10 days for a Hoppy 3.5% Pale Ale from Recipe to Glass? Gla

I had a Galaxy Citra Pale Ale develop a wild yeast infection this week. The beer was for a Labor Day BBQ. I have two other beers available, but both are quarky.

Until today I figured I would just serve the two I have brewed up, but then I tasted Guinea's Rhiner - a 2.8% VERY hoppy pale ale. I would guess it was all pilsner malt and maybe 25 IBU's.

Do you think I could brew up a very light but hoppy pale/blonde ale in 10 days?

It could be all pilsner, all maris otter, or maybe a 90% Pilsner, 2-5% crystal 30, and 5% wheat. I would Hop burst it for all my IBU's.

Other malts on hand: Crystal 60 & 120, aromatic (melanoiden), honey malt, oat, oat malt, various brown and chocolates.

Will it finish, and what should I use?

Your grain bill looks great. I would choose something like Danstar Windsor or Nottingham yeast. I've had those ferment a wort to completion in three days. They also floculate fast, (fall to the bottom rapidly.) I like to go 15% specialty malts for ales like country bitter, so a judicious mixture of everything you have on hand for about 7% to 10% of the grain bill should keep the brew on the blonde side.

How about 90% Pilsner, 4% Crystal 30, 3% Honey Malt, 3% Flaked Oat

3.5% abv, 25 ibu's.

Too bitter?

Use the crystal or the honey?

Replace one of specialty malts with some Munich?

I've done it w/ success...pitch lots of healthy yeast...gelatin will help floc it clear...force carb 30 psi for 36 hours....ferment 6 days, chill...gelatin and keg leaving 3 days to carb.

I do a pale ale with c40 2row vienna munich and 3oz honey malt that is awesome young.
I'm sure if you scale it down to the 3.5% ABV range it would be just as tasty... but may be thin...
adding carapils would help.

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 46.9 %
3 lbs 9.6 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 2 28.2 %
2 lbs 6.4 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 3 18.8 %
9.6 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.7 %
2.9 oz Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5 1.4 %
0.50 oz Magnum [12.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 20.7 IBUs
0.75 oz Citra [14.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 7 13.4 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 8 -
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 9 2.8 IBUs
1.00 Items Imersion Chiller (Boil 15.0 mins) Other 10 -
0.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 11 1.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Citra [14.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 12 4.4 IBUs
0.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 13 0.9 IBUs
0.75 oz Citra [14.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 15 -


Batch Size:6.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.86 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Efficiency: 78.00
IBU's: 43.2 IBUs
Est. SRM: 8.0 SRM
total hops: 3.50 oz
grain wight: 12 lbs 12.5 oz
Pre-boil grav: 1.050 SG
Est. OG: 1.060 SG
Est. FG: 1.014 SG
Est. ABV: 6.1 %

@cebelli - I bet Cascade and Citra are really tasty together. Thanks for the recipe

So here's the Tentative Recipe:

7.5lbs Pils (or Two row)
8oz Cara Pils
4oz Honey Malt
4oz Aromatic
2.50z Flaked Oat

.5oz Galaxy at 60min
1oz Galxy at 0min
.5oz Citra at 0min
.5oz Crystal at 0min

Dry Hop in primary
1oz Galaxy
.5oz Citra
.5 oz Crystal

OG 1.036
FG 1.010
ABV 3.4%
Beersmith calculates 21 IBU's (but i'm guessing it will be closer to 27 because I use a plate chiller)
SRM 3.9

What do you think of the hop schedule?

Depends on what your'e going for. Personally I'd make a simple grain bill (tend to age quicker, be better fresh) of just base malt and crystal or honey if you want more malt flavor.

On the hops, youre lacking flavor additions. Those 0 minute hops aren't going to yield much flavor, more aroma. Can you squeeze in a 15-20 minute addition?

Pitch really healthy starter into aerated wort and temp control it carefully. You could be at FG in 3-4 days, raise 5 degrees or to room temp and dry hop for 2-3 days, cold crash 2 days, keg/carb for 2-3 days. I like 20-30PSI with shaking (30 seconds at first gas hookup) and it's usually golden in 48 hours or less.

RobertRGeorge said:

Your grain bill looks great. I would choose something like Danstar Windsor or Nottingham yeast. I've had those ferment a wort to completion in three days. They also floculate fast, (fall to the bottom rapidly.) I like to go 15% specialty malts for ales like country bitter, so a judicious mixture of everything you have on hand for about 7% to 10% of the grain bill should keep the brew on the blonde side.

Click to expand...

+1 on the Nottingham yeast for a quick ferment. I just split a batch of pale ale and fermented 5gal with notty and 5gal with Denny's fav. The notty finished in 3 days and the Denny's took 7. I was drinking the notty batch in 11 days, brew-glass and it's tasty.

S-04 finishes quickly and drops out like a rock without fining agents. Especially if you chill it for a little while. Like the others have said. Pitch a good amount of healthy yeast and make sure it's aerated well.
If your mash tun can accommodate it try doing a no-sparge. It'll help with adding some mouthfeel back into the beer. Recently all of my beers have been <3.5% and this technique works very well.