Brewday 12/06/2024 Donner Pass APA

I'm playing catch-up a bit here and documenting this in Sept so it's going to be a little short on details.

Almost 2 months had past since my last brew and I'd just finished drinking the last of Blazing Paddles so it was time to top up the Keezer. I opted for an American Pale Ale this time as I wanted to have a more session-able lower ABV pale ale on hand over the summer, and I was yet to brew a lager I'm truly happy with.

I pulled the Donner Pass APA recipe directly from my subscription with Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine. This recipe was created by Jeremy Myers, the founder and former head brewer at Neshaminy Creek Brewing in Croydon, Pennsylvania, who is currently head of production at Bachs Biermanufaktur in Neunkirchen, Germany.

This is his own recipe, shared with Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine, and it’s inspired directly by a classic example. The name refers to the famous pass in the Sierra Nevada mountains, about 120 miles southeast of Chico, California. "The name is certainly a reference to Sierra Nevada,” Myers says, “and it’s not so much pale ales cannibalizing themselves as much as how hoppy beers have done that—and sometimes something a bit more stripped down makes more sense.”

With that description and a quick look at the recipe I'm expecting a lower ABV, less bitter (IBUs: 35) Sierra Nevada clone. That sounds great.

Recipe

Batch size: 20.0 liters (into fermenter)
Brewhouse efficiency: 76.8%
Est OG: 1.050
FG: 1.014
IBUs: 34.2
ABV: 4.9%

MALT/GRAIN BILL
2.8 Kg Pale Malt, Best (Simpsons) (2.5 SRM, fine)
1.20 Kg Carahell (Weyermann) (13.0 SRM, fine)
0.40 Kg Carafoam (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM, fine)
0.25 Kg Rice Hulls

WATER PROFILE
Scott Janish WIPA
Profile: Ca=99, Mg=18.2, Na=8, Cl=52.5, SO4=242

HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
15g Columbus -> Boil 60min (29.2 IBUs)
5g Centennial -> Boil 30min (5.0 IBUs)
7 g Amarillo -> 20 Min Whirlpool at 82C (0 IBUs)
7g Centennial -> 20 Min Whirlpool at 82C (oIBUs)
15g Amarillo -> 2 Days into Primary Fermentation (start of secondary)
15g Centennial -> 2 Days into Primary Fermentation (start of secondary)

YEAST
2 x 11g WHC Lab's LAX (Chico Strain)

Lets get some ingredients ready.

Brewday.

As always, I started the day before by preparing enough RO water for the brew. In the morning I calculated the correct amount of salts taking into account the 22l of water in my HLT required to cover the HERMs coil. As it exceeds the sparge water volume I adjust the salts accordingly.

During the 60 min mash I measured the pH at 5.8 and added 6mls of Lactic Acid to bring the pH back down to 5.3, for every other step I just followed the recipe.

Fermentation

Once in the fermenter I set the fermentation profile in BrewBlox and left it to ferment. You can see the small bump around 16/06/24 where I dry-hopped it.

At the end of fermentation I kegged the beer using the closed transfer process and injected approx 50ml of gelatin fining solution into the keg to clarify it before increasing the Co2 pressure.

So how did it come out? Great, see photo's below, you can see how clear it came out . These were taken shortly after carbonating the beer, after a few more days the head became a lot more creamier with smaller bubbles.