Brew Day at Four Horsemen: American Pale Ale

Some of you may already know that I've been invited to do some specialty/experimental batch brewing at Four Horsemen Brewing Company, with permission to brew what I think would be fun, interesting and tasty, all while learning from their Brewmaster, Stephen Foster, who has a wealth of knowledge and experience.

Saturday, March 3rd, marked my first day arriving at the brewery to whip up a little somethin'. Talking with Stephen earlier in the week, we agreed that I would be starting with an American Pale Ale, with access to all of their brewing ingredients to do with what I wanted. Not only was the objective to make an APA, but it was also an opportunity to learn how to brew on their small-batch system, a SABCO Brew Magic v350.

The SABCO is a great little system that will brew between 5-14 gallons. As I was doing some research prior to my arrival Saturday, I learned that Sam Calagione, Founder/Owner of Dogfish Head, started the brewery on an older version of this system, and continues to use the most recent model for test/pilot batches. If it's good enough for Dogfish and FHBC, it's sure as hell good enough for me!

Knowing what I would be brewing on, and what type of beer I would be aiming for, I was on my way. Since there can be a bit of a wait for the liquor (hot water) to heat up, I started out by filling the mash tun with 5 gallons of water, and the liquor tun with 15 gallons. The reverse osmosis water source is about 30 feet away, so using a 5 gallon jug, I made 4 trips to get this started.

While the liquor was heating up to about 168 degrees, I went in search of the malt to use for this batch. I didn't really have a recipe in mind, and since this was just as much about learning how to use the SABCO as it was aiming to make a good beer... I winged it. Of course I measured ingredients and kept a log, but it really was all on the fly with some pointers from Stephen. I was aiming for 30lbs of malt to use in the mash, so I went with 18lbs of Pilsner, 9lbs of Dextrin, and 3lbs of Crystal. Now based on my subsequent research on Dextrin malt, that was possibly a bit on the high side since it produces a lot of non-fermentable sugars that get passed along to the finished product. From what I understand, maybe 10-20% of the grain bill would have been more fitting for the style, but we'll see how it turns out. Keep in mind, aside from making sure I don't do anything incredibly idiotic, Stephen is letting me run loose... he really is brave!

Once the grain was in the mash tun, I set the temp to 158 degrees and let it go until conversion stabled off at 15.5 degrees Plato. For my first go around with this system, Stephen recommended a single infusion, instead of a step infusion, so I took his advice. While this is fairly high gravity, a fraction of the sugars are from the Dextrin malt, and therefore will not ferment into alcohol. Since the mash tun is also a lauter tun, I let the wort drain into the brew kettle while running sparge water from the liquor tank over the mash to retrieve much of the leftover sugars, filtering through the grain bed and out into the boil kettle.

Once the wort filled about half of the boil kettle, I turned on the gas to let it start rising toward the boiling point, letting the kettle reach 14 gallons. Oh yeah, I suppose this needs some hops, right? Time to make a quick trip into the large cooler, look through the copious amounts of hops, of several varieties, and decide what, as well as how much, I want for this beer.

This is where things got a little crazy. I'm a huge fan of Flat 12 Walkabout Pale and its use of Galaxy hops. Since I prefer my APA/IPA/DIPA on the bitter side, I grabbed about 8oz of Galaxy hops, with 13% Alpha Acids (AA for short, the stuff that makes hops bitter). For only 14 gallons, this is probably a ridiculous amount in retrospect, especially for a APA. Once that was added to the boil, I went back for another 6.15oz of Cascade to be added with 15 minutes left in the 60 minute boil, along with 8oz of Cascade for flame-out. Again, in hindsight, this is probably far more than what was necessary, but may help cut through the high gravity, sugary side.

With about 15 minutes left in the boil, we started hooking up the wart chiller that quickly cools the very hot wort down to a ferment-able temperature before adding the yeast. Unfortunately for us, the chiller was not working properly, which required about 60-90 minutes of cleaning and sanitizing before it could be used. Although it's probably not ideal to let the wort sit that long before chilling it, this was a valuable lesson in equipment maintenance that will help me in the future.

Finally, the wort was chilled, and the fermentation tank filled, just one more ingredient to go - yeast. I added about 4 to 5oz of US-05 dry yeast to the tank, popped the top on it, connected the CO2 release hose and dropped it into a bucket of water. Until Monday afternoon, the young beer will sit in the brewery while the yeast starts doing its thing, after which I will move it to the cooler for the remainder of fermentation.

Just as important as the brewing is the cleanup work, which I did plenty of, but won't bore you with the details...

After an 8 hour brew day, I walked away with a beer fermenting, equipment clean, and a wealth of information learned. There were a few hiccups along the way that would likely have resulted in a much shorter day, but when spending time doing what I enjoy, time flies by quickly.

It's hard to say how this beer will turn out. My best guess is that it will be a high gravity, full bodied, bitter, hoppy monster with a sweet malt backbone. Whether it will taste good or not is really anyone's guess, but I'm looking forward to monitoring its progress. If it proves worthy, there's a possibility you'll see it on tap in Four Horsemen's tap room, so stay tuned for further info.

I can't begin to describe how rewarding it is to brew beer and have an opportunity like this. At the end of the day, I learned a lot from Stephen, had an incredible time, and cannot wait to get back in brewery for my next batch along with another opportunity to continue learning!

Cheers!