Middle day pale ale

After brewing a California common that mashed way too hot, I was eager to get the next batch right. During the fall I had accumulated leftover malts and hops that were just begging to become beer, so I put together a pretty basic American pale ale recipe based on what I had in stock. The simple recipe allowed me to focus on my process, and try to get everything just right.

Two firsts for me this brew day: Adjusting the mash pH using lactic acid, and fermenting in my insulated “Brew cooler”. I built a temperature monitor with three probes for this occasion, and it was very interesting to see the chart develop.

The name is a direct translation of the Swedish word “mellandagar”, refering to the days between Christmas and new years.

Tasting

This turned out to be another failed batch, but I don’t really understand why. The problem is that the priming sugar never started fermenting, and even after four weeks there was hardly any carbonation in the bottles. I’ve asked around in forums, but the only thing that have come up is that there are possibly not enough yeast in the bottles. It’s a logical conclusion, but since US-05 is not a very high flocculating yeast I don’t get it. The result is a very flat and sweet beer with a thick mouthfeel, not at all what I was aiming for.

Everything else seems to have worked out fine with the beer, so this feels pretty disappointing. Oh well, I’ve already got another batch fermenting.