Farmhouse Pale

This beer came to me as I read a recent posting on The Mad Fermentationist's blog. I wanted to brew something I had never heard of prior, while still paying homage to the classic style of the Belgian Pale Ale. I chose to use Oat Malt as the base for this beer since I felt it would create a grainy and rustic flavor that would translate well with the dry/earthy/farmhouse flavors with the yeast and hop selections.

To ensure the oat malt converted, I added Amylase Enzyme to the mash, since this is not a naturally occurring component of oat as it is in barley. I think this addition is what created such a fermentable wort. The efficiency for this beer was much higher than my usually predictable 72-74%, but while it is not stylistically perfect, the higher alcohol may hide well behind the other flavors and esters going on in this beer.

For the mash, I went low, like 146-7* - this also helped create a more fermentable wort. To encourage some degree of souring (and to allow me to split the brew day in half) I did an overnight mash, and added acid malt to the grist.

Once boiled and chilled, I aerated, and pitched a big slug of Brett C and a starter of WLPP530 (Abbey Ale) and fermentation took off like crazy in my basement at 68*. Once the ferment dropped to about 80% expected attenuation, I moved to my garage, in the 90's to promote funky and bretty flavors. After a few weeks, I sampled, and found this beer to be very one dimensional, and not quite what I was looking for, so I decided to dry hop with Willamette.



After a week or so on the dry hops, I bottled at 3 vols of CO2.

Type: All Grain
Date: 6/19-20/2010
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Brewer: Ryan R Lockard
Boil Size: 6.92 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00

Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.00 lb Oats, Malted (Thomas Fawcett) (2.0 SRM) Grain 60.87 %
2.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 17.39 %
2.00 lb Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 17.39 %
0.25 lb Acidulated (Weyermann) (1.8 SRM) Grain 2.17 %
0.25 lb Pale Chocolate (200.0 SRM) Grain 2.17 %
1.25 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] (60 min) Hops 22.1 IBU
0.50 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] (15 min) Hops 4.4 IBU
0.55 tsp Amylase Enzyme (Mash 3.0 days) Misc
1 Pkgs Abbey Ale (White Labs #WLP530) Yeast-Ale
1 Pkgs Brettanomyces claussenii (White Labs #WLP645) [Starter 50 ml] [Add to Secondary] Yeast-Ale

Est Original Gravity: 1.052 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.001 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.17 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 7.83 %
Bitterness: 26.5 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 9.9 SRM

Notes:
I triple milled the oat malt as it is a very thin kernel and did not get a great crush
Did an overnight mash, night temps were in the 70's, and day temps were high 80's. Overall it was about a 15 hour mash. The goal was to have some degree of a sour mash (that's why the acid malt).
Mashed lower than target, 148*
Collected wort, pre boil grav 1.048 - very cloudy

6/24/10 - Moved the primary from the basement (65*) to the garage (high 80*'s)once most activity slowed and krausen dropped

7/4/10 - Sampled the beer, very dry and a little too one dimensional. Made the decision to dry hop to add some flavor and hope between that and the carbonation the complexity and flavor will increase

7/6/10- Racked from primary to secondary bucket and added 2 ounces of Willamette to dry hop - left in the garage in spite of heat wave (high 90*'s)

7/14/10 - Bottled. FG 1.002 (7.30% ABV)

7/25/10 - Sampled a young bottle after a night in the fridge. Quite impressed, especially since it is so young. Nice carbonation, mildly cloudy, nice lasting fluffy head and full of funky brett aromas and flavors. I am excited to see how this one ages.