Brewing School Pale Ale

The homebrewing classes I'm conducting at Cabrillo College are off to a good start. On the first day of class we brewed two, five gallon batches of beer to get things rolling.

Since the classes are only five weeks long, it is important to get beer brewing early so that the students can taste, analyze and appreciate their brewing efforts during the remainder of the course.

We start out with a couple of batches of beer. A German hefeweizen using only malt extract and one addition of bittering hops,

• 6 lbs. DME 60/40 wheat and barley
• 1 oz. Saaz (AA 8%) for 60 min. for 33 IBU's
• Original gravity at 1.052 and Final gravity at 1.012
• Attenuation 77% and ABV 5.5%

and along side that we brewed a pale ale using 1/2 lb. of steeping grains and dry malt extract with three additions of hops.

• 6 lbs. DME and 12 oz. Crystal #60
• 1 oz. Amarillo for 60mins., 1 oz. Sorachi for 15mins., 1 oz. cascade for 1 min.
• Original gravity 1.054 and Final gravity at 1.012
• Attenuation 78% and ABV 5.6%

As I write this, I am sampling the pale ale and am very pleased with the results. The hefeweizen turned out good also and I tasted it along with the students last week.

We brewed a partial mash stout recipe the second week of class and that is conditioning in the keg. This coming week we will be brewing ten gallons of an all-grain english ale.

In the mean time, Cabrillo gave me approval to conduct another brewing class for the fall. Those classes begin in September and I will provide a link to the registration page as soon as Cabrillo posts their fall schedule.

I am considering making all of my class material available for a modest fee. If you are a brewing instructor or want to duplicate what I am doing here in Aptos, write me or leave a comment regarding your interests.