Late last year, a member of RateBeer inspired me to take on a new pale ale test. His recipe:
- 7.5 pounds of 2-row
- 8 ounces of carapils
- and a hopping schedule of 100% Motueka: 1oz @60, 2oz @10, 1oz @0 and 1oz dry hopped
- Wyeast 3112 (Brett B) as the only yeast to be used
I brewed this on June 8th, dry hopped on June 18th and kegged on June 27th @ 15PSI until today, june 30th. very quick turnaround, the yeast fermented down to 1.010 so the ABV is 3.7% which means 51 IBUs estimated. The brett could have worked much longer of course but I wanted the most hop presence in this beer and thus I fermented around 75F and used a huge 2L starter from the smack pack. Sadly, I don’t have a stir plate yet.
Anyway, the color is a faint yellow, insanely cloudy. Nose is earthy with a hint of pine, grapefruit and tangerine zest. Taste is light, spritzy and refreshing with pine cone and grapefruit throughout. Very good mouthfeel, easy to drink and it has a tropical fruit aftertaste that really sticks around for a while.
Next? Well, the goal is to take this exact same grain bill and continue to try various hop combinations, perhaps various strains of Brett and build up this beer to a more meatier 5.5% IPA instead of the 3.7 it is now. I’m happy with how this turned out! It’s on tap now at my house for any of the readers who occasionally drop in to drink beer.
This sounds awesome. A co-worker and I were talking about brewing an IPA using brett instead of our “go-do” (wlp001.) Perhaps you’ve convinced me to pull the trigger and try this one out.