Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Summer Solstice Pale Ale



To celebrate the longest day of the year I wanted to make a hop forward pale ale. This is my most hop forward beer to date. I wanted to make a hoppy pale ale that really stretch my comfort zone of hop additions.  Normally I go low on the bittering charge and really crank up the late additions, not this time. This time I went big all the way through. I have made number of Belgian style ales in the last few months, so I wanted to get something a little hoppy on tap as the weather warms. I kept the malt bill simple and used 4 types of hops in the beer. I also think that this is the most hop varietals that I have used in any one batch. I tried out two newer hop varietal called Zythos and Falconers Flight. Both Falconer's and Zythos are blends of Pacific Northwest and "C" hops made by Hop Union. I also used Pacific Gem and Amarillo in this beer. I hope it will be a citrusy, piney-like pale that is well balanced and refreshing.

The yeast cake for this beer will be used for my first attempt at a IIPA.

Recipe: US 2-Row, Honey Malt, Crystal 40L. Zythos, Amarillo @60min, Pacific Jade, Zythos and Falconers @30min, Zythos, Amarillo, Pacific Jade and Falconers @15min, Zythos and Amarillo @5min, Zythos and Amarillo @Falme Out. US-05.