Beaverdam Pale Ale

Here is the first beer (B0) that I brewed after returning to homebrewing. It’s pretty much a basic American Pale Ale. The interesting thing about this recipe is that it is the exact same as the last one I brewed before my 8 year hiatus.

Beer Number: B0 (zero)
Beer Name: Beaverdam Pale Ale
Type: American Pale Ale
Primary Fermenter: 7 ½ gal. plastic brewing bucket (7 days)
Secondary Fermenter: 5 gal. glass carboy (16 days)
OG: 1.050
FG: @1.010

Ingredients:
6.5 lbs light malt extract
1 lb Crystal 60o malt
1 oz. Perle leaf hops (7.9% AA) @60 min
1 oz Cascade leaf hops (7.4% AA) @15 min
1 oz Cascade leaf hops (7.4% AA) @5 min
1 oz Cascade leaf hops (7.4% AA) dry hopped in secondary
White Labs WLP001 California Yeast
5 campden tables

Notes:
Gravity = 1.012 at time of transfer to secondary
Sampled one week after bottling – nice citrus aroma (no kidding, there are 3 oz. of Cascade in there) and carbonation is very light


This was a very good resumption to my homebrewing career. 7 days after being bottled, I brought a cooler full to a poker tournament and I returned home with nothing but empty bottles and several compliments.

I’ll make a few tweaks – I want a little better head retention so the next time I’ll add some cara pils malt that should help. I like the Perle, but next time I’ll probably add to it some Magnum or Warrior or something else with high alpha acid to bitter it up a bit. Once I get this exactly where I want it, this will probably be the house brew. I hope to eventually get a kegging set up and I think this would be a great beer to always have on tap.