Resurgence Pale Ale

About This Beer

Resurgence Pale Ale is the first recipe I designed from scratch rather than working from a kit. The goal was a single-hop showcase built around Riwaka, New Zealand’s most expressive grapefruit and passionfruit aroma hop. The name reflects the ambition: this was the start of brewing something original, and it became the first in what grew into a recurring series with several variations across subsequent years.

The design leans into the malt base as a supporting structure for the hops rather than as the focus. American Ale Malt provides the clean, neutral foundation a hop-forward pale ale needs. Vienna adds body and a gentle malty sweetness, while Aurora brings Maillard-derived complexity: bready warmth and a hint of orange colour without pushing the beer into dark-ale territory. No crystal malts, no caramel sweetness getting in the way of the hop character.

Brew Day

Brewed on the BrewZilla 35L Gen 4. Mash-in with 16.5 L at 66.6°C, sparged with 16 L at 76°C. The 75-minute boil ran with late hop additions only: 20 g Riwaka at 20 minutes and 30 g at 10 minutes, keeping bittering contributions low and flavour-forward. A 50 g whirlpool addition at 80°C followed flameout, with a 1-litre top-up bringing the volume to target. The batch hit the pre-chilled into-fermenter target of 25 L at OG 1.065, exactly on plan.

A final gravity wasn’t recorded for this batch.

Fermentation

Fermented with two packets of Safale US-05, targeting a clean neutral base that would let the Riwaka carry the beer. The schedule included a two-stage dry hop: 50 g at day 3 and a second 50 g addition at day 6, both at around 5 PSI. This was one of the earlier batches to use a staged dry hop approach, and the design was deliberate: the first addition builds the primary aroma layer while fermentation finishes; the second tops it up once any CO2 scrubbing effect has passed.

Fermentation and dry hop notes were not captured in detail for this batch.

The Result

Packaged by bottle on 2023-04-20, twelve days after brew day, carbonated to 2.3 vol CO2. One early lesson from this batch: releasing pressure at least a day before bottling (rather than immediately before) avoids disturbing the trub layer during transfer. Noted for future batches.

First impressions on tasting: strong Riwaka aroma with firm bitterness and high drinkability. The hop character came through clearly, with the grapefruit and tropical notes that Riwaka delivers at its best. The malt base did its job without drawing attention to itself.

What’s Next

This batch established the template for the Resurgence series. Subsequent versions (II through IV and beyond) iterated on process and hop quantities while keeping the single-hop Riwaka concept intact.