ACKv1 (CLEMENTINE PALE ALE)

Intro

I saw Cloudwater's DIPAv1 recipe, and it looked simple enough to imitate. From this, I picked up the Maris Otter base, and (per their suggestion) the idea that I'd add dextrose. I was too scared to add CaCL2, CaSO4, or lactic acid. I also heard that Cloudwater had used oats in the grist for mouth-feel, and decided I'd try likewise.

I wanted something juicy, and decided to copy Beavertown's Bloody 'Ell (and Bloody Notorious), so decided that I'd infuse some fruit. When shopping, the first to catch my eye were clementines. Online research said that Cascade, Citra, and Centennial would all be good complements to most citrus fruit. I decided to go with all three, planning to use Cascade for bittering (though I forgot to add this, and it ended up being used for aroma).

For lack of a mash tun, I steeped using a 3.5 litre slow cooker, which could only fit half of the grist at a time. Being paranoid about extraction, I steeped each half twice, in two litres of water at around 50-70°C. As the name implies, this wasn't exactly fast — steeping took around 6 hours, which I spent waiting and finishing other chores. After losses from the boil, the result would just about fit into a 5 litre demijohn. As a counterpoint to this, fermentation happened over a surprisingly hot week, with the yeast making short work of the sugar.

Method

Mix 1 litre of boiling water with 1 litre of cold tap water to acquire 2 litres of ~50°C water, and place this into the slow cooker. Place 500g of Maris otter and 100g of oats into a nylon bag, mix this around, and place this inside of the slow cooker, covering with the lid, and switching the slow cooker to its high setting. After the slow cooker has been on for 30 minutes, and the core of the grist is ~50°C, drop to the low setting. After a further 60 minutes, set the grain aside, and pour the liquid (at this point ~70°C) into a pan (covered to retain heat). Refill the slow cooker with a new 2 litre mixture of ~50°C water, return the grain, and leave for 60 minutes before adding the liquid to the pan, wringing the grain before disposing of it.

For the second half of the grist, follow the same procedure.

Bring the pan to the boil, and keep it there for ~30 minutes. Once complete, cut the heat and wait for the wort to cool to ~80°C. Add a low heat to slow the temperature drop. Peel the clementines and place the sections into a muslin bag along with the Cascade, adding the bag to the wort. After ~90 minutes, remove the bag, add 100g of dextrose (dissolved in boiling water), and cool the wort down to 20°C. There should be ~5 litres of liquid with an OG of ~1.050 (per my dodgy hydrometer).

Siphon the liquid into a demijohn, and add the yeast. Seal with an airlock, and leave for a couple of days before dry hopping with 25g of Citra and 25g of Centennial. About a week later, fermentation should have finished, with an FG of ~1.005 SG. Add 40g of dextrose, mix, and siphon into bottles.

Notes

Clementine flavours came through, and worked well with the hops, but this wasn't a particularly juicy beer. While I'd love to make something juicier, I don't think that clementine would work in a larger concentration, and I'm glad I only steeped the fruit rather than squeezing the juice out of it. I'm not sure how this steeping compares to jucing a smaller number of clementines, which I'd like to try, but I'm more likely to give another citrus fruit a go first.

The oats added some thickness, but the end result was nowhere near the Cloudwater style I was initially aiming for. I'm not sure whether that's purely down to the ratio of oats to malt, or whether I should be using non-malted oats, which supposedly are more likely to thicken things up. I also undershot the male bill, leaving the ABV a fair amount lower than both DIPAv1 and Bloody Notorious. Next time I'll probably bump the malt bill 1.5-2 times to 1500-2000g of pale malt, leaving the dextrose as-is. Hopefully the M44 won't give up too early.

Despite not being quite what I was aiming for, I'm really happy with the end result as a sessionable pale ale.

2017-07-06