Last year, I brewed with a focus on local competitions and did well but I feel like I’ve done what I want with that.  So, this year my focus is on getting six beers tuned for NHC.  My American IPA, Belgian Dark Strong and Wit are pretty solid and I feel like only need minor tweaking.  My German Pils, Dusseldorf Alt and American Pale Ale are some of my favorite styles but my versions need some work.
This beer I’m focusing on some ideas I have for my American Pale Ale to see if they work or not.  So, my general idea for an American Pale Ale is similar to my IPA (see Hop Fu) but I would like a bit more toasty, bready and caramel flavor but still subdued.  On the hop side , I’d like to use some of the new big oil hops to have a nice mix of new school tropical fruit (galaxy), citrus (amarillo / citra), berry (mosaic / nelson sauvin) and old school classic american hop flavors like centennial or columbus (citrus, dank).  To be clear, I don’t plan to use all those hops!  I’d like to pick one or two new school and one or two old school and do a pretty big whirlpool (2-3 oz) and similar sized dry hop addition to get a nice big hop pop but keep the bitterness in balance to the style.  So, I wanted to test my idea for the base beer and test one of the new school hops, galaxy, to see if I want to incorporate it.
Single Hop Pale Ale Galaxy 1
10-A American Pale Ale
Size: 7.5 gal
Efficiency: 70% (actually 80+%)
Attenuation: 80%
Original Gravity: 1.048 (1.045 – 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.010 (1.010 – 1.015)
Color: 9.9 (5.0 – 14.0)
Alcohol: 5.0% (4.5% – 6.0%)
Bitterness: 18.1 (30.0 – 45.0)
Ingredients:
13 lb (91.2%) Maris Otter – added during mash
.5 lb (3.5%) Medium Crystal Malt – added during mash
.5 lb (3.5%) Cara-Pils® Malt – added during mash
4 oz (1.8%) Acidulated Malt – added during mash
.5 oz (20.0%) Magnum (14.5%) – added during boil, boiled 60 m
1 tsp Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 10 m
2 oz (80.0%) Galaxy (14%) – added after boil, steeped 30 m
1 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05
Notes
14.25 lb of grain
1.5 qt/lb = 21.375 quarts = 5.34 gallons
mash @ 154
mash in water temp 164.7 so ~166 into mash tun
mash salts:
3.3g G
1.6g CC
sparge salts:
6.0g G
3g CC
should give mash pH of 5.3 (was 5.3)
acidify sparge to 5.5-6 (~10ml of 10% phosphoric in 10G of water)
ferment @ 67 for 10 days  > keg  > drop 5 degrees per day to 45  > force carb to 2.5 vol (pitched at 65 and raised over 24 hours to 67 and held there till done)
2/10/14 standard brew day but first day using new automated HLT.  safale us-05 which was reconstituted in 1 cup of 90 degree pre-boiled water.  efficiency was much higher than with rahr 2 row.  rahr was about 72% and crisp maris otter was about 84%.
2/11/14 ferment took a little longer than normal to get going.  i’ll chalk that up to dry yeast.  By 24 hours 1/2 inch kreusen and solid steady bubbling.
2/12/14 still solid fermentation
2/13/14 still solid but starting to slow
2/14/14 switched to bubbler and measured 1.010 pH 4.13.  definite tropical fruit notes in nose.  strong bitterness but not overwhelming.  nice malt character.  no infection.
2/21/14 kegged.  no activity after 2/16 but let sit for a bit to let yeast do any cleanup.  slow drop 5 degrees a day to 40 to cold crash.