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This is a great home brew recipe for a pretty easy drinking American Pale Ale. The beer has plenty of hops in it, but doesn’t come out too bitter. The American hops mostly emphasise pine and grapefruit, but the Citra added at the end of the boil really brings out some great other citrus fruits in the aroma.

With bottle conditioning, this beer should come in around 5.1% abv, so it’s one that you can sink a few of without getting too drunk. The IBU comes in at 58 IBU, which is a little high for an American Pale Ale (the style guide says the limit is 45-50), but it doesn’t taste as bitter as what the formula says.

The Story Behind the Name

As with all of our home brew recipes, this one is named after a scientist.

The Priestly Pale Ale is named after 18th century English scientist Joseph Priestly. His most notable accomplishment is the discovery of oxygen. However, his work also lead to his discovery of many other gases.

With this, Joseph Priestly also pioneered and early method of creating carbonated water. This method was eventually industrialised to create many of the early carbonated non-alcoholic beverages.

Priestly also did many studies of electricity and the relationship between chemicals and electricity. He was also heavily involved in the religion and politics of the day, eventually becoming one of the the founding members of Unitarianism. His politics and religion eventually had him moving to the United States towards the end of his life.

Equipment Needed

This is a pretty basic recipe, so a basic all grain set up should be fine.

The minimum home brew equipment recommended is:

  • Mash tun – we used the Esky/cooler method for mashing
  • Wort chiller – we used an immersion chiller. The amount of hops in the beer really requires getting beer cold quickly. We wouldn’t recommend doing this recipe if you don’t have a wort chiller. Alternatively, make a smaller batch and chill by putting your pot in a sink full of ice.
  • Fermentation temperature regulation – we fermented at 22 degrees Celsius. The yeast in the recipe can tolerate slightly higher temperatures without ruining your brew, so you may be able to get away with not regulating fermentation temperature if the ambient temperature of your home is OK.

The Recipe

This recipe is for a 24 litre batch of beer.

Grain:

Mash the grain for 60 minutes at 68 degrees Celsius in 16 litres of water. Check out our strike water temperature calculator to get the right mash temperature.

Total grain of 6.22 kilograms consisting of:

  • 6 kilograms – Traditional Ale Malt
  • 0.06 kilograms – Pale Wheat Malt
  • 0.06 kilograms – Biscuit
  • 0.1 kilograms – Rye

Hops:

The total boil time is 60 minutes.

Bittering hops – 60 minute boil

Taste hops – 20 minute boil

  • 24 grams – Cascade

Aroma hops – 2 minute boil

As mentioned, at the end of the boil, get the wort cold fast. This beer is already fairly highly hopped for the style and you risk activating too much of the hops if it doesn’t get cold fast enough.

Yeast and final steps

Yeast – Safale US05

Fermentation temperature: 22 degrees for two weeks

Bulk priming: 144 grams caster sugar

Stats

OSG: 1.045

FSG: 1.010

ABV: 4.6% without bottle conditioning

IBU: 58 IBU

Give this recipe a go and tell us how it turns out.

Like the recipe? Check out our other home brew recipes.

Did you get different specific gravities or just need more stats? Check out our ABV calculator.

Did you try different hops? Check out our IBU calculator.