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Pale, But not Ghastly, PLEASE! BY Bruce L Brode "Grand Hydro" (Published in the December 1996 Brews and News)
Brew Style of the Month: Pale Ale
Pale Ale. That convenient and familiar rhyme echoes in the minds of beer fanciers everywhere, whetting the appetite for a brew that seems to have everything one could want: malt and hops in abundance, captivating color, a crisp yet satisfying appeal. Who can deny the gustatory pleasures of a fine Pale Ale? Ah, but how to brew one? The unfortunate fact is that despite being one of those great beer styles that attracts individuals to brewing and real beer appreciation, this classic style is one of the most difficult of the standard ales to brew successfully, in my opinion. I can tell you from my own experience that it took me much longer than I anticipated to feel as if I had mastered the primary brewing challenges that seem to be inherent in this style. Perhaps because it is a beer that those new to brewing are often most interested in crafting, we have frequently had the experience in the last few years of judging this category at homebrew competitions only to encounter a large but disappointing field of entries. I'd like to share what I've learned about this style in the hopes of inspiring some better brews in the future. Here is the Falcons competition style description for Pale Ale:
Pale Ale: Substyles: Classic British Pale Ale: Thought by many to be the bottled equivalent of Bitter Ale, and reflecting the higher hop, alcohol and carbonation levels needed to preserve it in such a form. Color light copper to deep copper. Aroma features fine hops with malt for balance. Flavor similarly features hops, and minerals on the palate in many versions, with good support from malt that is rich yet light. Generally a well-attenuated beer, with light to medium body and medium carbonation. O.G. 1.045-1.060, IBU 17-55, alcohol 4.5-5.5% v/v. Commercial examples: Bass Pale Ale (U.K.), Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Pale Ale (U.K.), Double Diamond Ale (U.K.).
American Pale Ale: An adaptation of the original British style, but reflecting a penchant for slightly greater strength and also the different flavors and aromas of domestic malts, hops, yeasts and water supplies. Generally lighter in color as well. O.G. 1.048-1.065, IBU 25-55, alcohol 5.5-6.5% v/v. Commercial examples: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (U.S.), Mad River Steelhead Extra Pale Ale (U.S.). There are related and even overlapping styles, such as Extra Special Bitter and India Pale Ale, but for purposes of this article we're going to focus on the classic Pale Ale style. This is one of the only styles in which each of the four basic ingredients plays a critical role in the beer's flavor. We'll start with the water. Pale Ale is originally an English style, and most brewing water sources in England carry a considerable load of dissolved minerals; they are considered to be high in total hardness, well above 100 parts per million. The Bass product and its worthy competitor, Double Diamond, are both brewed at Burton-On-Trent, an English town whose water source is renowned for its distinctively sharp mineral character resulting from significant mineral ion concentrations of sodium, calcium, magnesium and sulfate, among others. The acidic mineral cast contributed by such "Burton Water Salts," which homebrewers can duplicate to a degree by adding a little gypsum, epsom salt and table salt to their bewing water, goes a long way toward capturing the crisp character of these beers. The American styles may not display as much mineral character, but I believe it still provides an important part of the profile and is worth emulating. Malt is also important in Pale Ale, forming the backbone structure as it does for all beers. This comes overwhelmingly from pale male, with a very small fraction of caramel malt, perhaps 2 to 10%, added to get that shimmery copper color and a bit of depth to the flavor to play the hops off of, in most formulations. In many fine Pale Ales it's the malt you taste last, moreso than the hop bitterness, and final impressions are important. Which brings us nicely to the subject of hops. My feeling is that the flavor of most good Pale Ales is "front-loaded" with hops; the mat comes in behind for a nice tangy, even creamy finish. This means that a substantial portion of the hops is added late in the boil and dryhopped in the fermenter. Thus, the choice of hop varieties and the timing of their additions is important--where one variety alone may become uninteresting, or worse, overbearing, a combination of two or more will give complexity and a fuller overall hop character. This is considered a fairly hoppy beer style, malt notwithstanding. For bittering, the choices are not truly critical but some varieties are clearly better suited to providing a clean and attractive bitterness than others. For the English style, consider Bullion, Nugget, or an all-purpose variety like Challenger or Bramling Cross. For the American approach, think about Chinook, Galena, Perle or again Nugget, which as you can tell has become one of my favorite ale-bittering varieties. Hops for the palate flavor are generally added from 20 to 5 minutes prior to the end of the boil, and should be from a very clean-tasting variety or two that are low in alpha acid (bittering) content. Recommended are East Kent Goldings, Challenger, Bramling Cross, Fuggle, Willamette, or similar. the all-important aroma hopes are often added in the "dryhopping" technique. For this you'll need to procure the highest quality whole-flower fresh hops you can get, that have been minimally handled, for best effect. The classic British variety for this is East Kent Goldings, with its soft, minty-fruity character that dovetails beautifully with the fruity esters from the fermentation (more about that below). Unfortunately, it doesn't tend to keep terribly well. Just as classic a dry hop in the American approach is Cascade, which can be blended with a little bit of another variety if you're concerned about it getting too intense in its piney, geranium-like way. You might consider 1/2 to 1 ounce per 5 gallons, lef in the secondary fermenter for a couple of weeks while the beer falls bright, less for Cascade and more for Goldings. I like to use a hop steeping bag I have sanitized by boiling, which makes it easier to remove the hops come bottling or kegging time. Selection of a good yeast strain appropriate to the style of Pale Ale you wish to brew is no less important than the other ingredient considerations. While there are many, many different English ale yeast strains, some work better than others for Pale Ale, just like hop varieties. Prime considerations are good fermentation ability down to a fairly low residual gravity, good hop tolerance, and some pleasant fermentation flavor characteristics of fruity esters and a touch of buttery diacetyl for authentic complexity. Most of these yeasts work best at warmer ale ferment temperatures from 65 to 75 F. or so. American-style yeasts are more neutral in their ester levels, and some have a citric 'bite' to them that interfaces well with the intense hop flavor that is often present. Whatever your choice, make a good starter for it with some hops in the starter, so that the yeast isn't stunned by the hop presence in the beer wort you'll be asking it to ferment. Time to brew some gruesome, but not ghastly, Pale Ale. If I recall correctly, there's a venerable A.H.A. club-only competition called Hail to Ale that focuses on the Pale Ale styles, and our club's entry will be due in January, so let's get on with the brewing. Plan to bring a bottle of your entry into our club's taste-off to our January meeting! Here's an all-grain American Pale Ale recipe that took first Place at the 1996 Maltose Falcons Mayfaire Competition: For 10 gallons: Grains: 16 pounds 2-row (pale) malt. 2 pounds 59 L. crystal malt. 1.3 pounds CaraPils malt. Hops: 1.5 oz. Perle plugs added to boil at 30 min. 3.5 oz. Cascade plugs added at 60 min. 1 oz. Cascade plugs added at 85 min. 2 oz. Crystal pellets, dry hop. (Total boiling time not stated). Yeast: Burlingame Station 800 ml yeast cake. Water: Hetch Hetchy water system, amended with 15 grams gypsum. Procedure: Mash rests: 40 C. for 20 min., 65 C. for 90 min., 75 C. for 10 min. Boil runoff (sparge) with hop additions as stated above. Fermentation: 5 days primary at 68 F., 10 days secondary at 63 F. Original gravity 1.060, final gravity 1.013. Here's an idea of mine for a British-style Pale Ale using malt extract:
"Hurtin' for Burton" Pale Ale, by Bruce Brode: For 5 gallons: Grains: 1 pound English pale malt. 1/2 pound 17 L. light carastan malt. 1/4 pound English 80 L. caramel malt. Extract: 6 pounds Royal English light dry malt extract. Hops: 30 IBU Challenger for bittering. 1/3 oz. east Kent Goldings pellets added last 10 min. of boil for palate. Dry hop in secondary fermenter with 1 oz. E.K. Goldings flowers (plugs) for aroma. Yeast: Wyeast Irish Ale yeast in 1 1/2 pint active starter. Water: Drinking water with Burton Water Salts package product added, or with 1 teaspoon gypsum, 1/2 teaspoon table salt (non-iodized), and1/4 teaspoon epsom salt added. Procedure: Mash grains as a mini-mash in 2 1/3 quarts water at 150 F. for 60 min., then drain into kettle and lightly rinse with 2 quarts warm water. Add additional brewing water and extract malt to about 6 1/2 gallons total volume. Bring to boil and skim foam. Add hops as described above. Fermentation: Primary 1 week at 68 F., secondary 2 weeks at 65 F. with Goldings hop cones added in sanitized steeping bag. Prime with 3/4 cup corn sugar dissolved in 3/4 cup hot water to bottle, or rack into sanitized keg and force-carbonate. Well, that's all for now. Until next time, keep floatin' and go brew some hoppy/malty/minerally/yeasty Pale Ale!
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