First Recipe Creation - APA, input?

So I'm finally comfortable enough in my brewing that I'm taking a stab at creating my own recipe. I'm using ingredients that I have on hand so I'm trying to work with some hops that I already have. I think I'm within range of the style but I've never used Willamette before and I'm wondering if my last addition is too much or what you guys think about the recipe overall. I like hoppy beers BTW.

Any comments appreciated! Thanks

Here's the recipe:

Type: All Grain
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.83 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
Equipment: My Pot (15 Gal/60 L) and Cooler (10 Gal/40 L) 90min
End of Boil Volume 5.83 gal
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Est Mash Efficiency 73.4 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:


Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
10.00 gal Seattle, WA Water 1 -
1 lbs Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 2 8.3 %
9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 75.0 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 8.3 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5 8.3 %
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 26.6 IBUs
0.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 10.2 IBUs
0.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 2.6 IBUs
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 9 -
2.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35.49 ml] Yeast 11 -

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.052 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.008 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.7 %
Bitterness: 39.4 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 9.2 SRM

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 12 lbs
Sparge Water: 5.52 gal
Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F Tun Temperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.20

I think this is a good start and will make a good, straightforward pale ale. I do have a few suggestions, though.

You probably don't need both a pound of carapils and a pound of crystal 60L. The crystal 60L will add some unfermentables on its own. If you want to up the body and head retention in a slightly more interesting way, I'd suggest a pound of flaked (unmalted) wheat. You could also cut the carapils and mash higher.

You should also consider the flavor profile you want for the beer--since it's not a hop bomb, you might want to increase the complexity of your malt base a little. For example, Sierra Nevada pale ale, the benchmark for the style, has a dry finish complemented by some nice toasty, bready flavors. You could get some of that by adding in a little biscuit malt or any of the non-caramel character malts between about 5L and 30L (by whatever name--Vienna, aromatic, Munich, Victory, etc).

I would agree with the above on dropping the carapils and crystak down to 1/2lb each. Like above might add in 1/4 to 1/2 pound of something like victory or biscuit malt. I personally would also throw a 1/2-1oz of cascade at 0 to give it a nice aroma.

You probably don't need the rice hulls either...

Great suggestions. I think I'll drop the cara and crystal down to 1/2lb each and throw in a 1/2lb of biscuit to give the malt a little more character. Hopper would you add the Cascades with the Willamette or in place of?

Rice hulls, I know, I just always add enough to cover the braid in my MT because I'm paranoid!

Thanks!

buzzno said:

Great suggestions. I think I'll drop the cara and crystal down to 1/2lb each and throw in a 1/2lb of biscuit to give the malt a little more character. Hopper would you add the Cascades with the Willamette or in place of?

Rice hulls, I know, I just always add enough to cover the braid in my MT because I'm paranoid!

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I'd use .5 ounce (or 1 ounce) of cascades at 15 minutes, and an ounce of willamette at flame out. Cascades and willamette go nicely together (think Bell's amber) and an ounce of each would be nice. I'd consider leaving out the columbus at 30 minutes if using a full ounce of cascades at 15, as it should have enough IBUs without that 30 minute addition.

I'd probably use .25 pound of biscuit malt, as it can be very "drying" in the finish. I'd go with .5-.75 pound of crystal, and leave out the carapils (as it's not needed with the crystal already in there).

A pound of rice hulls is a lot- I use about two handfuls in a 10 gallon batch. You can use them, of course, but you may only need a big handful.

I agree with Yooper about only using .25 pound of biscuit malt. I am currently drinking a brown ale in which I used 6 ounces of aromatic (it's like biscuit), and when it was young it was a little astringent. By the time it would age out the astringency like mine has, the hoppiness of your APA will have tragically faded a bit.

I didn't see your 2oz of willamette at 0, so mybad about that. I would probably sub a oz of the willamette for an ounce of cascade as I personally like a more citrusy flavor but that's really up to taste. 2oz is kind of a lot for a 0min addition but the beauty of homebrewing is just playing around with everything. I would maybe do a half ounce of each at 0. Yooper has some solid hopping suggestions above too and that sounds like a good plan to me too.

Cool, I think I have my recipe now:

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
10.00 gal Seattle, WA Water 1 -
1.6 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 2 0.9 %
10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 90.1 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.8 %
4.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.3 %
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 26.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 10.3 IBUs
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 8 -
1.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35.49 ml] Yeast 10 -

I upped the base malt to 10lbs because I wanted a little more bump in ABV. I think this looks pretty solid now. I'm brewing on Friday after work. Thans again for the suggestions everyone!

That looks pretty good to me. I like the sweetness that carapils gives more than crystal personally so I would have left that in (maybe do 6oz crystal and 6oz carapils, simplers is sometimes better though) but what you got looks great. Good job and hope it turns out great. I personally really like creating my own recipes!