Rats in the Attic: The Brewing Session

As homebrewers, we all have our favorite recipes. Some have fond memories associated with them, some are adventurous successes that pushed our limits of creativity, and some are just plain excellent beers. Well, my pale ale, Rats in the Attic, is my favorite recipe.

First things first, the recipe:

• 5.5 lbs Light Malt Extract
• 1.5 lbs Clover Honey
• 1.5 lbs Dry Wheat Extract
• 1 lb Crystal 20L
• 0.25 lb Victory Malt
• 0.25 Honey Malt
• 2 oz Chinook (whole leaf)
• 2 oz Cascade (whole leaf)
• 1 oz Centennial (whole leaf)
• 2 lemons
• White Labs California Ale yeast

I’ve brewed this recipe numerous times, but it seems my original always disappears and I am forced to rebuild it from scratch. It originated as a pale ale recipe from Valley Vintner and Brew in Eugene. I believe it was the Palisades Pale Ale but couldn’t be certain. Either way, my most recent form of the recipe was found scribbled on a piece of paper on the refrigerator by my wife as I dug through papers in my desk.

After first inspection I thought the recipe was a bit heavy on the malt, calling for 2 pounds of Wheat Extract and 7 pounds of Dry Light Malt Extract. Also, there was an old ounce of centennials in my freezer, roughly a year old. Having been properly packaged, I felt in a time of shortage, no hops should go to waste. These factors lead me to revise my recipe to what was listed above.

With my father-in-law as my wingman, we fired up the stove and got to work. We added the grains and gave them a brief protein rest at 130 degrees for 10 minutes then mashed them at 150 degrees for 20 minutes. After adding all of the extracts, we brought the kettle to the boil and added the 2 ounces of Chinook. At this time I also add the zest of one lemon. In this case I used meyer lemons from the in-laws tree, so I knew there was no added pesticides, wax, or any other government produced mind controlling substances on the skin of the lemons. This was boiled fr 60 minutes. We finished with the ounce of Centennials and the zest of the second lemon for 10 minutes, and one ounce of Cascades for 5 minutes. The second ounce was resealed and put in the freezer for dry-hopping.

The rest of the process is fairly standard. I used the wort chiller, strained the hops, and pitched the yeast. I’ve been trying to keep better records of my brewing sessions and this includes Specific Gravity readings, but it seems I’m not very good at this simple task. I shook up the carboy, took my sample and came up with 1.038. That can’t be right. I brew in 6 gallon batches, but there is no way 8.5 pounds of extract and honey comes out to a less than 4% beer. I’ve convinced myself I didn’t properly mix everything before taking my sample.

So there is my brew session with the Rats in the Attic Pale Ale. At some point I am sure I will share the stories behind this brew, but not today. Hope this helps inspire some ideas of your own. If you try this recipe yourself, let me know how it comes out.