So my wife decided she wanted to brew for 2015 Zapp’s beerfest. This was fun because we set the recipe up together. She loves Centennial and the pilsner pale ale I typically use. Following some advice from Stone Brewery concerning the use of crystal with IPA’s/PA’s I’ve decided to swap part of the pilsner and the crystal 40 I typically use with 3 pounds of Munich. Also put some Citra in there to make the hop profile a tad more diverse than just the Centennial. Decided to add some Simcoe to the dry hop that I found in my hop stores.

Brew day went well. Having help made it much more easy to setup and tear down. I don’t think I converted her but she had fun I think. I pitched the beer on the yeast cake of the all Munich ale I’d just brewed. Within 4 hours it was fermenting quickly. It was curious that my gravity ended up high again on this brew day. Targeting 1.045 and ended up at 1.047. Thought I’d come in extremely high again which made no sense given my track record. My kid must’ve done something with my refractometer because it ended up needing calibration.

Going in to the keg this beer tasted great. If the hop aroma holds up this might be the best pale ale recipe yet