Resurgence Pale Ale II

About This Beer

Resurgence Pale Ale II is the second iteration of a single-hop Riwaka showcase — a clear-malt American Pale Ale built to let Riwaka’s grapefruit and passionfruit character do all the talking. The first version proved the concept; this one revisited the hop delivery schedule and introduced controlled pressure fermentation for the first time using a purpose-built fermentation chamber setup.

The grain bill is a three-malt stack: Gladfield American Ale Malt as the clean, neutral backbone, Gladfield Vienna for a touch of toasty warmth without obscuring the hops, and Gladfield Aurora adding depth and a honeyed, bready richness while keeping the colour in the amber-pale range.

Brew Day

Brewed on the BrewZilla 35L Gen 4. Mash in at 67°C with 16.5 L, sparge with 16 L at 76°C. Pre-boil volume came in at 28 L. A 2 L top-up was needed during the boil; the full 75-minute boil brought post-boil volume to 26.5 L and 24.5 L into the fermenter. The whirlpool was held at 80°C before chilling. OG hit the 1.057 target exactly.

Fermentation

This batch marked the first use of the full fermentation chamber setup: a stand-up freezer as the insulated enclosure and cooling source, a heat band around the FermZilla as the heater, and a RAPT temperature controller with a RAPT pill hydrometer providing real-time gravity and temperature data from inside the vessel. This rig has been in continuous use since. It gives fine-grained control through cooler/heater hysteresis settings and a temperature differential limit between the pill sensor (inside the fermenter) and an external probe tucked into the heat band strap. Combined with pressure control, that is multiple independent levers for encouraging or restraining yeast activity as needed.

Fermentation was held at around 18°C with 4 to 5 PSI through day 6. The dry hop went in on day 4 when gravity had dropped to approximately 1.014, then temperature was raised to 20°C to encourage cleanup. The beer was cooled to 12°C on day 13 before bottling on day 14.

One observation from the run: the RAPT pill and a calibrated glass hydrometer gave slightly different absolute readings, though their trending direction stayed consistent. Spunding valve adjustment after the dry hop was needed to prevent a foam-over while maintaining the target pressure. A final gravity reading was not formally recorded for this batch.

The Result

Bottled on 2023-09-29 with a carbonation target of 2.4 vol CO2. The first taste on bottling day gave a clear verdict: the single-hop Riwaka character came through cleanly and the attenuation was good, despite some instrument variance during fermentation. The hop flavour was present, recognisable, and confirmed the recipe direction was worth continuing.