One of the house hold regulars is an American-style Pale Ale (APA) called “Oh Mama!” that has always been my wife’s favourite, but since she got pregnant with our second she can only “steal” sips from my beer so I wanted to make her a very low alcohol version; that way she can have a full glass while still only getting one unit of alcohol (not that she even finishes that one!). So a few months ago, I made a Light APA (“Pregnant Oh Mama!”) that was extremely bitter, and I learned not too long ago that I got all my bittering wrong, so I made the Pregnant Oh Mama! again, and this time it came out prefect. A light, refreshing, hoppy beer with the right balance of bitterness and sweetness – excellent Pale Ale. This is the corrected breakdown:
Mash
1kg of Crushed Pale Malt
5 litres of boiled Brita filtered London tap water, start temp before grains: 72°c, after grains addition: 69°c
The mash was kept in an insulated pot (covered my boiling pot with a towel)
Grains taken out and drained (+ squeezed) after 90 minutes total at 61°c.
Roughly 4l mash was left with 1050 gravity at 58°c.
Yeast
5g Safale US-05 dissolved in 500ml Brita filtered London water (22°c) and 5g dextrose
Left to activate from the beginning of the boil, about 2 hours.
Wort (boil)
4l mash water brought to an immediate boil on a very high flame and another 1L boiled Brita water added
60 minutes: 10g Target hops (12.7%)
15 minutes: 10g Challenger hops (5.99%), 10g Marynka hops (9.3%)
0 minutes: in the ice bath with 10g Citra hops (12.5%)
Wort was a total of 3.5l with a gravity of 1061 at 25°c
Fermentation
3.5L of the cooled wort was added to 4L Brita filtered London tap water and the yeast mix
Total of 8L with OG=1028 at 22°c.
Drinking while making
Dry hop (a week after brewing)
Added 25g Citra hops and 5g Celesia hops
Bottling (2 weeks after brewing)
FG=1008 at 22°c, making it a 2.7% ABV beer.
Total of 8L
50g dextrose added for priming to achieve a CO2 volumes of 2.3.
Tasting notes
First, I need to say again that this a beer made for my wife – my pregnant wife. The idea is that she will be able to have a whole beer (~500ml) with consuming too much alcohol – about 1 unit. The beer ended up to be 2.7% ABV, which means that a full glass makes for a 1.35 units of alcohol, excellent result for our goal. My wife rarely actually drinks more than half a glass, but I think the fact she had the option made all the difference. To the tasting:
Very pale colour, almost like frosty straw with a murky haze. Head is white and foamy but disappears quickly.
Flowery aroma with a strong red grapefruit edge. Very juicy on the nose, the kind that makes the mouth water, and citrus-y.
Dry, crisp and refreshing taste that is not bitter. A little watery and thin without too much grain presence; you can feel it is a low alcohol beer. Despite being a “light” beer it is interesting enough to drink and enjoy, mainly due to the excellent flowery and citrus-y aroma.