Using some of this year's hop harvest to try a pale ale based on the Antwerp Afternoon recipe in Brewing Classic Styles, page 205. We're calling it Wet-Hope American Pale Ale until a better name becomes apparent.

BeerXML for this recipe, generated by BrewTarget.

Ingredients

  • 9 lb. Briess 2 Row brewer's malt, 1.5 degrees Lovibond.
  • 1 lb. Briess caramel malt, 10 degrees Lovibond.
  • 8 oz. miscellanous hops, home-grown, at 90 minutes.
  • 4 oz. miscellanous hops, home-grown, at 25 minutes.
  • 2 oz. miscellanous hops, home-grown, at 8 minutes.
  • 0.90 oz. Saaz hops, home-grown, at flame-out.
  • One pouch (8.5 oz) US-05, rehydrated in tap water at 100℉.
  • 1 crushed Campden tablet.
  • ¾ cup table sugar</a>, added as priming sugar on 8 Feb 2026.

Procedure

Treated ten gallons of tap water with a Campden tablet, then allowed it to sit for fifteen minutes before dacanting off of the resulting mineral salts at the bottom.

Heated ~7.5 gallons of dechlorinated water in the electric boil kettle, then poured it over the mash bag and grains, bringing the mash temperature to 154℉. Moved the pot out of the way, covered it with a lid, and wrapped the pot in a sleeping bag. Mashed for 90:00, during which time the mash temperature fell to 150℉. Moved the wort to the electric boil kettle. Pre-boil gravity was 1.033.

Boiled for 90 minutes, not starting the count until a full boil had been reached and the hot break had occurred. Added hops at 90, 25, and 8 minutes, sanitizing the immersion chiller by inserting it during the last fifteen minutes of the boil. Moved the wort from the large brew pot into a bucket, filtering it through the large sieve to catch hop trub. Agitated by stirring with the large brewing spoon.

Pitched US-05, popped in an airlock, and allowed fermentation to begin.

Brew day: 1 September 2025
Predicted original gravity: 1.049
Measured original gravity: 1.037
Estimated IBUs: 255
Predicted final gravity 1.012
Predicted ABV: 5%
Bottling day : 8 February 2026.
Final gravity: 1.004
Estimated ABV: 4.3%

Yield:

  • 48 x 12 oz. beer bottles
  • approx 9 oz. hydrometer tube

Total yield: Approx. 585 fl. oz., or just over 4½ gallons.

Observations

  • 2024-01-01: Racked to new sanitized bucket, adding 1 cup sugar.
  • 2025-02-08: Bottled, yielding a little over four and a half gallons of beer in bottles with blue caps.