Recipe: Hydra Hazy Pale Ale
Recipe Name: Hydra Hazy Pale Ale
Yeast: Hydra
This recipe is a variation on a base recipe we use for testing hazy pale ales in house. To amp up the juice, we used our new Hydra yeast, which is a hybrid of Vermont and Cerberus. While a lot of brewers tried it out in the summer for low-ABV beers, we've found that Hydra shines anywhere up to pale ale, IPA, and DIPA as well. Our friends at Noctem in Québec have been testing it out in their Catnip IPA, with decidedly juicy results bordering on mango nectar.
I used Strata and Vic Secret here but feel free to sub in any fruity hops, it's pretty easy to mix-and-match with this recipe. I included a bit of dextrose to help the Hydra out since it's a pretty low attenuation yeast. After dry hopping/hop creep this one landed at 1.014 (3.5ºP), which is about where I like these kinds of beers.
Author: Richard Preiss
Beer Style (BJCP): 18B
Batch Size: 25L
Original gravity: 1.057
Final gravity: 1.014
ABV (predicted): 5.6%
Apparent attenuation: 75%
IBU: 41 (Tinseth)
Color: 5 SRM
Fermentables (4.5 kg):
4 kg - Maris Otter Ale Malt (69.6%)
750 g - Wheat Malt, Pale (13%)
500 g - Dextrose 1 SRM (8.7%)
500 g - Oats, Flaked (8.7%)
Water profile and additions: Guelph (hard)
Water additions:
Guelph water is naturally very high in chlorides so I tend to add a bit of gypsum. Most brewers have softer water and may add calcium chloride instead. If your water is low in magnesium, add a small amount of epsom salts (MgSO4) if you are adding a high rate of calcium chloride. For this recipe I used half Guelph water, half distilled water to reduce the hardness of the water profile.
Ca 65 Mg 19 Na 32 Cl 75 SO 65
Mash - 0.5 g - Gypsum (CaSO4)
Mash - 8 ml - Lactic Acid 88%
Sparge - 0.18 g - Gypsum (CaSO4)
Sparge - 1.54 ml - Lactic Acid 88%
Target wort pH of 5.3-5.4
Mash profile:
Step mash
63 °C - 30 min
72 °C - 30 min
78 °C - 15 min - Mash Out
Hops/boil:
Bittering
60 min - 20 g - Strata - 13.4% (28 IBU)
Whirlpool
56 g - Strata - 12% (6 IBU)
56 g - Vic Secret - 15.5% (7 IBU)
Dry Hops
3 days - 56 g - Strata - 12%
3 days - 56 g - Vic Secret - 15.5%
Fermentation profile: Cool out to 22°C and pitch 1 homebrew pouch Hydra. Dry hop when it gets to 1.018, and it should drop down to 1.014 or so within 2-3 days. Crash and transfer when it has passed a forced diacetyl test.
