Brewed: Honey Pot Pale Ale

By scot in Beer Recipes, Home Brewing on Monday, July 22nd, 2013

The new, to me, Blichmann 15 gallon kettle

The new, to me, Blichmann 15 gallon kettle

I have always said that brewing equipment doesn’t make the brewer. I still believe that but having some kick ass equipment does make the brewing day easier. The latest addition to my equipment portfolio is a 15 gallon Blichmann kettle.

After brewing Honey Pot Pale Ale for my wife as the inaugural brew with the new kettle, I determined a couple of points that made my brewing life easier:

  1. The larger volume of the kettle allows me to not worry about the heat break as the wort comes up to boil. I have had several boil overs in my days of the 10 gallon kettle, having to watch it closely every time the wort was nearing boil
  2. The kettle has a built in thermometer. At this point good and bad (see below).
  3. The kettle has a built in spigot. This point has turned out to be awesome. I don’t have to hold a racking cane, I don’t have to carry the kettle, full of wort, to a spot to allow me to drain, I don’t have to watch it that closely.

Outside of all the gloriousness of the kettle, there is one point of frustration: the temperature probe is at the 7 gallon mark. Since I brew 5.5 gallon batches, that is at the top end of the amount of wort I have in the pot. This means that I have had to attach another thermometer to the immersion chiller to have an accurate reading while chilling the beer post boil. Not ideal.

The brew day of the Honey Pale Ale went okay. I didn’t hit my mash temperature. I have thoughts on that one but I will wait until I try out the beer. Enjoy!

General Information:
Brew Date: Sunday, July 21, 2013
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: S05
Yeast Starter: none
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.50
Original Gravity: 1.048
IBU: 31.5
Color: 6.4 SRM
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%
Alcohol by Volume: 6.7%
Primary Fermentation: 14 days @68*F

Grain Bill:
6.50# 2 Row
0.50# Caramel 40L
0.50# Honey Malt
0.25# Rice Hull
2.50# Local Honey

Mash:
Saccharification @148.6*F

Hop Bill:
0.50 ounces Amarillo @60 minutes
0.50 ounces Fuggles @60 minutes
1.00 ounces Centennial @60 minutes

Extras:
1.0 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 minutes
1.0 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 minutes

Updates:

  • 2013-08-10: bottled with 4.0 ounces of priming sugar, 2 cups of water. Yielded 1, 750ml, 26, 22 ounce. Gravity at 1.004
  • 2013-09-13: tasted

Useless Fact: The “spot” on the 7-Up logo comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was an albino.

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