Chico's Finest Export

or should I say Chico's only export?  Anyways, I'm pretty excited about this one.  Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is one of the first brews that I really liked, so I figure it's probably the best pale ale to start with.  I've done a few IPAs and some Bitter Ales, but no true pale ales, so here goes.  I found this recipe online somewhere a couple weeks ago and plugged it into my brewpal app on my phone.  Well worth the $.99 if you have an iphone.  I subbed out some Nugget (which I already had) for some Perle, but otherwise I guess this is straight from the brewer.

11 Gallon recipe so I'll hopefully fill a Cornie Keg and split the other half with someone.  5.5 gallons seems to end up at 5 gallons after losing the yeast cake and secondary transferring.  So here's the details.

Recipe:
11 Gallon Recipe

Grain:
25.3lb of GW 2-row
1.65lb of Crystal 60L

Hops:
1.5oz Columbus @ 60m
1oz Nugget @ 30m
2oz Cascade @
4oz Cascade @

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale Slurry

Extras:
2tsp Gypsum @ boil
2tsp Irish Moss @ 15m

Details:
Strike 10.1gal @ 163
Sparge 6.9gal @ 183
Anticipated Preboil Gravity 1.058
Anticipated OG 1.068
Anticipated FG 1.017
IBU 42
Anticipated ABV 6.6%

I'll post details and results tomorrow night or Saturday.  Cheers!

Brewing Update:
Everything went relatively smoothly.  The counter flow chiller continues to get dialed in a little better.  I got 7 gallons from the mash and another 7 from the sparge, which meant 14 gallons boiling to start in a 15.5 gallon keggle.  The pre-boil gravity was 1.046 adjusted (1.032 @ 132*) and finished up at only 1.054 adjusted.  I was really hoping to hit closer to my target of 1.068, although since I ended up with close to 12 gallons despite a 90 minute boil, I guess that's part of the problem.  Hopefully this at least gets down to 1.014 or so.  It's blowing off like crazy right now, so that should help.  So this may be a SNPA Session clone.  As long as it's tasty, I'm not too worried.

Brewing on the tree is super easy though.  If you're thinking about upgrading your system, I highly recommend building a tree.  The only problem is having to get out the ladder to fill the HLT, but that's not too big a deal.  The ease of everything else makes it totally worth it.

Once I figure out how to better hit my targets as far as the proper amount of wort to start the boil with, things should be better.  Also, I need to move the banjo burners closer to the keggles to speed up my heating and boiling times.  It's taking like 30-40 minutes to get my boil started.
Update 4/25/11: Gravity is down to 1.012.  I'll give it another day or two and then move to secondary.  Good taste.  Another winner.
Update 4/28/11: Racked to secondary.  Gravity was down to 1.010, so ABV should be about 6%.  Really smooth flavor.  I'm going to have to do a side by side with this one.  Also, I was able to split the two jars of yeast slurry I put into (one into each bucket) into four jars.  So now they should last even longer!
Update 5/7/11: Bottled half of it for my neighbor.  Got 48 12's for him, and 3 22's for me.  The stem that I got for my cornie (for my half of the batch) is too short, so I need to switch that out before I can keg it, otherwise I'll lose over 1/2 gallon of it at the bottom of the keg.
Update 5/9/11: Decided to just keg it and I'll pour the bottom dregs into a half gallon jug if need be once it gets down all the way.  I'll hopefully add the second tap to the kegerator in the next day or two.
Update 5/24/11: Really enjoying this one.  This is a tasty pale ale.  Brought my neighbor his half of the batch last night and he was super stoked.  I'm sure I'll brew this one again!

Update: 5/27/11: Did a side by side comparison with a SNPA.  Flavor was really really close as was the hop flavor/finish.  My color was much darker, but this was the dregs of the bottom of the keg.  Next time I brew this I'll do a comparison a little sooner.  Pretty good though!