I'm getting ready to brew a few beers with WLP090 - Super San Diego, so it's time for another session beer. This time around it's nearly the same Scottish ale I brewed here, just 8oz less base malt to hit a lower OG.

Usually brewing on a weeknight is a bit of a pain, but these low gravity ales are pretty quick and easy to brew. Zach from Stainless Brewing dropped by during the brew day for a beer. I'm playing around with one of his Dry Hoppers, but we'll cover that on a more hop-centric beer. Of course no brew day goes 100% smooth, and this one was no exception. Right as I flipped on the switch for the heater element to my HERMS, I heard a loud *POP* and a puff of smoke from my control box; the SSR fried. SSRs usually fail open (as mine did), so I spent the majority of the mash plugging and unplugging the element from the control box to hold my mash at 158*. Thankfully it was smooth sailing after that little fiasco. I boiled for 60 minutes, chilled to 62F, and pitched a single vial of WLP090. Finally, I set the temp controller on my fermenting fridge to 16.7C.

After I got everything cleaned up, I took a look at the SSR and the element. Turns out the element had a short which lead to the SSR frying. I bought a new SSR and element (240v, 1500w) online, so I should have everything back up and running before my next batch.



I've used Super San Diego a couple times now, and I like the results a lot. Exactly as advertised, it ferments quickly, and I find it attenuates as well as WLP001 (although, I've yet to test it in a big beer where a high level of attenuation is needed.) It flocs out quicker than WLP001, and I find the flavor to be rather clean; not quite Chico clean, but still rather clean. By day three, fermentation was slowing down, and by day 4 it was done. I then let the beer sit on the yeast for a few more days before racking to keg. Same story from there, I fined with gelatin and forced carbed.

This beer turned out almost identical to the 70 Shilling I brewed a few months back. The fermentation character is very clean, and the overall beer is, unsurprisingly, very similar. I don't miss the extra gravity, and this certainly doesn't taste like a 3% ABV beer. Big clean malty aroma. The flavor is smooth and crisp with a big toasted caramel quality. The bitterness is just barely balancing, as this beer definitely leans to the malt side. The mouthfeel is nice, despite the low gravity. I'm sure that's mostly to thank from the high mash temp, and high % of specialty malts.

Overall, it's a fantastic session beer that's very easy to drink by the liter. It's not the most exciting beer I've got in the pipeline, but Kristen and I are enjoying having it on tap.