Superposition Pale Ale, ASMbly 2014

Superposition Pale Ale, an ASMbly 2014 project by Paul Beales and Andrew Wilson.  

The Text from this post comes from bioLeeds blog where full documentation can be found.

31st August Firstly we needed to select a yeast that would ferment quickly, is happy at higher fermentation temperatures and has high flocculation so we would get a clear(er) final beer. We got it down to two: a British Whitbread ale yeast (Wyeast 1099) or an American Northwest ale yeast (Wyeast 1332). We decided to go with an English style ale (partly because any fruity flavours from young beer without any rest time on the yeast would be tolerated by this style), so the Whitbread ale yeast it is.

Paul preparing his brew

We wanted to stick with traditional English hops but having a strong hop profile that would mask any diacetyl flavours (from the yeast fermentation) in the beer due to the lack of rest time we had available. Our hop additions will give our beer a bitterness of 46 IBU. Hops for Superposition Pale Ale: Challenger (U.K.) Mild to moderate, quite spicy. (Bittering, flavouring and aroma) Target (U.K.) Pleasant English hop aroma, quite intense. (Bittering and aroma) WGV (Whitbread Golding Variety) Quite pleasant and hoppy, moderately intense. (Flavouring and aroma).

For the choice of fermentables, we wanted a fairly low gravity beer (less than 1.045 OG) so that there wasn’t too much sugar for the yeast to work on in the time available. We used a partial mash with torrified wheat (to give body) and Light Cystal (100) malt for colour. We then used dry malt extract for additional fermentables, such that we’d have an estimated OG of 1.041 and a final beer of 3.8% abv. The colour is expected to be a golden beer (5.9 SRM)