I recently had a good sized solar system installed. The south facing slope of my pole barn is covered with 56x 405 watt solar panels. Can I brew a batch of beer with 100% solar power? The answer is yes. On a nice sunny day I was able to produce more power than both my brewing needs and the rest of my homes power demand for the whole time I was brewing.

I decided to brew a take on The Electric Brewery’s “Electric Pale” that I will call “Solar Electric Pale”. I ended up with Cryohops which were about 2x the alpha acid so you would likely need 2x the amount if brewed with standard pellets.

17.5# 2-row
4# Vienna
0.8# Caramel 40L

1oz Chinook @ 20min boil
1oz Centennial @ 20min boil
1oz Amarillo (Cryohop) @ 10min boil
1oz Centennial (Cryohop) @ 10min boil
1oz Amarillo (Cryohop) @ 0min boil
1oz Centennial (Cryohop) @ 0min boil
2oz Citra (Cryohop) dry hop @ day 3

Adjusted Water – Ca 118 – Mg 8 – SO4 217 – Na 16 – Cl 48 (24g Gypsum, 1.5g CaCl)

Mash at 154° for 60 minutes then raise to 168° and hold for 10 minutes.  Collect 14 gallons and boil for 60 minutes. Produces 12 gallons at the end of the boil and 11ish gallons in the fermenter.

2x – Fermentis Safale US-05 American Ale Yeast

Estimated / Actual
OG: 1.055 / 1.055
FG: 1.010 / TBD
ABV 5.8% / TBD
SRM 34