Chinook and Citra Pale Ale Recipe - First Time Recipe, Suggestions Needed!
 

Just wanted some thoughts on this recipe of mine. I've been brewing with my buddy since last February, and we've finally started to turn out some good all-grain beers using recipes we found on-line (thanks HBT!). Now we're getting ready to brew our first unique recipe, and I wanted some feedback . . . so fire away, you experienced brewers to suggest ways to tweak/improve in this brew:

Two-Bit Pale Ale

SIZE: 12 Gallon Batch

EXPECTATIONS
1.046 OG
1.012 FG
4.98% ABV
41 IBUs
12.9% SRM
70% Efficiency

RECIPE
20.0 lbs. 2-Row Pale
2.0 lbs. Caramel 60L
1.5 lbs. Munich 60L

Mash with 29.5 qts. water at 45 min at 158 degrees F.
After runnings, run 11.75 qts. water to rinse grains at 168 degrees F.

Boil time: 60 minutes
1.5 oz 13.0% AAU Chinook for 60 minutes
1.0 oz Irish Moss for 15 minutes
2.0 oz 5.5% AAU Cascade for 10 minutes
2.0 oz 13.0% AAU Citra for 0 minutes (flame out)

Ferment with California Ale Yeast for 3 weeks.

Carbonate at 2.5 volumes.

I had toyed with upping the IBUs slightly by adding 0.5 oz 13.0% AAU Chinook at the 5 or 1 minute mark, but I'm not sure that would be a good idea.

Any thoughts? I'm buying the ingredients later this week.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

Chris

I'd stagger the Citras and Cascades from 15 minutes down in order to get good flavor out of them instead of mainly just aroma. This will also up your IBUs which you want anyway.

So you think maybe this schedule?

1.0 Cascade 15 min
1.0 Citra 15 min
1.0 Cascade 5 min
1.0 Citra 5 min
0.5 Cascade 1 min
0.5 Citra 1 min

Add the first addition Chinook back and you're in business. I'd also dry hop with an ounce each of Citra and Cascade. I make a hoppy house pale with a very similar hop schedule...

Cheers!

All right, adjusted as follows, with some FWH, too . . . rather than dry hops, which adds an earthy taste I really don't prefer - I'll try to get a cleaner hop nose and taste without the earthiness. I've increased the bitterness quite a bit, but for a first recipe, I can always dial it back on the next brew if it's too much.

Two-Bit Pale Ale

12 Gallon Batch

20.00 lbs. 2-Row Pale
2.00 lbs. Caramel 60L
1.5 lbs. Munich 60L

Mash at 158 degrees F for 60 min.

First Wort Hops Additions at First Runnings
0.25 13.20% AAU Citra
0.25 13.00% AAU Chinook

Boil Time: 60 minutes
1.50 oz. 13.00% AAU Chinook, 15 minutes
1.00 oz. Irish Moss, 15 Minutes
1.00 oz. Citra, 15 minutes
1.00 oz. Cascade, 15 minutes
1.00 oz. Citra, 5 minutes
1.00 oz. Cascade, 5 minutes
0.50 oz. Citra, 1 minute
0.50 oz. Cascade, 1 minute
0.50 oz. Chinook, 1 minute

Ferment with California Ale Yeast for 3 weeks.

Carb at 2.5 volumes CO2.

Expectations of Beer
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.012
ABV: 5.50%
IBUs: 58.65
SRM: 12.9

Mmmm...that should have really good hop flavor now! I really like Citras and Cascades, this will be like a session IPA!

There was zero issue with your first recipe. Hopping schedule looked fine, and was much simpler, i'd stick with that. I do like the idea of adding dry hops though.

You're going to be on the darker side for an american pale though, you might consider 8oz less C60 (1.5lbs) to keep it in the right color range.

I have never seen 60L Munich, are you sure you not going to use Cara Munich which is 60L.

If that is the case I would not use that much crystal malt as your resulting beer could be too cloying. I would sub it for regular Munich(~10L) or dark Munich (~20L) for more malt character and some color.

I think 15% crystal malts is a little much for a pale ale. Using Munich malt would also bring your color down to a more reasonable SRM for a pale ale.

using 10L munich = 9.4 SRM
using 20L munich = 9.6 SRM

Very close to mine that I've been trying to nail down for a while but I only use 9% of caramunich which brings out a little red and mash at 154°. Your hop schuled looks good but I would take that last one and dryhop with it :) mine is 60,20,5 and dry!

Thanks for all the advice, everyone! Please feel free to continue to comment and provide suggestions. I really like the above advice - it makes sense to me, so I'm going to alter the recipe for that.

According to iBrewMaster, this will give me an SRM of 11, which is a color I really like. The OG and FG stay the same, but that means I should probably dial back the IBUs. So I'll move the two 15 minute additions to be added at 10 minutes and cut the Chinook 60 minute down to 1 oz.

At the same time, I like the various additions, and I think it will give a much more layered complexity to the hop profile, so I'll try that this time around bearing in mind the comments to just use the original recipe.

Now the grain and hop profile look like this:

20.0 lbs. 2-Row Pale
2.0 lbs. 2-Row Caramel 60L
1.5 lbs. Munich 20L

Mash at 158 for 60 minutes

0.25 Chinook FWH
0.25 Citra FWH

1.00 Chinook 60 minutes
1.00 Cascade 10 minutes
1.00 Citra 10 minutes
1.00 Cascade 5 minutes
1.00 Citra 5 minutes
0.50 Cascade 1 minute
0.50 Citra 1 minute

EXPECTATIONS
OG 1.054
FG 1.012
ABV 5.50%
IBU 45.58
SRM 11.0