Pale Ale Hiztorical blog

Pale ale is a product of English brewing innovation.

The innovation of American craft beer is a product of pale ale.

Go figure.

Pale ale traces it's roots to early 17th century England - where maltsters were transitioning from wood to coal in it's malt kilning process. The use of wood made controlling the heat difficult and as a result most malted barley was scorched and produced a darker malt and beer. With the cleaner burning coal (coke) a more-even heat could be employed and thus a more "pale" malt was produced. This pale malt produced fine, heady pale ales that were usually reserved for only the wealthy and awesome. Eventually pale ale would also become "Pale ale as prepared for India" - but we will save that for another historical blog entry (beer #3).

Here in 'merica pale ale was influential in the craft beer revolution. Liberty Ale (Anchor, 1975) and Sierra Nevada's Pale ale (1980) paved the road for the craft beer resurgence that we know today (I can say on a personal note that these were some of the first craft beers I've ever had). Sierra Nevada pale ale is the 2nd most purchased craft beer today (2nd only to Boston Lager) and is allegedly Trey's favorite beer.

American pale ale is usually brewed from american 2-row malted barley with a variety of specialty character malts added in (caramel malt comes to mind). I like to add a bit of caramel with some munich or vienna for a bit of malty/breadiness. Hops are usually generously applied of the "C" variety and provide a citrusy/spicy blend in both flavor and aroma. Yeast is usually clean finishing but can provide some esters if you're into that sort of thing.

So that is pale ale. The pale that I've chosen to brew is a bit of an amalgamation of ingredients from different parts of the world (UK, NZ, US, Germany), but it should work well. We will find out in a few weeks either way. For now I can tell you that it smells amazing from the fermenter - kind of like toast with marmalade on it. It should be pretty awesome - 3 more weeks and we will be drinking it! Fuck-yeah!

Old Zealand Pale Ale

Tomorrow afternoon I will kick off brewing season with a great pale ale. Tonight I'm farting around with the recipe - I think it will go something like:

Base malt: Maris Otter (regarded as the best base malt for ales by many) and Munich (German malty base malt - added in many american ales for complexity).

Specialty malt: Crystal 40L (medium caramel malt flavor, body, head retention - a staple in most pale ales).

Hops: All NZ hops (for no good reason) - Green Bullet (the original NZ hop - a classic hop in their beers), Pacifica (hallertauer type hop), and Wai Iti (newer style hop - citrusy and delicious). I'll probably do a blend of these hops for bittering, flavor, aroma, and dry hop additions. Should showcase these hops well.

Yeast: My personal favorite - Scottish Ale yeast (it's Freakin' huge!). It's a great all around yeast that emphasizes the malts and leaves a slightly sweet finish on most beers. I'm thinking it will pair great with all of the hops.

I'm really excited to brew this beer - I've always loved pale ales as they introduced me to the world of craft beer (Saranac Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale, etc.). While I'm a small-time brewer I figured I'd throw in these rare hops - as they are tough to find in large quantities.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow - I'll probably get going around 2pm and go until 6-7pm. Either on my front porch or in the back yard.