I originally designed this beer to build up a big slug of a new yeast I’d recently picked up, WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast, for a higher OG IPA. Since I was planning to eventually pitch fresh wort onto the yeast cake, I wanted that first beer to have a moderate OG, be pale in color, and provide a unique hop profile. It wasn’t intended to be anything
special. I had the idea to blend a more American-type grist with a more European-type hop schedule. The resultant beer was kegged within 2 weeks and gone in 4, Tiny Bottom Pale Ale became a beer folks would ask for by name with its interestingly delicious blend of crisp American maltiness, floral and earthy hop character, and great balance provided by WLP090 yeast.
In regards to the name, my son Roscoe loves to hang with me while brewing. I let him open valves, stir the mash, and sample the sweet wort. While he has many large things about him like his heart and his laugh, his “bottom” certainly isn’t one them, which is something my wife and I had many chuckles over at the time. Since 2 year-old Roz was with me when I first brewed this beer, and being a terrible namer of things, I went with the first thing that came to mind– his cute little tush. I promise, the beer tastes better than the name implies!
Tiny Bottom Pale Ale
Recipe Details
| Batch Size | Boil Time | IBU | SRM | Est. OG | Est. FG | ABV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 gal | 60 min | 36.6 IBUs | 7.2 SRM | 1.050 | 1.009 | 5.3 % |
| Actuals | 1.05 | 1.009 | 5.4 % | |||
Fermentables
| Name | Amount | % |
|---|---|---|
| Pale Malt (2 Row) US | 8 lbs | 78.53 |
| Caramel/Crystal Malt - 15L | 11 oz | 6.75 |
| Vienna Malt | 11 oz | 6.75 |
| Victory Malt | 8 oz | 4.91 |
| Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L | 5 oz | 3.07 |
Hops
| Name | Amount | Time | Use | Form | Alpha % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magnum | 15 g | 60 min | Boil | Pellet | 12.2 |
| Perle | 13 g | 25 min | Boil | Pellet | 8.6 |
| Fuggles (U.S.) | 15 g | 10 min | Boil | Pellet | 4.5 |
| Fuggles (U.S.) | 15 g | 2 min | Boil | Pellet | 4.5 |
Yeast
| Name | Lab | Attenuation | Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Diego Super Yeast (WLP090) | White Labs | 80% | 68°F - 72°F |
Mash
| Step | Temperature | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Mash In | 152°F | 60 min |
Download
| Download this recipe's BeerXML file |
Fermentation
- Ferment at 66°F for 3-4 days then allow to free rise up to 72°F over the next week
- Cold crash for 24+ hours after FG is stable (10-14 days)
- Package, carbonate, enjoy!
68 thoughts on “Tiny Bottom Pale Ale”
Why do you always report the first hop addition by IBU rather than weight? Is that to provide flexibility on the hop varietal?
Not the varietal, but flexibility in terms of different AA%. I’ve used Magnum with about 15% AA, and I’ve currently got some Magnum that’s closer to 10.5%– the level of bitterness imparted by, say, 15 grams of each of those is very different.
I may have missed it, how many gallons did you use for the mash? Did you Lauter and if so, how much? I can’t wait to try this recipe. I am using some
Use whatever works on your setup. I’ve brewed this recipe using batch sparge, no sparge, and BIAB, it always comes out great.
How would this beer compare to Sierra Nevada pale ale
I wanted to brew this ale next week…but I wanted to ask what your water profile looks like and what the cholride to sulfate ratio is…I build my own water using ozarka drinking as a base. Thanks. Btw I really dig all the exBEERiments you do. Truly good stuff.
My water is soft, I build it with balanced chloride to sulfate.
Perfect. Thanks.
I could use a Barney Style lesson in determining amounts of your first hop additions. If I had 15% AA Magnum, how much would I add in this recipe? 10%?
At 15% AA, you’d use 18 grams of Magnum at 60 min to achieve 27 IBU.
Have you tried this recipe using the Vermont Ale from Yeast Bay? I harvested some from a previous starter (thanks for the inspiration!) and looking to use it. I’m sure it would be fine, but curious if you’ve used it here.
I haven’t! I’m curious how the peachy/juicy flavors would play with the earthy Fuggles hop. I would definitely mash lower, probably 148F or so.
My first go at this recipe and I just did my first FG check so had a chance to taste, Im excited to say to least! The bitterness, way up there when I put it in the fermentor, has mellowed and there is a nice subtle hop to it as well (might be able to get my wife to drink this one). One difference to mine vs original recipe, I cant get white labs easily from this side of Australia (Perth) so I used Wyeast – 1450 Denny Favorite as someone mentioned on one of your comment sections somewhere that San Diego sounds very similar to it, so I gave it a go, bloody awesome! I shipped in some San Diego so Im keen to give that a go to see what the differences are and which one I prefer.
Sounds fantastic! I don’t easily need to get my hands on Denny’s strain.
Newbie here.
Can you recommend a dry yeast? I’m good with using liquid but would like a back up if I can’t get WLP 090.
Just so i understand the fermentation schedule. approx 14 days primary then bottle or keg?
There’s really no comparison, but Danstar BRY-97 ought to get you pretty close.
I am looking to scale up the recipe to 20 gallons, but have never used the IBU method of measuring hops. I understand the concept and it seems sound, but I am unsure how to scale it up.
Using your beer calculator set to 20 gal, add enough of the specific hop until you get the target IBU. Easy peezy!
I’ve made this twice now. This is a great recipe to mess around with too. Second round I used Omega labs yeast Hedy topper with some mystery hops growing on a fence at work. Good stuff.
I’m curious there; say, what is really left of a 25min hop addition? Wouldn’t most of the oils boil away, and only a percentage of the AA get dissolved? Do you think it’d be the same if you put the IBU’s in FWH, and remove the addition?
I’m not sure if it’d be the same, though my hunch is it wouldn’t. Either way, this beer comes out so good, I see no reason to mess too much with it at this point 🙂
Ahah, besides curiosity right! I’ve always wondered about the impact of additions at mid-boil, especially since there’s a growing tendency to simply go FWH + flame-out. I guess that’s an xBmt that’s lined up in one form or the other, so I’ll just keep watching 🙂
What kind of water profile do you tend to brew this beer with? I know you use Tasty’s hoppy water profile a lot but was wondering if that was a little to aggressive for this recipe in terms of sulfate:chloride ratio.
Tasty’s water profile works great for TBPA!
Naming the beers is as much fun as making them. Cheers to this one!
Okay, so maybe I’m an idiot, blind, or my browser isn’t displaying things correctly, buuuut the bottom of the recipe states the following: “all additions before 30 minutes are measured by IBU contribution (not weight)”. This totally makes sense, however, all I see in the recipe for the 60min addition is: “Magnum 15 g 60 min Boil Pellet 12.2”, no mention of target IBU? Am I mad?
Sorry about that, the BeerXML plugin doesn’t display IBU contribution. You want to bitter to about 24 IBU at 60 min with Magnum. Cheers!
I can see why this beer gets consumed rather quickly. Brewered a batch and wowzers – beerlicious. Substituted with US05 . No San Diego here. Also substituted Victory, toasted my own. Excellent beer
Nice recipe. Which dry yeast would you use instead of the San Diego Super yeast? In my country there are only fermentis and lallemand dry yeasts. Thanks!
Lallemand/Danstar BRY-97 or Safale US-05 ought to get you close. Cheers!
I’m going to try this in a biab no sparge ! What imperial yeast would you use instead of the San Diego ?
Probably Flagship
What is the actual starting water? Is it 5.5gallons? Did you sparge? Can’t wait to brew this one!
For this beer, I prefer a Cl:SO4 of about 0.75, but I’ve brewed it with super soft and super hard water, always comes out great. Yeah, 5.5 gallons, and this recipe is setup for batch sparge (just combine the mash and sparge volumes for no sparge). Cheers!
Brewed this exactly as written, but added spruce tips to the last 15 minutes of the boil. It turned out great. A perfect “winter” pale ale. Awesome recipe, cheers!
I’m curious about the “spruce tips”. Did you just lop off from a tree? How much did you use? I’d like to make
Purchased from spruceontap.com, I used 4oz of the Colorado Blue Spruce. It was REALLY strong spruce flavor, but I loved it. Would probably do 2oz next time though, as I’ve recently done an Old Ale with 2oz spruce tips and it’s more berry-like than “pine-y”, and may go better with this recipe.
I’d love to try this recipe doing a 2 gallon BIAB method. Any thoughts or suggestions? I’m newer to brewing and really enjoy the info you have to offer!
You should be fine reducing all weights and volumes by 3/5 to get to that 2 gallon mark. Better yet, plug the recipe into your favorite design calculator then scale it to your desired batch size.
Hi Marshall, I’m just about to brew a batch of your recipe, sounds great!.
In the comparison test you did with US-05 v W34/70 it appeared that the W34/70 came out nicer.
So comparing your recipe choice of WLP090 to the W34/70 batch which would be your preference?
Great work, cheers!
I have to say I prefer TBPA fermented with 090, but if all you’ve got is US05 or W34/70, I’d go with the latter.
How would this compare to Sierra Nevada pale ale
Very different.
After Fermenting for 3-4 days, do you keep it in the primary fermenter for the rise to 72 degrees?
Yep. No secondaries ever.
Would this be a good candidate for trying my first Voss Kveik?
I’m trying to figure out what to make with the Omega Voss packet I just picked up. I was thinking about a solid APA/IPA that would play up the Voss characteristics. Maybe a little more characterful than the Loki exbeeriments you have already posted here.
I don’t see why not.
Appreciate you guys so much for posting recipes online! I tried this one in a small 3 gallon batch using basically a BIAB method on my Pico Model C. My original gravity started out a little on the low side at 1.042 and I am into 7 days of fermenting. Right now SG is 1.01, attenuation is 76.19%, and ABV is 4.2%. Not too bad for my first attempt on this recipe on a scaled back recipe. Any advice you can give me on maybe improving thing to get that OG up just a little and increasing the ABV?
Recipe I went with is below:
American 2row Pale 2.57 lbs
American Crystal 15L 0.23 lbs (2.88 oz)
Vienna Malt 0.23 lbs (2.88 oz)
Victory Malt 0.17 lbs (2.16 oz)
American Crystal 60L 0.09 lbs (1.2 oz)
Thanks again! Any other suggestion on which beer I should try next?
You could use a bump more Pale Malt to get higher OG. And I can’t recommend Ray’s Make America Amber Again recipe enough, it’s so good!
Marshall, I brewed this to be an easy-drinking beer for my wife while I make strongly bittered IPAs for myself. This TBPA did not disappoint! This beer turned out fantastically easy to drink with a great malt/hop balance. The wife loves it and that means I’ve got to green light to continue brewing. Thanks for the help!
Cheers,
Patrick
Awesome!
What do you think about trying this recipe with Kveik yeast?
Give it a go!
Have you ever dry hopped this one, and if so what would you recommend?
I have a few times. My favorite was a moderate charge of Cascade.
However, a friend of mine made this recipe and dry hopped with more Fuggles. Sounds weird, but it was so good.
Cheers Marshall! I’ll give cascade a go this time round as I’ve got some in the freezer. What do you reckon about 25 g? I’ve had some good results dry hopping with fuggles in a maris otter smash, would not be averse to giving it a shot on my next batch of tiny bottom.
25-30 g would be great.
I don’t have the means to ferment at 66. Do you think the final product will be negatively impacted if the fermentation is done at 72 for the whole time?
I’ve never done that, so I can’t really say, but report back with your results!
Cheers Marshall,
Thank you the outstanding recipe. Brewed this for the first time 4 weeks ago, and it exceeded my expectations! My temp controlled fermenter was full, So I let this ferment at around 72F in an old plastic bucket. I was a little worried about cold oxidation, but so far so good. It probably helps that I have been drinking through the keg quicker than normal.
I brewed this and it was great! I want to make a couple tweaks with hops build, but I brewed a 10 gal batch. I then dry hopped 5 gals with Perle hops, my wife drank 90% of that keg. It was awesome. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Hey there, Marshall, I actually intend to try this recipe this weekend and am all prepped. However, as it’s only my third batch of beer, I’m new to the game. My question is did you add any dextrose/other sugar for the fermentation? I used it in the previous two batches while making english bitter which came out well. This will be my first actual boil though.
Nope, just grain for the fermentables.
Marshall, Beersmith shows pH of 5.63 with these ingredients. Do you add acid malt or lactic acid to bring the pH down or just leave it as is? If you adjust, what pH do you shoot for? Looks like 6oz of acid malt brings it down to 5.4 which is in the mid-range of the typical 5.2-5.6 range.
I admittedly stopped worrying about mash pH a few years ago after our couple of xBmts. But it’s also be dependent on your starting water, which with mine, typically resulted in a pH closer to 5.4.
Looking to brew this up to have a lighter beer on tap, and like your original intention to build up some yeast while making beer at the same time. I’m out of Fuggles though, and was going to substitute EKG since I have that on hand. Have you ever made a variation with a substitute for the usual Fuggles?
Hi Andrew,
I’ve actually made a version using EKG in place of Fuggle side-by-side with the original. The difference was pretty stark, and while I preferred the original, some people liked the sweet orange note contributed by the EKG.
Cheers,
Marshall
I actually substituted Citra for the Perle and one portion of the Fuggle. It turned out really good and people really liked it.