Last year an old fraternity brother and fellow homebrewer alerted me that Midwest Brewing Supplies had a stash of Nittany Ale bottles, which came from a now defunct brewery in Philly called Independence Brewing. Having lived in State College PA for 12 years, going to Penn State, and pretty much growing up on it, this was a no-brainer. I ordered 2 cases, and had hoped to brew something for football season. I also have been having a desire to try and brew a nice balanced amber ale, so I thought the two would go well together and here we are...
I had the opportunity to steward our local homebrew competition in May, and the first category I helped with was American Ale, which includes American Pale, Amber, and Brown ales. I've never really thought about amber ales too much, but they are awesome. They're a great balance between hopiness and sweet maltiness. It's an overlooked style, not too many commercial examples, although they are often referred to as a red ale, which I feel like don't have the hops that amber does. My recipe is based off of Jamil's brewing classic styles recipe, with a few changes due to availability at my local homebrew shop.
RECIPE:
OG: 1.057
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.63%
IBU: 33.46
SRM: 14.6
9.25# US Organic 2 Row Pale Malt
1.00# Munich (10L)
0.75# Crystal 60L
0.25# Crystal 90L
0.25# Special B (150L) (in place of a 120L Crystal)
0.5# Victory
0.5 oz Columbus (60)
1 tsp Irish Moss (15)
0.5 oz Cascade (10)
0.5 oz Centennial (10)
0.5 oz Cascade (flame out)
0.5 oz Centennial (flame out)
Wyeast 1056 American Ale
Mash: Single infusion, target strike temp - 154/156, 60 min mash
Boil: 60 min
8/22 BREWDAY:
Tried to start around 8AM, but had a lot of problems getting my initial strike water at the right temp (heated too high, then let go too low, then reheated, then too low when added to heated mash tun, etc)... so I finally doughed in about 10AM. My initial temperature was also low, about 148, and I really wanted to get up around 154 or 156. I added 3 qts boiling water, which only brought it up to about 151, then added 5 qts boiling which raised to 158, so I added 1 qt room temp water and we settled at 156. This all happened over the span of 30 minutes, so each addition was a mini-step. The first was 15 minutes in, so I'm sure a lot of conversions had already happened before it raised to 151, then another 10 minutes went by, and finally sat on 156 for 30 minutes.
I collected 4.25 gallons of first runnings, BRIX - 14.75/1.060. I added 3 gallons of 182F sparge water, and surprising the temp only got up to 158... which was 10 degrees off of where I wanted to be. Next time - 190F at least. I let that sit for a few minutes, then collected a total of 6.25 gallons. Pre-boil BRIX - 13/1.053. Target was 1.050, so I hit it.
Boiled for 60, added 1/2 oz. Columbus at 60, 1/2 oz. Centennial & 1/2 oz. Cascade @ 10, Irish moss @ 5 (should have been 15, but forgot, almost forgot completely), and then 1/2 oz. Centennial & 1/2 oz. Cascade @ flame out.
I whirl-pooled the wort before starting to chill, and I will absolutely do this every time now, it really worked well. I've never had such clear wort come out of my boil kettle. Only a little hop gunk at the beginng (which went into a separate pan) and some at the end. Ended with 4.75 gallons... not as much as I was hoping, but oh well, close enough.
I never had time to make a yeast starter, and embarrassingly enough, I had my Wyeast 1056 packet popped and expanded for almost a week... which is way too long. I figured it was contained and we'll just see how it works. I chilled the wort to 70, shook the carboy for 1 minute, then added the 1056. I checked this morning (8/23), only 12 hours after pitching and there was activity going already. Sweet.
Hoping to transfer this quickly, and get it bottled by Friday or Saturday of this week... more later...
9/1 GRAVITY CHECK - TRANSFER TO 2ND:
The goal was for this beer to be ready for Barrett's b-day party & Penn State game against Alabama (September 11). I know I need a week to 10 days to let it condition in the bottles, so today is the day. Gravity checked in at 7.4 Brix/1.013... that's 1 point below the estimate. Perfect. Aroma was mildly hoppy, a little malt... taste was wicked bitter! But that subsided and a nice smooth malt flavor finished... nothing too sweet either which was a concern of mine. The only issue is clarity. This is a very muddy beer. I could possibly run it through a filter before I bottle... but that might be too complicated. If clarity ends up being the only issue, that's fine by me. This is definitely tastey!
Jen helped me bottle these babies... got about 44 Nittany Ale bottles filled, and 3 regular brownies in case I submit to any homebrew comps, so 47 in all. Not bad considering I only racked about 4.75 gallons. And now we wait...
11/27 TASTING:
Time has gotten away from me... lots of stuff happening in the Fall, so this is the first I've had time to post my thoughts. I am very pleased with this. Classic amber ale, crystal clear, balanced hop aroma and bitterness with malt flavor and sweetness. I have a few bottles of this left and I'll savor every one of them. This has definitely made its way into my annual line up. On this day (11/27) we played our last game of the season and I watched Michigan State clean up on us. I took the pic above too.
Next update will be after the VT homebrew comp in May. Want to sponsor this beer? :-)
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