18B American Pale Ale
Tasman NZ Pale Ale
Grain bill
| Malteurop Ale Malt | 4.65 kg | 83.5% |
| Gladfield Aurora Malt | 0.92 kg | 16.5% |
Adjuncts
| Koppafloc | ¼ tsp @ 10 min |
Hop schedule
| Hop | 60 min | 10 min | DH#1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waimea | 14g | · | · |
| Motueka | · | 19g | 22g |
| Southern Cross | · | 19g | 22g |
| Taiheke | · | 19g | 22g |
Yeast
| Safale US-05 | 1 packet |
About This Beer
Owen’s second brew, a fortnight after his first — another Occasional Brewer 23-litre all-grain pack, this time the “Tasman NZ Pale Ale”. It is a simple, sessionable pale ale built on just two malts: Malteurop Ale Malt for the clean base and a modest 16% of Gladfield Aurora, a New Zealand malt that lends a soft golden colour and a touch of biscuit and dried-fruit character.
The hopping is all New Zealand and built for a clean, punchy aroma. Waimea kicks off the boil for bittering, then an even split of Motueka, Southern Cross and Taiheke goes in at ten minutes, with the same three repeated as a dry hop about a week later. It is a tidy showcase of NZ hop character — tropical and citrus from Motueka and Taiheke, with the pine and blackcurrant edge of Southern Cross.
Brew Day
Brewed to the kit sheet: mash 18.45 litres at 66°C for 40 minutes, sparge 15.12 litres at 76°C, then a 60-minute boil. Owen jotted down his boil volumes on the day — 28 litres at the start, 27.5 at the end — his earliest recorded measurements. One packet of US-05 went in, fermented at 20°C.
The gravity figures shown — OG 1.053, FG 1.013, 5.4% ABV, 42 IBU, 17 EBC — are the kit’s estimates at 70% brewhouse efficiency.