Hey Guys, welcome to Writer’s Block Brewing dot com!
It’s me Matthew, and this is Episode 20
of My Beer Story.
Today I’m going to be brewing a Pale Ale
that really showcases Citra hops.
Actually it’s a tweaked Zombie Dust Clone.
I’ve never had the beer, but I hear it’s
delicious so I thought, hey, I’ll try to brew it!
But first, If you haven’t seen last episode
of My Beer Story in which I revisited Matt
Roach up at Great Balance Brewing Company
in Chico, Ca--
I tasted the Pineapple Grapefruit IIPA which
we brewed together.
Check that out at the link below.
Now, what a beautiful day for brewing!
Spring has come early this year guys!
The flowers are blooming, the trees are blossoming
and hey, even the hops are sprouting!
It’s a great day to brew a beer.
I start the brew day off with a little water
adjustment.
I add Gypsum and Calcium Chloride to the strike
water in my mash tun.
These mineral adjustments are based off my
home’s water report that I received earlier
in the year.
I used the report in conjunction with EZ water
calculator to determine what was necessary
to improve my mash PH and enhance my recipe.
Once my strike water reaches 155ºF I mash in.
My grain bill consists of 24.5 lbs. of Pale
American 2-row Malt, 3.5 lbs. of Munich Malt,
2 lbs. of Melanoidin Malt, as well as 1 lb.
of Carapils and another 1 lb. of Caramel Malt.
Because of the low mash rest temperature of
149ºF I decide to hold it for 90 minutes.
After the mash rest I sparge using 168ºF water.
I add 50 grams of Cascade hops once I’ve
collected about 2 gallons in my boil kettle
as a wort hop addition, serving as the bittering
hops.
I eventually collect 12.5 gallons of pre-boil
volume. I add a bit more gypsum and calcium
chloride into the boil to make up for the
untreated sparge water.
I then start the 60 minute boil.
And now come the Citra bombs!
As flavoring hop additions I add 50 grams
of whole leaf Citra cones into the boil with
15 minutes remaining.
Then again with 10 minutes remaining. Another
50 grams with 5 minutes remaining.
And another 50 grams at flame-out of the whole
leaf Citra cones!
I acheive a 1.073 final gravity reading. Right on target!
After aerating the wort I add 1968 London
ESB Ale Yeast into each of my carboys. I ferment
at 67ºF.
A week into fermentation, after high krausen,
I dry hop using 2 ozs. of a blended hop packet
called 7-Cs--consisting of:
Cluster, Centennial, Cascade, Citra, Crystal,
Chinook, Columbus and a few other experimental
varieties to give it a real nice citrusy aroma!
So guys we’re going to let this beer continue
to ferment.
I’m going to eventually keg it, carb it
and condition it.
I’m really looking forward to seeing how
it tastes as it’s the first time I’ve
really made any adjustments to my water.
Stay tuned to episode 21 of My Beer Story
when I taste and evaluate this super citrusy
tweaked Zombie Dust clone.
Thanks for watching guys. Please subscribe.
Please like this video.
Comment down below on what your super citrusy beer is and let me know if you’ve been playing
around with your water calculations at all.
I’d really like to get the conversations
about how to really effectively do that going
forward.
Cheers guys!
Thanks again for watching guys!
I hope you enjoyed this episode of My Beer
Story.
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every brew day.
If you liked this episode check out the My
Beer Story playlist with all the episodes.
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brewed beers.
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like the video and cheers!
