International Hybrid Pale Ale

Primary fermenter - 7 days
Secondary fermenter - 14 days

I had to make this a hybrid because the place where I live in Europe didn't have all the American supplies that I needed. Therefore, I had to make some changes to my recipe. I wanted to use cascade hops, but had to substitute fuggles instead. I considered hallertauer, but went with the British version instead. Also on the yeast, I wanted white labs California yeast, but all they had were dry packets, so I went with the Safale U.S.-05. I read that others have done it, so I did too.

I haven't used dry yeast in 20 years, so I made a yeast starter for the first time that I can remember. I forgot to get dry malt extract (DME), so I made it from liquid. I used 3 cups of water and 1/3 cup of liquid malt extract (LME) for a starter target gravity of 1.040. My research said that it is hard to calculate what the cell density is. Manufacturer say >6B cells/gram. I used 6.5 for the calculator. Boiled for 10 minutes and cooled it in an ice bath. Made the starter 48 hours before I started the main wort boil. Didn't look like much was happening 12 hours after making the starter, but later in the day, it had the right smell and was bubbling nicely.

If you brew this using US ingredients, use Carapils and Crystal 40L for the steeping grains; Cascade in place of fuggles (they are close enough to keep the timing the same); but the yeast can stay the same, since it is a U.S. Yeast. Extract was Polish product. I don't think it would make a difference. A starter is absolutely necessary to get the pitch rate higher, particularly with a dry yeast. Use the calculator on brewersfriend.com to determine how many cells and how big a starter you need. Mine was 3 cups, which met my requirement, but only just.

First time I've used a hop bag, too. I have heard two,things about hop bags: agitate often to get flow through the bag and don't squeeze it afterward because you can squeeze out some off favors into your wort. The hop bags worked great. Much easier cleanup than trying to strain out the pellet mess. Most of the hops stayed in the bags. Only had to dump my nylon strainer 3 times during wort transfer. Just remember to stir often when using the bags.

For conversion, 28g of hops equals 1 ounce. So 33g is about 1.2 ounces. I wanted to use plugs or full flower, but again, not available. Typically, I don't use pellets because it is harder to strain afterwards, which is why I went with the hops bags this time. Based on how easy the pour was into the carboy and the clean up afterward, I will be using hop bags everytime I use pellet hops. It was much easier than in the past, when my strainer would get clogged 20+ times while pouring.

The wort was darker than the calculator said it would be, but the IG was almost right on. It was closer in color to what I would expect of an APA, but the model is showing a much lighter expected color. Attached photos show the boil and the carboy about one hour after pitching.

24 hours after pitching, the krausen was about 2 inches and dark green on the top, probably from dry hopping with the pellets.

A note on dry hopping. Next time, I will wait until the krausen begins to fade, then add the dry hops, probably in bags. See this post for more on how to dry hop correctly: http://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/07/25/dry-hopping-beer/. Hop bag, sanitized marbles, string and tape. Might even be best in the secondary. Remove just before bottling.

Left in primary for 7-days, at 70 degrees. Transferred to secondary. Gravity was 1.016 for alcohol of 5.2 percent. Strong bitterness, very hoppy aroma. Classic pale ale! Leave in secondary another 2 weeks, then prime as indicated and bottle.

Primary cleanup: the yeast cake trub will be full of bloated hop pellet mess (unless you bag the dry hopping pellets). You will have to use a strainer when dumping out the left over yeast cake to prevent clogging your drain. I recommend using plugs for dry hopping because the clean up is easier. Also, don't store or reuse this yeast because it is full of hops. Of course, you can use some bags, but I don't know what kind of flow you will get through the dry hopping bags.