Otter Creek Pale Ale clone

5 gallons, extract with grains

Ingredients:

• 5 lbs. Briess unhopped light DME
• 9 oz. caramel malt (60° Lovibond)
• 6 oz. malted red wheat
• 3.75 AAUs Cascade (3/4 oz. of 5% alpha acid)
• 6 AAUs Cascade (1-1/5 oz. of 5% alpha-acid)
• 1 tsp. Irish moss
• 1 package American Ale with a dry finish (Wyeast 1056 or White Labs WLP001) or German Ale (Wyeast 1007)
• 3/4 cup corn sugar for priming or 1 cup unhopped light dried malt extract

Step by Step:

Steep caramel and red wheat malts in 3 gallons of water at 150° F for 30 minutes. Remove grains, add DME and bring to a boil for 15 minutes. Add 3/4 oz. Cascade hops and boil 1 hour.

Add Irish moss, boil 15 more minutes and remove from heat. Put wort in primary fermenter with chilled, pre-boiled water to make 5.25 gallons. When cooled to around 70° F, pitch yeast.

Ferment from 68° to 70° F until complete (about 10 days). Transfer to secondary with 1-1/5 oz. Cascade hops and drop the temperature to 36° to 40° F. (For more dry-hop advice, check out the October 2000 issue of Brew Your Own.)

Leave the hops in the beer for at least two days. Age the beer in the bottle or keg for 10 days or more.

Partial Mash Option:

Mash 3 lbs. pale malt plus specialty malts in 2 gallons of water at 153° F for 45 minutes. Sparge with 2 gallons at 172° F degrees. Decrease DME to 3 lbs. and proceed as from boiling.

All Grain Option:

Omit dried malt extract and mash 7.5 lbs. pale malt plus specialty malts in about 11 quarts of water to get a single infusion mash temperature of 153° F for 45 minutes. Then sparge with 172° F water to get 5.5 gallons of wort.

Bring to boil and add bittering hops after 15 minutes. Boil another 1 hour and 15 minutes, then remove from heat. Proceed as above from boiling and reduce volume to 5.25 gallons.