#24 GBSA (Green Bullet Summer Ale)

Brewed: 25th November, 2009

Time for a catch up post. I had used Green Bullet hops before with great success in a couple of New Zealand Pale Ales and wanted to see how the hops worked in the Summer Ale hop schedule, ie, with more late additions. The first time I tried the first of my NZPAs, it immediately brought back memories of some beers from previous trips to NZ, even though at the time I didn't think that NZ beers had any particular common flavour/aroma traits. I've since heard that this hop is used by a few commercial breweries in NZ, which probably explains the association I made.

I actually brewed this on the same day as the #23 German "Eis Pale Ale", mashing in at the same time that the German ale was in the kettle, and it's the only time so far that I've done two brews in a day. Mind you, the German ale was already in sweet-wort form, so I only needed to do the one mash on the day. In any case, I don't think it added too much time to the whole day, which is good to know if I ever want to do multiple batches in the future.

Although I had another beer in mind to take to Mackay over the xmas period, it hadn't finished carbonating in time so a keg of this one went up instead. It turned out to be a good choice, as it was more interesting than a lot of mega-swill beers out there, but not over the top in terms of flavour and aroma so you could enjoy a few in a sitting (and that we did!). I've since been told that this would also be a good "gateway beer", to show those who are not as adventurous with trying different beers that there is a whole other world of flavour out there!

The recipe:

Australian Pale Malt: 4500g
Torrified Wheat: 400g

Green Bullet pellets (13% AA): 13g @ -80 mins ~18 IBU
Green Bullet pellets (13% AA): 12g @-20 mins ~10 IBU
Green Bullet pellets (13% AA): 16g @ -5 mins ~4 IBU
Green Bullet pellets (13% AA): 22g in no-chill cube < 1 IBU

Mash time: 60 minutes
Target mash temperature: 64C
Start: 64C End: 62C

Run-off: 30L

Pre-boil SG: 1040
Boil Time: 90 minutes

Target OG: 1047 Actual: 1046

Volume in fermenter: 22L
Yeast: WLP001 - California Ale (harvested from #22 GxSA)
Ferment temperature: 19C

FG: 1013
ABV: 4.4%