This post is one in a series following five brewers limiting themselves to a select set of ingredients and brewing several beers each with only those ingredients. The goal of these limitations is to push creativity and to see what can be done within the confines of a single set of ingredients. More about this concept can be found here. The ingredients chosen for this project were Maris Otter, White Wheat (malted), Light Munich, Amarillo, Nugget, WLP810 San Francisco Lager and WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast. The brewer must use all ingredients (with the exception of choosing one yeast strain). The rest of this series can be found here.
Author: R. Goyenko
Recipe
After brewing an IPL for the first round of this series, I felt that I had a good idea of how the specific malts and hops that we were limited to worked together—at least in the combination that I used for the IPL. This time, I wanted to get a better idea of how the yeast worked with these ingredients, and since that was the one place where we had some choice (lager or ale), I decided to try out the ale strain on this recipe.
I like the IPL that I brewed before, so I wanted to make a similar wort to use with the ale strain. For those reasons, I decided to brew up an American Pale Ale for this round. I wanted to keep some of the flavors and aromas I got from the IPL: fresh-baked bread, orange zest, herbal, and spicy notes all worked pleasantly together. Using WLP810 San Francisco Lager Yeast in the IPL resulted in a very clean beer with no detectable esters, and that was something I wanted and expected to change with using WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast.
Another change I wanted to make from the IPL was the hop choices in the late kettle additions and dry hops. In the IPL, I only used Amarillo as late and cold-side additions, and I wanted to see how Nugget worked in at least one of those roles. I was hoping by adding Nugget later in the process, the result would be a woody/piney character that would be a nice addition to the floral/tropical notes from the Amarillo. These choices ended up as the following recipe:
- Mashed at 152°F
- 50% Maris Otter
- 41% Light Munich
- 9% Wheat
- Boiled 60min.
- 0.5 oz. Nugget (30 min.) at 14% (21 IBUs)
- 2 oz. Amarillo (0 min.) at 8.6% AA (23 IBUs)—whirlpool at 212°F for 30 min.
- 1 oz. Nugget & 1 oz. Amarillo (dry hop) at 1 day after start of fermentation
- 2 oz. Amarillo (dry hop) at 4 days after start of fermentation
- Pitched WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast
- Fermented at 63°F for 3 days
- Raised temperature to 65°F for 1 day
- Raised to 68°F until fermentation was complete
- OG: 1.055
- FG: 1.010
- ABV: 5.9%
- Kegged and burst carbonated
Brew Day
As I decided to make basically the same recipe as before and only change the yeast, this was a simple brew day since I had everything planned out from before. I gathered 8 gallons of water and added 6 grams each of gypsum and Calcium Chloride.
I measured out my grains and milled them.
I then mashed in using my BIAB setup.
The mash temperature came in as expected at 152.4°F.
I boiled for 30 minutes before adding the first hop addition (Nugget), then boiled half an hour more. Right after the end of boil, I added the Amarillo hops and waited for 30 minutes. Since I brew outside, the temperature drops during my whirlpool/hopstands. It’s not really a whirlpool, as I just add the hops to the kettle and cover it, but I do stir the wort two or three times throughout the process.
I chilled the wort, transferred it to the fermenter, and added the yeast, direct pitching one pacakge. Fermentation went well with no surprises, and I transferred to the keg after fermentation was complete and burst carbonated.
Tasting
Appearance: Gold to copper color, tall white head that dissipated slowly to a thin film that stays.
Aroma: Citrus (mandarin), pine, light alcohol on the nose, floral. Bready/doughy malt. It was pretty clean, but the esters from the ale yeast was more prominent than in lager version.
Flavor: Big malt flavor—bready, toasty grain. There was a touch of huskiness from the malt when it was young, but that dissipated with conditioning. The ale version was definitely fruitier from esters that the yeast imparted and felt rounder/not as crisp as the lager version. I added Nugget to this beer dry hop and I don’t quite like the results. The Nugget seemed to impart a flavor that I can describe only as wet kitchen rug. It was not pleasant, rough/earthy, grassy, and distracting from the nice Amarillo hops. I don’t think it works well with this malt bill and would probably work better in something more robust like a stout. I would also not dry hop with it and boil for at least 5 minutes. The Nugget did add a woody/piny character, but I think if I was going for that in dry hop I could have used some other hops that impart it without unpleasant part.
Comparing this beer to the IPL I brewed before, I think IPL was better. I believe that both the yeast and hops contributed to that. I liked the crispness and dryness that San Francisco Lager yeast provided; the taste was also quite unique and not a typical, over the top hoppy IPA.
If I were to brew this beer again using the same ingredients, as you probably could guess, I would not use Nugget in the dry hop as I did not like the character it contributed to the beer.
If I were to brew this beer again without the limitations on the set of ingredients, one item I would change would be the malt bill. I like using flaked grain in my hoppy beers; oats add mouthfeel, and flaked wheat and barley make it feel fresher to me. Another thing I would do is to add another type of hops—and actually, that’s what I did. I had brewed a SMaSH beer with 2-row and Mosaic that had a wonderful hop character, but the malt wasn’t coming through as much. I blended 60% of the SMaSH beer with 40% of this pale ale. I actually submitted this blend to the National Homebrew Competition, and the beer actually took first place in its category. Now I only need to figure out how to rebrew it.
Recipe Comparison
Note: Some disparity in IBU contributions for flameout and whirlpool additions will exist in the chart below due to variation in recipe calculator software amongst contributors.
| Beer 1 | Beer 2 | Beer 3 | Beer 4 | Beer 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Style | Hoppy Wheat | Pale Ale/Lager | IPL | NEIPA/IPA | Munich Lager |
| Maris Otter | 34.4% | 50% | 50% | 82% | 30% |
| Light Munich | 5.5% | 25% | 41% | 7% | 60% |
| Wheat | 60.1% | 25% | 9% | 11% | 10% |
| Hop Addition 1 | 28.7 IBUs Nugget (60 min.) | 41.3 IBUs Nugget (First Wort) | 21 IBUs Nugget (30 min.) | 41.8 IBUs Nugget (First Wort) | 24.4 IBUs Nugget (60 min.) |
| Hop Addition 2 | 5.5 IBUs Amarillo (5 min.) | 5.8 IBUs Amarillo (15 min.) | 23 IBUs Amarillo—30 min. Whirlpool | 4.8 IBUs Amarillo (20 min Whirpool at 170F) | 8.9 IBUs Nugget (10 min.) |
| Hop Addition 3 | 7.1 IBUs Nugget (5 min.) | 2.3 IBUs Nugget (5 min.) | N/A | 0.8 IBUs Amarillo & Nugget (20 min Whirlpool at 120F) | 6.8 IBUs Amarillo (5 min.) |
| Hop Addition 4 | 16.8 IBUs Amarillo—30 min. Whirlpool | 0 IBUs Amarillo (flameout) | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Hop Addition 5 | 22 IBUs Nugget—30 min. Whirlpool | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Dry Hop | 2.5 oz. Amarillo, 2 oz. Nugget (10 days) | N/A | 2 oz. Amarillo @ Day 1; 2 oz. Amarillo @ Day 4 | 1 oz. Amarillo & 0.5 oz. Nugget @ Day 2, 1 oz. Amarillo @ Day 8; 2 oz. Amarillo & 0.5 oz. @ Day 8 | N/A |
| Yeast | WLP090 at 64°F, raised to 70°F | WLP090 at 66°F, raised to 72°F; WLP810 at 63°F | WLP810 at 65°F, raised to 68°F | WLP090 | WLP810 at 60°F, raised to 65°F |
| OG | 1.059 | 1.058 | 1.050 | 1.063 | 1.055 |
| FG | 1.012 | 1.009/1.014 | 1.010 | 1.012 | 1.013 |
| ABV | 6.2% | 6.5%/5.8% | 5.3% | 6.7% | 5.5% |
| Beer 6 | Limitations: Beer 7 (Hoppy Wheat) | Beer 8 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Style | California Common | Hoppy Wheat | American Pale Ale |
| Maris Otter | 30% | 21% | 50% |
| Light Munich | 60% | 12% | 41% |
| Wheat | 10% | 67% | 9% |
| Hop Addition 1 | 28.2 IBUs Nugget (30 min.) | 23 IBUs Nugget (45 min.) | 21 IBUs Nugget (30 min.) |
| Hop Addition 2 | 4.35 IBUs Amarillo (5 min.) | 8.2 IBUs Nugget (15 min.) | 23 IBUs Amarillo (0 min.) |
| Hop Addition 3 | 1 oz. Amarillo (165ºF Whirlpool for 20 min.) | N/A | N/A |
| Hop Addition 4 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Hop Addition 5 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Dry Hop | 2 oz. Amarillo | 1 oz. Amarillo for 9 days; 1 oz. Amarillo for 4 days | 1 oz. Amarillo & 1 oz. Nugget day 1 of fermentation; 2 oz. Amarillo day 4 of fermentation |
| Yeast | WLP810 at 65°F | WLP090 at 65°F for 5 days; raised to 72°F over 5 days | WLP090 |
| OG | 1.050 | 1.059 | 1.055 |
| FG | 1.012 | 1.009 | 1.010 |
| ABV | 5% | 6.6% | 5.9% |