Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site

It's been a while since the last recipe. A slight miscommunication between Kristen and me is the reason.

Publishing American Ale recipes is so much fun. Maybe we'll go for something from Amsdell next. That would allow you to see how much brewing in the Hudson Valley changed during the 19th century. You'll have to excuse my excitement. This American stuff is still very new to me.

One word up front: this is not a Pale Ale in the Hodgson, Burton, India sense. No, this is a Pale Ale in the 18th-century meaning of the term. That is, a relatively lightly-hopped beer brewed from pale malt. More like a Light Mild, really.

Vassar's Pale Ale is a funny beast. Much about it is counterintuitive. Like, for example, the level of attenuation. You'd expect beer made from pale malt to attenuate better than that made from amber malt. The opposite was true at Vassar. Their Amber Ale was more highly attenuated than their Pale Ale.

Though there was quite a lot of variation in attenuation at Vassar. There were two Pale Ales on the image I sent to Kristen and he's picked the one with the worst attenuation. It was so poorly attenuated that the batch was mixed with a previous brew of Double Ale, presumably to remedy the effect of the dodgy fermentation. The Double Ale had a more respectable FG of 1036. Most of Vassar's Pale Ales had an FG in the range 1042-1047º, so don't worry if your attenuation is better than in the recipe.

Even with the lower FG, I can't think of a modern beer that is even vaguely like Vassar's Pale Ale. Sure, there are similar beers from the past. Like William Younger's 120/- or 140/- from the mid-19th century. They have a similar combination of modest hopping and high finishing gravity. I keep trying to get someone to brew one of those babies commercially, so far with no success.







That's me done for now. I think I see Kristen in the distance . . . . yes, that's him . . . . .









Vassar - 1833 - Pale ale
General info:
Holy buckets this thing is obese! Such a big beer to finish so high…higher than the vast majority of the world's beers start is really unique. This is a malt bomb to be sure. Please care to pack your insulin.
Beer Specifics
Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)
1.100
 100% American pale malt 0% 0
Gravity (FG)
1.053
 0% 0 0% 0
ABV
6.29%
 0% 0 0% 0
Apparent attenuation
47.19%
 0% 0 0% 0
Real attenuation
38.66%
 0% 0 0% 0
IBU
90
 0% 0 00
SRM
4
EBC
9
Mash
120min@154°F
1.42qt/lb
120min@67.8°C
2.97L/kg
Caramel to add
0srm
Boil
1.25 hours
Homebrew @ 70%
Craft @ 90%
Grist
5gal
23L
20bbl
20hl
American pale malt
19.28 lb
10.628 kg
1859.92 lb
718.61 kg
1859.92
Hops
Cluster 7% 90min (69bu)
3.30 oz
93.5 g
409.02 oz
9.882 kg
Cluster 7% 30min (21bu)
1.41 oz
40.1 g
175.29 oz
4.235 kg
Fermentation
68°F /20°C
Yeast
 US05
1332 Northwest Ale Yeast -
Tasting Notes:
Big, sweet malt. Tons of bread dough and honeyed biscuits. Spicy, piney and dank. Green tea resin really dries up the middle…as well as can be anyway. Thick and sweet well into the finish.


Kristen’s Version:

Notes:
Follow the guidelines I wrote for the Vassar 1884 Double Ale.




More...