Intergalactic Brain Rescue Pale Ale Recipe

Gotta propagate some WLP029 for an upcoming biere de garde brew session. Gotta try out some new hops. Want a hoppy beer on tap. Busy, busy weekend - no time for an AG brew session. How about this: session-strength extract batch brewed with said new hops, ferment with 029 and then wash the yeast cake for next weekend's biere de garde. Excelsior! Lawn chores, deck needs staining, laundry to fold, garage needs cleaning, dishes need washing - stupid everyday life. But staring down into a few gallons of boiling wort on a midsummer evening is  60-plus guaranteed minutes of quiet meditation, a brain vacation. A brain vacation into outer space, thanks to the heady, high-alpha tropical-fruit funk of Galaxy hops. Outer space ... tropical-fruit funk ... that sounds like Parliament mashed up with Os Mutantes; I think I have a brewnight soundtrack.

Life is complicated enough already, so the recipe is going to be stupid simple: no steeping grains, one hop variety in three additions, 3 gallon batch size to eliminate the need for a starter and to minimize time I need to spend waiting for the wort to cool. One more soapbox to climb before collecting water: American pale ale. How soon it seems we consigned you to the scrap heap of history in the rush to continuously-hopped torpedoed triple-digit IBUs and Doppelbock-grade ABVs as a matter of course. I have not forgotten, and I still love you.

Intergalactic Brain Rescue 3 gallons, extract

Boil:

• 3 lbs Briess Golden Light DME
• 0.5 oz Galaxy hops (pellet), 13% aa @60"
• 0.75 oz Galaxy - @15"
• 0.5 oz Galaxy @0"

Fermentation:

• Chill to 65, pitch White Labs 029 German Ale/Kolsch
• Ferment 7 days, rack to secondary (but save yeast cake!)
• Dry hop - 0.5 oz Galaxy for 7 more days
• fine & keg