The Fresh-hopped Honey Pale Ale

Splendid fall weather perfect for a home brew.

Over the weekend I had my first pour of the Fresh-hopped Honey Pale Ale I brewed after picking hops from Dan’s hop yard a few weeks ago.  I used Cascade hops for this – dry for bittering and then the ones I’d picked for aroma.  It’s not overpowering at all, very quaffable, but I want to work with this technique some more so I'm ready when my hops bines are producing quantity. 

I have some plans for this one.  We have relatives coming in from Munich this week, so I'll be sharing with them and looking for some Bavarian feedback, and I also plan to send a six-pack along to a beer tasting function that my office is having - I can't attend in person because of our guests.  We'll see how the feedback goes on all accounts.

I started with a recipe I found on-line for a pale ale, and then substituted in the hops and the honey.  This is my approach to experimenting – pretty safe and conservative, and maybe after a few more brews of this sort I may be ready to invest in an all-grain set-up.  Then we’ll roll out the big beers!

Here’s the recipe I used to brew it:

SPECIALTY GRAIN

·         1 lbs Belgian Caramel Pils

FERMENTABLES

·         6 lbs Gold malt syrup split addition (60 and 15 min)

·         1 lbs Mountain honey (5 Min)

HOPS & FLAVORINGS

·         2 oz. 2012 dried leaf Cascade (60 min)

·         5 oz. 2013 “wet” leaf Cascade (1 min)

YEAST

·      Safale US-05 Ale Dry Yeast. Optimum temp: 59°-75° F

1. This is a simple recipe adapted from Northern Brewer’s Pale Ale extract kit.  From their basic recipe I used Cascade hops acquired from neighbor Dan; I also added the now traditional honey. 

2.   I’m starting out with Boxcarr Pumpkin Porter tonight as my libation.

3.  Collect 2.5 gallons of water and begin heating.  Place the specialty grains in a muslin bag and heat to 160 degrees.  Steep for 10 minutes.  Remove the grain and bring to a boil.

4.  Add half of the malt syrup. (Be sure to remove from heat so that you don’t burn the extract.) Add 2 ounces of the dried Cascade hops.  Boil for 45 minutes.

5.  Add remaining malt syrup.  Boil for 10 minutes.

6.  Add honey and boil for four minutes.

7.  Add the wet Cascade hops for final two minutes.

8.  Cool wort to 100 degrees and rack to carboy.  Add enough water to bring up to five gallons.

9.  Pitch yeast at approximately 80 degrees or below.

9.       One to two weeks primary, two to four weeks secondary.

10.  Estimated O.G. 1.048 (including honey).

11.  I.G. 1.012, 74 degrees (7 days) Est ABV 4.8% - moved to secondary.