Pilot Brewing

I have been making "pilot" batches of different beers for quite a while now, pretty much every beer is a pilot batch in some way or another. Yesterday I brewed up a 1/2 barrel batch of my pale ale on the pilot system at Schooner Exact Brewery. Beer specifics:

(Strong) Pale Ale
Malt: American 2-Row, Carahell, Crystal
Hops: Columbus, Perle
ABV: 6%
Playlist: KEXP, not my favorite station, but a establishment in these parts

First you might notice that I use "strong pale ale" and the beer is looking to be 6%, this wasn't by design but the way it is. The reason behind this is that I only ended up with about 13.5 gallons instead of 15.5. At home I pay great attention to the volumes of water that I use in all of the brewing steps, which is easy when you are filling things using a quart-sized pitcher, it gets more difficult when you go up in size. In my brewery I am going to find a way to track all of the water going into the mash and the pre- and post-boil volumes, I think it is very important to consistency from batch to batch. Anyway, when eyeing things on a system you have never used it is easy to be off. Matt had things to work on, so he showed me some things and then left me to brewing for the most part. My kettle-full volume was short, so my end product was short on volume and high on fermentable sugars. In a few weeks I am going to get a little drunker than I originally thought, not all that bad really. Every time I brew it is a learning experience, so the next time I make a pilot batch things should be more on target.

As for the beer, it is a scaled up version of my last pale with malted wheat being substituted for Carahell. The idea is to add a little more body to the beer. The yeast is also different because I am using Schooner Exact's house yeast, a lot easier and cheaper for me. It shouldn't make very big of a difference in the beer because it is similar to the one I generally use. As I have probably mentioned a bunch, temperature control is a problem for me. This batch is in a glycoled jacketed fermenter and the temperature can be dialed in, problem solved.

Pilot batch in the fermenter

It sounds like I will be able to use the pilot system a little more, so I need to decide on some beers to make before I get out of town. I am also going to need to pick a few more kegs to be able to hold everything I make. Beer suggestions will be taken...I am thinking about making either my Amber, Blonde or Brown.

Gotta Hop