Lake Erie Pale Ale #1

This is my first ~10 gallon batch with my newly constructed homemade brewing system. With all the money I have now sunk into this system, it had better taste good!!

Brewer:	Cheesehead Mike		Email:	mmayer13@aol.com
Beer:	Lake Erie Pale Ale #1		Style:	American Pale Ale
Type:	All grain		Size:	11 gallons
Color:	11 HCU (~8 SRM)		Bitterness:	39 IBU
OG:	1.051		FG:	1.012
Alcohol:	5.1% v/v (4.0% w/w)
Water:	Water is genuine Lake Erie water (after normal city treatment of coarse) run through a 5 micron filter for Chlorine removal.
Grain:	18 lb. American 2-row 1 lb. 8 oz. American crystal 60L 2 lb. Dextrine malt (Cara-Pils)
Mash:	72% efficiency
	Single step mash at 154° to 156° F for 90 minutes.
Boil:	60 minutes	SG 1.040	14 gallons
	2 tsp. of irish moss added at 15 minutes to the end of the boil
Hops:	1 oz. Galena (13% AA, 45 min.) 1.5 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 15 min.) 1 oz. Galena (13% AA, 15 min.) 1.5 oz. Cascade (aroma)
Yeast:	1056 (American Coast Ale yeast). I was given a quart of this yeast slurry from the local brewery. The wort was "boiling" after about 6 hours!! Primary fermentation for 7 days, racked to secondary for another 7 days to clear.
Log:	The new brewery worked quite well, I was able to hold mash temps to within 2°F very easily with my RIMS system. Need to scroung up a PID controller though so I can do other things during the mash cycle, the manual method is adequate, but boring. After secondary fermentation, cooled to about 40F and filtered with a 0.5 micron filter. I used a homemade counterflow heat exchanger (50')to cool wort after the boil. It worked fantastic in bringing the temp down to 72 F, but it took forever to find it's way through the 50' of 3/8 tube. I have a second pump that is going to get connected in line with the c/f exchanger next time. The batch was split into 2 5gal buckets for a 1 week primary fermentation, then it will racked it into the secondary buckets for an additional 2 weeks to clear.
Carbonation:	Kegged and force carbonated to 2.5 volumes.
Tasting:	After 1 week in the keg: Ok, a bit harsh yet. After 2 weeks in the keg: Better, flavors still developing After 4 weeks in the keg: Outstanding flavor, smooth, can't get enough of it. The new brewery is starting to pay off!

Recipe posted 10/21/02.