1st Recipe from Scratch - APA

Hey guys,

This is the first time I have ever built a recipe from scratch. I've done about 6 kits before and have varied some things in the last few to make them my own. I wanted to run the recipe by some people to see if it looks alright and take any suggestions you may have for me. I put it together using Brewsmith and everything fell within the ranges of an American Pale Ale but I know that doesn't mean I am safe yet! I'm still doing extract boils:

Recipe Specifications
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Boil Size: 2.82 gal
Post Boil Volume: 2.60 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 12.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 40.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 0.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 1 9.5 %
1 lbs Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2 9.5 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.8 %
8.0 oz Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.8 %
7 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Liquid Extract [Boil for 60 min](8. Extract 5 71.4 %
1.00 oz Galena [12.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 27.2 IBUs
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 7.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 4.6 IBUs
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 9 -
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 1.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 Yeast 11 -
1.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Day Hop 12 0.0 IBUs

Looks good to me, and tasty! Amarillo is very nice, especially for dry hopping.

I would cut the steep grains down, 0.5lb crystal 20, 0.5lb honey, 0.25lb melanoiden. Lose the carapils. Most extract has carapils in it already and has problems getting low final gravity. I say to lower the steep grains because 29% specialty malts is extreme. You will have barley syrup, not delicious nice drinking beer. Just up the extract to get to planned original gravity. Hops & Yeast look good.

Beezer94 said:

I would cut the steep grains down, 0.5lb crystal 20, 0.5lb honey, 0.25lb melanoiden. Lose the carapils. Most extract has carapils in it already and has problems getting low final gravity. I say to lower the steep grains because 29% specialty malts is extreme. You will have barley syrup, not delicious nice drinking beer. Just up the extract to get to planned original gravity. Hops & Yeast look good.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion Beezer. What is a good number % in general to stay under for the specialty malts? I know I was getting a little out of control with the number of specialty malts but I wasn't sure if there was too much or not. I did not know that most extracts have carapils in it, another good piece of info.

Beezer94 said:

I would cut the steep grains down, 0.5lb crystal 20, 0.5lb honey, 0.25lb melanoiden. Lose the carapils. Most extract has carapils in it already and has problems getting low final gravity. I say to lower the steep grains because 29% specialty malts is extreme. You will have barley syrup, not delicious nice drinking beer. Just up the extract to get to planned original gravity. Hops & Yeast look good.

Click to expand...

Very good advice... You can also use honey to up the OG if you run short on extract.