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The Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is such a great beer. I guess, if we’re being honest, Sierra Nevada makes almost nothing but great beers.

Anyway, back to my beer.

Sierra Nevada posts some of their recipes online and so I decided to make a tribute of sorts to their Pale Ale with some help from their recipe. The goal was to have something close to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on draft at my house for the summer. Long story short, I used their recipe and changed the hops to nothing but Amarillo -- why you ask? -- Because Amarillo hops are fucking amazing, that’s why. It was a foolproof plan.

One of my friends is the head brewer at the Wrecking Bar Brew Pub in Atlanta, GA (he makes very good beer, you should go to there and check it out). Anyway, something he always tells me is that a lot of brewing is learning how your equipment works; and this is one of those stories.

After cold crashing, my fermenter sucks in lots of oxygen to equalize pressure when the climate starts to get warm and humid. So what was destined to be a great summer beer is now a bit of an oxidized mess. It’s a womp womp and I’ve slowly gotten over my sadness over the end result. It’s still drinkable, but more in a way of thinking about what could have been. I will make this again one day and fix my mistakes. The end result will be delicious.

My Recipe.

My Notes.

My Readings.

My Water Profile.

What was notable about this brew session?
* My brew day was so good. My readings were all in an acceptable range and nothing went off the rails.
* The wart going into the fermenter was great. Was very excited about the potential end result.

What pleasantly surprised me?
* Fermentation went super quick.

Why can’t I officially call this my first good batch of beer?
* I got antsy and cold crashed my beer way too early. I should have let some more flavor develop and then transferred to a keg to store in the cold.
* Cold crashing in the fermenter during May in Atlanta created an oxidation problem (per above explanation above).

Have you ever had Terras Boulba by De la Senne? It’s so good. De La Senne doesn't post any recipes online, so I’m going to wing it and make something that I hope is similar next. This time I will leave to ferment for a awhile and then transfer before cold crashing. The more you know.