critique my simple ale recipe

Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: Safale US-05
Yeast Starter: N
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: N
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60

Springtime Orange Pale Ale

Ingredients:
6 lbs Light DME
1 lb Crystal Malt 10L
1 oz Cascade - add at 60 minutes
0.5 oz Cascade - add at 15 minutes
0.5 oz Cascade - add at 2 minutes
1 whirlflock tab - add 10 minutes
1 oz. bitter orange peel - add at 5 minutes

Its really just a very basic APA except for the addition of bitter orange. I thought the citrusy Cascades and bitter orange would play nicely with each other for a refreshing brew to enjoy by early springtime.

How does the hop schedule look? Are there any other specialty grains that could round this out? I'm expecting a light amberish copper color from the crystal malt, does 1 lb sound in proportion?

I'd cut the crystal 10 back to .5 lb if your going for a light lawnmower beer. A whole pound of crystal may come across as a bit cloying.

Maybe sub the 10L out for 40L to get a bit more color and a little less sweet flavor?

Hops looks good, but why 15 and 2? AFAIK, 20 min for max flavor, 10 min for max aroma.

I would cut the crystal back to 1/4-1/5 lbs. Other than that it looks good. You could throw in an ounce of black malt to get a red hue for an blood orange beer maybe. lol

Early Springtime? This beer will be ready by Thanksgiving or Christmas the latest easily.

Early Springtime? This beer will be ready by Thanksgiving or Christmas the latest easily.

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I'm not in a huge rush, just putting this together in my head, I might brew a kit from the brewstore ahead of this, one thats more winter appropriate. But if I wait a few weeks on this to brew, then 3 weeks in primary, 2 months in bottle.... that puts me in the dead of winter still haha. Oh well. I'll have 48 bottles or so to drink I'm sure I'll have plenty by the time warm weather rolls around here in March.

I'd cut the crystal 10 back to .5 lb if your going for a light lawnmower beer. A whole pound of crystal may come across as a bit cloying.

Maybe sub the 10L out for 40L to get a bit more color and a little less sweet flavor?

Hops looks good, but why 15 and 2? AFAIK, 20 min for max flavor, 10 min for max aroma.

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Point taken on the crystal; I'll cut that in half, but I want to stick with 10L because I want it to be on the sweet side.

Is 20 min for max flavor and 10 for aroma on the hops pretty standard? I wasn't sure. The kits I have brewed call for a hop plug at 2 minutes, so I thought the later the better (sorta) for aroma, and 15 min sounded good for flavor.


Heres the updated recipe:

Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: Safale US-05
Yeast Starter: N
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: N
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60

Springtime Orange Pale Ale

Ingredients:
6 lbs Light DME
0.5 lb Crystal Malt 10L
1 oz Cascade - add at 60 minutes
0.5 oz Cascade - add at 20 minutes
0.5 oz Cascade - add at 10 minutes
1 whirlflock tab - add 10 minutes
1 oz. bitter orange peel - add at 5 minutes

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goodbyebluesky82 said:

Is 20 min for max flavor and 10 for aroma on the hops pretty standard? I wasn't sure. The kits I have brewed call for a hop plug at 2 minutes, so I thought the later the better (sorta) for aroma, and 15 min sounded good for flavor.

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mmb said:

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Thanks that explains a lot!

goodbyebluesky82 - Beware! That chart isn't based on anything real. It cannot be anything more than a visual representation of approximate addition times. I really wish it would go away; it's tiresome.

Flavor and aroma are entirely subjective. There is no way to objectively measure, for example, what makes hops aroma "grassy", as brewing science understands too little of which essential oil component has what impact. Until we understand that, until we can identify those chemical components and assign measurable numerical values to their impact on flavor and aroma, we cannot measure anything; we certainly can't measure it in a manner meaningful enough to make pretty graphs.

Graphs can only be made from discrete data points. No data points exist from which flavor and aroma contribution can be plotted. The percentage amounts on the left-hand side aren't even defined. It's certainly not utilization, because even the most efficient commercial brewhouses don't get 90+% hops utilization, not noway, not nohow. So what is it? What percentage of what? Until those terms are defined, the entire chart is useless as a measurement of anything useful, because a graph is only useful when the X and Y axes have defined values. Thus, the graph is bunk. QED.

By way of adding something useful (instead of just bitching), I add aroma hops at flameout. It's a fact that boiling scrubs volatile aromatics. An aroma addition at 2 minutes is superior to 10 minutes.

I gots no beef with flavor additions at 20 minutes, though. +3 to a half-pound of 10L Crystal. You're on to a good beer here!

Cheers,

Bob