partial mash formulation, if you’d like.)

For 3 gallons (11 L) of beer at this original gravity (13 °Plato, OG 1.052) , you do not need to make a yeast starter when using a tube or XL smack pack of liquid yeast.

 

Patrick Henry Pale Ale

by Chris Colby

All-grain; English units

 

DESCRIPTION

This is my basic American-style pale ale. I’ve brewed this recipe — slightly tweaking it every time — over 30 times and it’s a great “go-to” beer. I really like the combination of Centennial, Cascade and Amarillo late hops and I use this combo in most of my other pale-ale-like beers, including my sweet potato ESB. The only non-standard part of this recipe is the tiny amount of chocolate malt added. This changes the hue of the beer slightly, and can be omitted if you want.

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3-Gallon All-Grain Recipe Series (I: Porter)

February 19, 2014 by 3 Comments
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Mmmm . . . porter.

Back in August of last year, I posted an article about my 3-gallon (11-L) all-grain brewing setup. I have a fancy schmancy 10-gallon (38-L) all-grain rig, composed of three 15-gallon (57 L) pots on a frame . . . and a nice 5-gallon (19 L) brewery, composed of two 10-gallon (19-L) pots and a (legally) converted half-barrel for the HLT . . . and in a pinch I have a 20-gallon (76 L) pot and a propane burner stand that will hold it. But I digress.

Nonetheless, with my simple 3.0-gallon (11-L) all-grain brewing setup, I can brew in my kitchen and escape the heat of summer. And there are several fringe benefits to brewing at this scale. The biggest is that you don’t need to make a yeast starter when using liquid yeast at specific gravities around 13 ° Plato (roughly 1.052) or less. One fresh White Labs tube or Wyeast XL smack pack, at 100 billion cells, is sufficient. Also, if you don’t have a fermentation chamber, the wet T-shirt method works well at this scale (as the surface area to volume ratio is higher in smaller batches). Plus, your heating and cooling times can be very quick, making for a somewhat shorter brew day. In addition, you don’t need to use a wort chiller — cooling the brewpot in your kitchen sink works fine if you have the time to change the cooling water several times and 5–10 lbs. (~2.5–5 kg) of ice for the final leg of cooling. In retrospect, I really wish I had thought of this when I was living in an apartment in Boston. The only downside is that you yield 3 gallons (11 L) of beer rather than 5 gallons (19 L). [Read more…]

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