AG #8 - Lady Liberty Ale - Fermentation update

Ordinarily when I brew a beer I will leave it happily fermenting away for at least a week before I concern myself with how things are progressing. On this occasion two things have led me to take a look earlier than normal. Firstly the yeast I used was a liquid yeast and normally it is not advised to use a liquid yeast if it is more than 6 months from its manufacture date. My yeast was seven months from its date of manufacture, due to this I was expecting to have to either pitch a packet of dry yeast on top of the liquid yeast, or be very patient and wait for fermentation to build very slowly.

The second reason I was interested in finding out where things were at with this beer was that, considering point one above, I was surprised to watch fermentation take off like a rocket. Within six hours of pitching the yeast I had airlock activity and by 18 hours the airlock was bubbling a couple of times a second, which is probably the most aggressive fermentation I have seen for a while.

The result of this, after 4 days fermentation, 1016. Target for this beer is 1012 and I would expect it to achieve that over the next week or so. The plan is to leave this beer in primary for another 7-10 days, I will then transfer to secondary and dry hop with some cascade.

Oh, it tastes pretty good as well.

AG #8 - Lady Liberty Ale - Recipe

For one reason or another it has been a long time since I had a brewday (kids, new job, weather etc, etc). But finally I have a day set aside this week to get back in the brewing way. I really enjoyed my last brew but found that it was a little too strong to have as a session beer and so I decided that this time around I would revisit one of my favourite sessionable styles, American pale ale. I have not yet made a brew using amber malt and so I decided to brew this beer, which is a recipe from Palmers How To Brew. Apart from the amber malt this is not a great departure from my previous pale ales, and once again relies heavily on two of my favourite hops, Amarillo and Cascade.

The only thing that will stop me from brewing this week will be torrential rain or an unseasonal snow shower, here's hoping we don't get either!


Lady Liberty Ale

10-A American Pale Ale
Author: Mark (from John Palmer's, How to Brew)



Lady Liberty Ale
10-A American Pale Ale
Author: Mark

Size: 25.04 L
Efficiency: 72.93%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 159.41 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.048 (1.045 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.015)
Color: 23.63 (9.85 - 27.58)
Alcohol: 4.71% (4.5% - 6.2%)
Bitterness: 41.0 (30.0 - 45.0)

Ingredients:
4565.0 g Maris Otter
300.0 g Amber Malt
310.0 g Crystal 60
21.0 g Northern Brewer (10.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
20.0 g Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
21.0 g Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
16.0 g Amarillo (9.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
1.0 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
22.0 g Cascade (5.5%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.0 ea WYeast 1056 American Ale
200.0 g Dry Light Extract