# Tcb American Pale Ale Wetpak



## Doc (6/5/05)

I won a comp recently and got a couple of Country Brewer Wetpak as prizes.
As you probably know I've been brewing AG for a few years now, and went from kits directly to AG. So doing a partial mash is going to be a new experience.

Tomorrow I thought I'd do the American Pale Ale wetpak. Has anyone brewed this and how did it turn out ? I was thinking of actually doing a full wort boil on it and adding some melanoidin into the mini-mash as well as adding some more cascade around the 30 min mark.

If you've done this wetpak please let me know the flavour profile etc, so I have a starting point to jazz it up a little.

TIA,
Doc


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## Samwise Gamgee (6/5/05)

Hi Doc,

You might want to also post this Q on the countrybrewer.com.au forum, as i think i've seen a bit of info/comments about the APA Wetpack on there.

Also you would prob get some feedback from your question from the employees of TCB which might help.


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## Scotty (6/5/05)

Doc, i made this as per the recipe and it was grouse. I loved it and so did everyone who tried it. It is already a great kit but i the addition of some cascade couldnt hurt.

Scotty


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## Doc (6/5/05)

Thanks for the replies guys, but I'm looking as usual to make a much bigger beer than your usual kit/extract brew.
I think I'll be adding some melanoidin (250gr) + trad ale (444gr) to the grain supplied and will make some additional hop additions.
Will use the yeast from my trial run of the stir plate (WLP005 British Ale).

Beers,
Doc


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## Armstrong (6/5/05)

Hey Doc,

Of course I don't expect you to take my word for it, but that Wetpak is a great beer as it is ... but that doesn't mean you can't play with it.

Full boil would be great, and some extra Cascade is alway a plus in my book but be careful how much ... there is already 60g of hops in that brew start to finish ... maybe a little later in the boil will tend a bit more towards flavour rather than bitterness.

These kits are an introduction for many into extract brewing that do produce great beers ... but that doesn't make them ammune to experimentation ... go for it!

You know the rules ... there are no rules!


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## Doc (7/5/05)

Armstrong said:


> Hey Doc,
> 
> Of course I don't expect you to take my word for it, but that Wetpak is a great beer as it is ... but that doesn't mean you can't play with it.
> 
> ...



Cheers Armstrong. I'm sure the base APA produces a great beer and I do take your word for it 
But of course you know me, and I'm always looking to experiment a little.
So currently mashing in two thermos's is some Trad Ale, Melanoidin and the grain pack that came with the kit.
Will be filling the boiler shortly with water and the extract and firing up the burner. As for additional hop additions.

Feeding the numbers through Promash and making some wild assumptions I've come up with the following.

*Doc's TCB APA WetPak Bastardised Version*

A ProMash Recipe Report

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
-------------------------------

06-A American Pale Ales, American Pale Ale

Min OG: 1.045 Max OG: 1.056
Min IBU: 20 Max IBU: 40
Min Clr: 8 Max Clr: 22 Color in EBC

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L): 22.00 Wort Size (L): 22.00
Total Extract (kg): 3.84
Anticipated OG: 1.052 Plato: 12.77
Anticipated EBC: 12.2
Anticipated IBU: 36.4
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate: 10.00 Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 24.44 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.046 SG 11.54 Plato

Formulas Used
-------------

Brewhouse Efficiency and Predicted Gravity based on Method #1, Potential Used.
Final Gravity Calculation Based on Points.
Hard Value of Sucrose applied. Value for recipe: 46.2100 ppppg
Yield Type used in Gravity Prediction: Fine Grind Dry Basis.

Color Formula Used: Morey
Hop IBU Formula Used: Rager

Additional Utilization Used For Plug Hops: 2 %
Additional Utilization Used For Pellet Hops: 10 %


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential EBC
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
78.0 3.00 kg. Coopers LME - Light Australia 1.038 7
11.6 0.44 kg. JWM Traditional Ale Malt Australia 1.038 7
6.5 0.25 kg. Hoepfner Melanoidin Germany 1.037 40
3.9 0.15 kg. JWM Caramalt Australia 1.036 56

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.

Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
30.00 g. Cascade Pellet 5.40 24.0 60 min.
28.00 g. Cascade Pellet 5.40 7.5 20 min.
30.00 g. Cascade Pellet 5.40 4.8 10 min.


Extras

Amount Name Type Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 Tsp Irish Moss Fining 15 Min.(boil) 

Yeast
-----

White Labs WLP005 British Ale

Notes
-----

Based on the Country Brewer (TCB) American Pale Ale WetPak. Added the Trad 
Ale, Melanoidin grains to the grains that came with the kit (150gr CaraMalt
or similar cyrstal ???) and mashed in two thermos's.

Additional hops (Cascade added at 20 mins).

Hoping the additional grains give the beer a bit more body, flavour and complexity. The additional hops to account for the additional grains and body.

Beers,
Doc


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## Stuster (7/5/05)

Doc

Made this one recently and thought it was very tasty, nice and hoppy. The best of the few I have made so far. As I am a fairly new brewer I'd be interested to have your thoughts on the beer. BTW, the blurb from promash is interesting but how do you know what is in the kit?

Stuart


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## Doc (7/5/05)

Stuster said:


> BTW, the blurb from promash is interesting but how do you know what is in the kit?
> 
> Stuart
> [post="57878"][/post]​



Basically I don't. But I've made some wild assumptions, guessimates and information provided to get some estimates.
It is a 3kg tin, so 3kg of extract. Therefore wild assumption of 3kg of extract.
Armstrong (from TCB) states that there is 60gr of hops in the kit. There are 30gr in the sachet to be added at the end of the boil, therefore there must 30gr in the extract, so for a 60 boil, there is a 60 minute hop addtion of 30gr.
Wild assumption is that in an APA the hops maybe Cascade. Another wild assumption is the A/A is 5.4%.
I opened the grain sachet from the kit and the the grain looked and tasted like a crystal malt. Another wild assumption was that it maybe CaraMalt.
So I punched all those values into Promash and added my own grain, and another hop addition.

The resultant brew is quite dark, much darker than I had imagined it would be. It also looks like the NASA burner scorched some of the extract to the bottom of my kettle (so I'll have to use some elbow grease to get that off).
I got the estimated gravity into the fermenter as well 1.052.

Beers,
Doc


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## Stuster (9/5/05)

Thanks for the explanation. Tasting notes in due course would be interesting for those of us whose experience stops at kits/extracts. (so far anyway) :blink:


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## Stuster (10/6/05)

Doc,

just noticed that you have this on tap now. How did it go?

Stuart


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## Doc (10/6/05)

Stuart,

It came out pretty good. It is quite dark though because of the caramalisation of the extract on the bottom of my boiler (NASA burners rock).
I expected it to be a bit more hoppy than it is with the extra hops I added though. All in all a very drinkable brew.

Beers,
Doc


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## benny_bjc (7/6/08)

Anyone know what the alcohol percentage of the Wetpak pale ale made as per instructions?


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## Stuster (7/6/08)

Wow. A bit of a blast from the past there.  

It's been a while since I did this kit. It came out to 4.4% according to my records which should be around what you'll get (as long as they haven't changed the kits in the last three years  ).


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## benny_bjc (7/6/08)

Stuster said:


> Wow. A bit of a blast from the past there.
> 
> It's been a while since I did this kit. It came out to 4.4% according to my records which should be around what you'll get (as long as they haven't changed the kits in the last three years  ).



Out of interest, I presume thats 4.4% after fermentation then add about 0.5% after bottle priming? (or am I wrong?)


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## Stuster (7/6/08)

beer007 said:


> Out of interest, I presume thats 4.4% after fermentation then add about 0.5% after bottle priming? (or am I wrong?)



No, that 4.4% includes 0.5% for the priming sugar. Actually, it'll mostly add less than 0.5%, probably more like 0.2-3% or so on average but I only changed that in my record keeping a while after I made that batch.


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## benny_bjc (9/6/08)

Would you guys suggest making this up to the 20L as per instructions or 18L???


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## boingk (9/6/08)

I'd make it up as per instruction - I did one last year sometime and thought it was grand! Only thing I could fault it on is that there wasn't more of it to drink 

Hope you enjoy, eh?

Cheers - boingik


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