18B American Pale Ale
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (clone)
Grain bill
| Gladfield American Ale Malt | 5.04 kg | 90% |
| Gladfield Medium Crystal Malt | 0.56 kg | 10% |
Adjuncts
| Whirlfloc | 1 g @ 15 min |
| Yeast nutrient | 2 g @ 15 min |
Hop schedule
| Hop | 60 min | 15 min | WP 80°C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magnum | 15g | · | · |
| Perle | · | 20g | · |
| Cascade | · | · | 50g |
Yeast
| Safale US-05 | 2 packets |
Tasting notes
About This Beer
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is a clone-style brew of the iconic Sierra Nevada Pale Ale — the beer that helped define the American Pale Ale style. Brewed on 14 November 2022 with Owen, this was the first home brew on the BrewZilla system, before experience and equipment were fully calibrated. Bottled on 27 November with Jacqui.
The recipe uses Gladfield American Ale Malt as the base with Gladfield Medium Crystal for body and colour, then a classic German-American hop combination: Magnum for clean bittering, Perle at 15 minutes for a herbal flavour note, and a substantial Cascade whirlpool addition for the aroma. Mash details were not recorded.
Ingredients
Gladfield American Ale Malt at 90% provides a clean, light-coloured base. Gladfield Medium Crystal at 10% adds toffee sweetness and pushes the colour into a warm amber range — in hindsight contributing more colour than the original Sierra Nevada, which prompted the tasting note about darker colour than expected.
The hop selection draws on Sierra Nevada’s German-influenced hop heritage. Magnum is a reliable high-alpha bittering hop with minimal flavour contribution. Perle, bred at the Hop Research Institute in Hüll, Germany, contributes a mild herbal and floral character at 15 minutes. The 50 g Cascade whirlpool addition was intended to carry the classic floral, citrus, and grapefruit aroma through to the glass.
Brew Day
Brewed on the BrewZilla 35L Gen 4. Mash details were not recorded. Sixty-minute boil, with the whirlpool held for 15 minutes before chilling. No post-boil top-up was used. Volume into the fermenter came in at 19.5 L with OG matching the target at 1.051.
Fermentation
Fermentation details were not recorded for this batch. Bottled on 2022-11-27 with 127 g of priming sugar.
A final gravity was not recorded.
The Result
Darker amber colour than expected, likely due to the crystal malt proportion and possible colour contribution from the BrewZilla heating elements at this scale. No off-flavours were detected. Drinkable and approachable as a first batch.
This was the starting point. Subsequent batches worked through calibrating mash temperature, gravity readings, fermentation temperature control, and process documentation — all the things that were missing or incomplete here.