One of my projects for this year is to develop a house beer, something that I will always have on tap and will always taste roughly the same. Up until, I have not brewed the same thing twice and had no desire to repeat my previous offerings. Not that they weren’t good, I just wanted something new. Now, I want to create something that people can recognize as ‘simmering pale ale’ or whatever… My requirements are that it must be approximately 5% ABV, it must have no more than 3 types of grain, two different hops, and it must use either Nottingham or US-05 dry yeast. This is to make it easy to always have the ingredients on hand and also to keep the beer cheap.
In my opinion, the two best pale ale’s out there are probably Sierra Nevada and Stone. The SN is more of the classic Cascade-based American Pale Ale while the Stone is a maltier British pale with a more subdued hop character. I think ultimately, I would lean towards the Sierra Nevada style but plan on adding a bit more hop aroma. To help me in my recipe fomulation, I’d like to get some opinions on the best pale ale they’ve had. In the comments, let me know if you liked something else and also what made it so good.
CBC? Do you mean Carolina Pale Ale from lovely Holly Springs, NC.
Yep, Carolina Pale Ale from Holly Springs is it. I actually live about 1.5 miles from the brewery and try to go to their tour as often as I can. They make a great product and I know I’ve thrown more than my fair share of business their way.
Cool — I live nearby in Cary. CPA is my choice at the local pub.
Ironically, I found your blog via google search:”Ruination Clone”, didn’t expect that you would be just up the street.
Wow, that is crazy. I’m always curious how people find my blog. I know alot of people find them from the recipes I post but the main one is people clicking from homebrewtalk.com. If you’re interested, I made a CBC Nut Brown Clone that turned out pretty good. I just realized I never posted the recipe on that one.