Critique My First Recipe

My goal with this recipe is to build a clear and somewhat crisp pale ale with a bright gold color. I'm aiming for somewhere between 5.5 and 8.0 SRM. Preferably on the lower side. ABV about 5%, IBU between 30-40. Would like to dry hop as well.

Golden Pale Ale - built in iBrewMaster

Stats:
Style: APA
Type: Partial Mash
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.37%
SRM: 8.1
Boil Size: 3 gallons
Batch Size: 5 gallons

Mash: 60 minutes at 155 in 3G of water

Grains:
2lbs Breiss 2-Row Pale Ale
1lb Vienna Malt
1lb Rice (trying to lighten the body here)

6lbs Pale LME at boil

Hops:
.5oz Centennial (pellet) 60min
1oz Cascade Leaf 30min
.5oz Centennial 1min (flameout)
1oz Cascade Leaf 1min (flameout)
2oz Amarillo (dry hop 7 days)

Yeast:
1 Packet Safale US-05

Additions: (both at 5min)
1oz Irish Moss
1oz Malodextrin

Primary Fermentation:
7 days at 72

Bottle:
Priming Sugar (corn) 5oz
7 days warm condition @ 72
7 days cold condition @ 40

Notes: I think the Vienna malt is throwing off the SRM rating by adding darkness. What would be a good substitute? 6-row pale?

Thanks,
Jason

I think it's very odd to use rice to lighten body, and then add maltodextrine as a thickener. I'd definitely cut out the maltodextine.

To lighten the color, add the pale LME at flame out instead of the start of the boil. That will help, as well as give a nicer flavor to the beer (less "cooked extract" taste).

The Vienna malt won't make the beer too dark, and neither will the US two-row. Don't sub in the 6-row- that's very "grainy" tasting.

I'd change up the hopping a little, moving the 30 minute hops to flavor additions. I like APAs hopped at 60 minutes/15 minutes/0 minutes.

Like this:
.5oz Centennial (pellet) 60min (or to 20-25 IBUs with this addition)
1 oz Cascade Leaf 15
.5 oz centennial 5
1 oz cascade 1 minute
dryhop as desired with 1-2 oz of hops

The recipe looks pretty good to me.
I would add about half of the LME at the start of the boil and the rest in the last 10-15 minutes. This will help keep the color lighter.

I don't know about the use of Maltodextrine. I have never used it. If this is just to boost the alcohol level, I would increase or add other ingredients instead.

Primary fermentation will take a minimum of 7 days. You can rush things by taking gravity readings over 3 days to confirm that you have reached final gravity. I feel it is better to primary for about 3 weeks. This allows the beer flavors to blend and for it to get clear.

You would be lucky to get proper carbonation in 7 days warm and 7 days cool. You should count on 3 weeks at room temperature and a couple of days in the refrigerator.

I love Centennial and Cascade. I have never used Amarillo.

I should have noted... I meant on Primary it would be 7 days with active fermentation but it would sit for 14 days.

What ways could I get the SRM down to a lighter range? Perhaps under 7?

TheJasonT said:

What ways could I get the SRM down to a lighter range? Perhaps under 7?

Click to expand...

I agree with what others have said and also,

If you really want a golden beer, clarity is going to be imperative. I would recommend a month long primary before bottling.

Well, I put my order in tonight. Had to make some substitutions and changes based on availability. Here's the stats now:

OG: 1.055
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.37%
IBU: 39.61
Boil Size: 3 Gallons
Batch Size: 5 Gallons

Steeping Grains:
2# 2-row Pale
1# Vienna
1# Rice Hulls

Steep at 155 for 30 minutes.

Boil Additions:
60 Minute: 3# NB Gold LME, .5oz Columbus Leaf
15 Minute: 3# NB Gold LME, .5oz Columbus Leaf
5 Minute: 1oz Cascade pellet
Flameout: 1oz Cascade pellet, 1oz Irish Moss

Dry Hop: 2oz Summit Leaf, 7 days, from days 4-11
(This is likely to change. I want to see what my LHBS has available first, see if I can get something with lower AA, preferably Amarillo if not a more traditional dry hop)

Yeast: Safale US-05 1 pkt

Fermentation:
Primary: 28 days @ 68-72 degrees
Bottling after than with priming sugar

Thoughts?

Thanks!

-Jason

I'm thinking about racking a gallon of the pale ale to a secondary with some mango in it. What should I take into consideration when I do this?

You definitely do NOT want a pound of rice hulls in there! Hopefully you didn't order it like that. You don't need any rice hulls, but a small handful won't hurt anything. A pound, though is a LOT.

I've never done a 28 day primary, and certainly wouldn't with an IPA, but if you're a fan of those long primaries you could do that.

Dryhop the last 5-7 days before packaging.

Had my first "UH OH SPAGHETTIOS" moment while brewing this batch. Ended up doing almost a full partial mash. Here's how brew day went:

*sanitize everything"

Two gallons of cold water in the brew kettle.

Put all the grains in a muslin bag. Only did about 4oz of rice hulls. Maybe two solid handfuls.

Heated up the water to that magical 113-122 range. Did a "protein rest" for about fifteen minutes.

Heated the water up to the next range, anywhere between 150 and 168. Did my mashing then, with constant smushing and beating the bag. This step took about 35 minutes.

I then rinsed/sparged the grains with a gallon of cold water and let it drain into the kettle.

Heated to a boil and added roughly three pounds of NB Gold Extract. I wasn't exact on this one. Also added 1/2oz of Columbus hops (13.0%).

Boiled for 45 minutes, then at fifteen minutes I added 1.5tsp of Irish Moss, another 1/2oz of Columbus, and the remainder of the 6lb bottle of extract. Maybe around 3.5lb.

At five minutes, I added 1oz of Cascade pellets, then another ounce at 1min/flameout.

Cooled the wort down to 70 degrees while adding another 2.5 gallons of water. I poured the wort through a strainer lined with my remaining muslin bags and brought the total up to a smidgen over 5 gallons.

Took an OG reading at this point... And this was the "uh-oh" moment... I hit 1.072 as my OG. IBrewMaster says my efficiency was 196%. Gotta love that.

I pitched my yeast, Safale US-05, here. I rehydrated it in about 1.5 cups of pre-boiled water that I cooled to 100 degrees and added a teaspoon of extract to. I got a good hydration with a lot of bubbles. Poured that in and sealed her up.

I'm just amazed that my OG was so high. I think it's because I actually mashed my grains instead of just steeping them.

However, I hit one of my goals... In the hydrometer tube, the beer was extremely clear. Lots of sediment on the bottoms but it was very clear at the top.

Anyways, do I have anything to worry about or did I simply make a Extra-Strong Pale Ale/IPA by accident? Thanks!

TheJasonT said:

Had my first "UH OH SPAGHETTIOS" moment while brewing this batch. Ended up doing almost a full partial mash. Here's how brew day went:

*sanitize everything"

Two gallons of cold water in the brew kettle.

Put all the grains in a muslin bag. Only did about 4oz of rice hulls. Maybe two solid handfuls.

Heated up the water to that magical 113-122 range. Did a "protein rest" for about fifteen minutes.

Heated the water up to the next range, anywhere between 150 and 168. Did my mashing then, with constant smushing and beating the bag. This step took about 35 minutes.

I then rinsed/sparged the grains with a gallon of cold water and let it drain into the kettle.

Heated to a boil and added roughly three pounds of NB Gold Extract. I wasn't exact on this one. Also added 1/2oz of Columbus hops (13.0%).

Boiled for 45 minutes, then at fifteen minutes I added 1.5tsp of Irish Moss, another 1/2oz of Columbus, and the remainder of the 6lb bottle of extract. Maybe around 3.5lb.

At five minutes, I added 1oz of Cascade pellets, then another ounce at 1min/flameout.

Cooled the wort down to 70 degrees while adding another 2.5 gallons of water. I poured the wort through a strainer lined with my remaining muslin bags and brought the total up to a smidgen over 5 gallons.

Took an OG reading at this point... And this was the "uh-oh" moment... I hit 1.072 as my OG. IBrewMaster says my efficiency was 196%. Gotta love that.

I pitched my yeast, Safale US-05, here. I rehydrated it in about 1.5 cups of pre-boiled water that I cooled to 100 degrees and added a teaspoon of extract to. I got a good hydration with a lot of bubbles. Poured that in and sealed her up.

I'm just amazed that my OG was so high. I think it's because I actually mashed my grains instead of just steeping them.

However, I hit one of my goals... In the hydrometer tube, the beer was extremely clear. Lots of sediment on the bottoms but it was very clear at the top.

Anyways, do I have anything to worry about or did I simply make a Extra-Strong Pale Ale/IPA by accident? Thanks!

Click to expand...

Itll be a good bit sweeter then you were expecting, as you did indeed mash the 2 row and vienna, giving you a good bit more fermentables. Id be worried about it being too sweet, but you might be able to dryhop the hell out of it to counteract that, perhaps.
Also, why did you do a protein rest with your steeping grains? Usually for steeping, you just keep it around 150 for 20 to 30 mins (though with just steeping 2 row youll get starch haze, and cloudy beer in the end).

As far as the protein rest, I was reading in the Complete Joy Of Homebrewing earlier in the day that it was a good step to include. I decided to give it a shot and see what happens. I had intended on doing the mash step in the first place but this ended up being a happy unplanned step.

I think I'm going to call this one "Happy Accident Pale Ale" if it comes out tasting good.

Dry hopped this beer this week. I ran out of my first batch so I'm upping the schedule. Instead of 21 days in primary, I went with 11 days and before racking to secondary.

I lost quite a bit when transferring, I lost the siphon right at the bottom and kept getting a lot of trub mixing in and couldn't restart it. So my batch size is significantly smaller...

Anyways, on to the beer pr0n!!!


Hydrometer sample at 7 days:


The FG:



Dry hopping:

This one turned out quite good. Sweeter than I wanted, but crisp and clean. A nice golden color, somewhat clear but not translucent, very light bitterness but lots of citrusy flavor from the Amarillo dryhop. 7.8% ABV, so it'll put you on your ass pretty fast. Thanks for the help, ladies and germs! I'm stuck in the hobby now! I have one of the members Honey Orange Wheat in the fermenter now and will be making an Imperial IPA next weekend with my first yeast starter. (1.092, 9.5%, I kinda needed the starter.)

I'm addicted to this hobby now! THANK YOU!!

First off, great job making a beer you like.

I just read your brew day post and wanted to mention that you don't want to smash/press or otherwise squeeze the grain as you can release tannin (harsh) off-flavors. Your range for your mash between 150 and 168 is quite large too. You have the two kind of ends of the spectrum. Mashing lower (around 150) will keep that lighter body.

Thanks!

This beer was one of those that I wanted to experiment with a lot of things. I think I experimented too much. Between the high OG, the sweetness, the under-carbonation, and the mashing the bag, I learned a lot about my process and now I have three good all-grain batches in my fermenters (one of mine and two of my buddies).

I now understand the meaning of discipline in this hobby. A relatively disciplined brew day makes for a good beer. Yet, as always, RDWHAHB.

dunno why you even used rice hulls, those are only used to help lauter and add nothing at all to the beer

Yup...I learned that one after I used 'em, lol.


*facepalm*

looks tasty