Double Brew Day #2 - Orange Pale Ale and Gaius Plinius Secundus

Thursday saw a much-revered day off from work, and consequently an entire day full of brewing adventures. Two beers on the docket: Orange Pale Ale and a clone of Russian River Brewing Co.'s uber-hoppy IPA Pliny the Elder, named here by his Latin moniker Gaius Plinius Secundus.

First off, a pale ale infused with the essence of orange peel for a hoped-for juicy kick. With the variety of homebrew soon to be had in inventory, I wanted a basic pale ale for the masses to consume. But why make a "normal" pale ale? So I searched and researched and found some things to my liking that I cobbled together and hope will please.

The Orange Pale Ale recipe:

8 oz Crystal Malt 60L

8 oz Vienna Malt

9 lb Light Dry Malt Extract (DME)

1 oz Cascade hops 7.1% alpha acid (AA) @ 60 minutes

1 oz Cascade hops 7.1% AA @ 10 min

1 oz Cascade hops 7.1% AA @ 5 min

1 oz Cascade hops 7.1% AA @ 1 min

1 Whirlfloc tablet to clarify @ 15 min

1 oz coriander seed @ 5 min

2 oz sweet orange peel @ 5 min

WLP001 California Ale yeast

After primary fermentation is complete, for 2 additional weeks the carboy for secondary fermentation will include:

2 oz Cascade hops 7.1% AA

1 oz sweet orange peel

Hopefully the general public will approve.

Once that batch was racked over and the yeast pitched, it was time to do a quick clean-up and sanitation to begin brew #2, the Pliny the Elder clone. This is a huge double IPA with bursts of hops for the most addicted hophead of the bunch. If you've been following my homebrewing exploits, you may notice a common theme with hop additons: 1/2 to 1 oz of hops at minute 60, 15, and 5. Done. Usually 3 oz total. Wait until you get a load of THIS recipe!

8 oz Crystal Malt 40L

8 oz Carapils malt

9 lb Light Dry Malt Extract (DME)

0.4 lb corn sugar (to give extra fermentables and dry it out)

4 oz Columbus hops 14.2% AA @ 90 min

1 oz Columbus hops 14.2% AA @ 45 min

1 oz Nugget hops 11.2% AA @ 30 min

1 oz Centennial hops 8.0% AA @ 0 min

3 oz Nugget hops 11.2% AA @ 0 min

Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min to clarify

WLP001 California Ale yeast

Then, once primary fermentation is complete, we transfer to secondary and in this fermenter we add:

1 oz Columbus hops 14.2% AA for 14 days

1 oz Centennial hops 8.0% AA for 14 days

1 oz Nugget hops 11.2% AA for 14 days

Then, after 9 days, for the final 5 days we add:

0.5 oz Columbus 14.2% AA

0.5 oz Centennial hops 8.0% AA

0.5 oz Nugget hops 11.2% AA

Whew. Hops galore for the boil. I mean, LOOK AT THEM!


A glorious full day of sanitizing, brewing, cleaning, racking, pitching. Now my kitchen sink is rendered out of commission for one week due to the "keep the primary fermentation at properly reduced temperatures" trick (notice the Maple Pumpkin Ale and Coffee and Oatmeal for Breakfast carboys in the background):

Due to the enormous amount of hops added to Gaius Plinius Secundus, 8 gallons of water were added for the initial boil to compensate for absorption and volume loss. Once the threat of horrendous boilover ceased, the result? The boil rocked. Hard.


The inventory and variety grows...