getting more malt expression out of my pale ale

Just tapped a pale ale I made with a friend earlier this week, and while it tastes delicious as it is, I wish the malt character was a little bit more pronounced. I dont want a sweet malty beer, more like a fresh grain taste or toast kind of taste that I see in a lot of pale ales. Ive thought about upping the mash temperature, it was done at 152. But like I said before I dont want to leave a sweet beer. Ive thought about maybe adding a little bit of victory malt or aromatic malt to the recipe.

What are your thoughts?

recipe was
60% american 2 row
20% light munich
15% vienna malt
5% british medium crystal

37 ibus hopped with cascade and a small amout of centennial later in the boil.
yeast was white labs cali V

Yeah, maybe try some Victory or Special Roast in there and maybe switch to a more malt forward yeast. I've never used Cali V so I'm not sure how it is, but you could try a dry British yeast like WLP007 or something. With all that Munich and Vienna I would think it would be pretty malty already!

yea I was expecting it to be pretty malty already myself.maybe it just needs a little bit of time to let all the flavors blend together?
I want it to be an american pale ale so I shyed(sp?) away from the british yeasts to avoid the esters that usually come with them. Is there an american ale yeast that migh be a little more malt forward? Ive never used special roast before, how would you describe it?

thanks for your input!

That malt bill should be plenty bread-crust toasty/malty. Try a higher mash temp. Increasing the mash temp does not make a sweeter beer, just a more full-bodied beer. A higher FG does not always correlate to increased sweetness.

Try WLP 028 Edinburgh Ale. It is cleaner than straight British strains, but leaves a slightly maltier profile than American Ale strains. It wont' mute the hops much either.

do you think 154 would be a significant enough change or should I go higher? any thoughts on aromatic malt?

I'd use a British yeast, doesn't tend to attenuate down as much. London Ale from either white labs or wyeast has been great for me.

154 should be good. It's amazing what a 2 degree difference can make. Aromatic malt has its own bready quality depending on the maltster, but that looks like to good malt bill for the flavors you want.

If you are enjoying it as it is then just change one thing at a time so you can really see how each change effected the change in taste.. and then of course report back to us. Im in a similar situation and planning to change my temp by 2-3 degrees first.

GL!

so I think ill stick with trying to bump the mash temp up just by itself and see what happens. then make some other minor adjustments from there. hopefully the first batch will stick around long enough for me to compare them ill report back and let you know what ive found. thanks for all the advice!

Try different base malts. A domestic pale ale malt, (Or marris otter, is even toasiter) will help significantly. Viennas and Munich malts vary greatly by manufacturer. If you are buying from a LHBS, eat a few grains of each they have available. You can tell a decent amount that way.

Yes, raising the mash temp will increase dextrins, and mouthfeel, but you can make a malty beer that is bone dry as well.

If you want a clean yeast that is a bit more balanced malt/hops wise, I prefer 1335 over cal ale. If fermented below 68 it is very clean, and attenuates well.

Also make sure you are hitting your mash ph, and arent mashing overly thin.

What was the OG? Above 1.055 I'd expect it to be malty enough. If you are very disappointed later on with the 2row, you can replace it by Belgian pale malt, British maris otter pale malt or mild malt.