Brew #5: Wufus Wainwight (Schlafly Pale Ale Clone)

I wanted to make this for my brother and sister in law who lived in St. Louis until recently.  You can only get this if you are within 300 miles of STL, and I'm pretty sure I have not had it in at least ten years.  But it is soooooo good.  Malty and sessionable.  From what I recall, it's an American spin on an English Bitter.

Also, I started feeling like a chump paying so much for DME, so I decided to get a bigger kettle and start brewing with all-grain, BIAB style.

Tasting Notes: I love it.  Very clean.  So clean that I could really notice a difference in skunkiness between the clear bottles and the brown ones.  ABV came in at around 4.2%.  It would be a perfect session beer if there was a tiny pinch less of chocolate malt.  A hair darker and more roasty that I was shooting for.  Not bad at all for my first all-grain.

I found the recipe that I based my recipe on at brewboard.com, posted by a guy who had brewed at Schlafly:

88% Domestic 2 Row Pale
10% Domestic 2 Row C 60L
2% English Chocolate Malt

Neutral Bittering hops
Lots of EKGS for Flavor and Aroma

WL051/WY1272

Here's what I did for a 2.5 gal. Batch:

4.5 lbs American 2R/Pale
.5 lbs C 60L
2 oz. chocolate malt

Mash 45 min around 153dF
Mash out 170dF

Boil 60 min
.33 oz German NB 7%AA at 60 min
Three .15 oz  additions Fuggles 5%AA (at 20, 5, and just after boil was over)
(25 IBUs)
Topped up to 2.5 gallons which hit target OG and target volume
Cool ferment with WL051
Est. OG: 1.044
Target FG: 1.011-1.012

Pitched WL051 on 5/3 and took downstairs right away (<60dF)
OG: 1.045
5/4: No airlock activity, so I added some yeast energizer and agitated.
5/10: 1.014; Xferred to secondary
5/13: 1.014

5/17: bottled w/ 2 oz. corn sugar (the right way this time)
5/27: perfect after carbing for 8-9 days and being in fridge for about 2.
7/4: Tried it back to back with the real deal.  Almost perfect.