Whats wrong with this recipe.

I know its not right, I'm not even sure what it is. Lets call it an ale.

7 lbs amber DME (60 minutes)
1/2 lb. Crystal 90L Steeped
1 oz cascade at 60 minutes
.67 oz Mt Hood at 15 minutes
Safale S0-4 yeast.

Start OG 1.063
End FG 1.018

Total post boil 5.0 gallons

I know this is probably not a good recipe. its a test of my understanding. Please pick it apart and let me know how it might taste and where I went right or wrong. Feel free to trash the Noobie.

I am not brewing this. Its just a mental exercise.

Thanks

Looks like a fairly straight forward amber? I'd probably up the aroma/flavor hops. Doesn't seem too bad though.

Make it hoppier!!! Maybe a tad more at 15, a hop addition at flame out, and maybe a dry hop? Haha I'm new at this too, but as a hophead I must try to persuade you. My next (2nd) batch is going down tomorrow and I got 6 oz of various hops to experiment with for my IPA

Cascade make great flavoring hops, and used as bitterring hops they sometimes seem buried in the mix. I love cascades so if it were me I would hold back until 15 minutes boil on those, and probably switch the Mt Hood hops to bitter the recipe or use a different hop at 60 minutes, but Hood can be used as either.

Overall this recipe looks malty/balanced....... it needs more hops!

Something like Williamette could make a great bittering hop. It plays well with cascades

It looks fine to me. I'm not a huge hop-head so personally I wouldn't up the hops much. Maybe split the Mt. Hood so you do half at 20 minutes and half at 5 minutes, that'll give you some good flavor and aroma. Other than that it looks spot on.

Half a pound of 90L crystal can be quite a lot. That, the amber DME, and the low IBUs make it look fairly sweet, but I don't know that I would call it bad.


TL

I would use pale extract instead of amber and use a lighter crystal like 40-60. Ditch the cascade for Northern Brewer and use more Mt Hood, use safale 05 and you'll have an Anchor Steam-type PA. (Anchor uses northern brewer throughout and a hybrid lager/ale yeast) OR use Mt Hood for bitterng and cascades for late additions and you'll have an Anchor Liberty type ale.

TeleTwanger said:

I would use pale extract instead of amber and use a lighter crystal like 40-60. Ditch the cascade for Northern Brewer and use more Mt Hood, use safale 05 and you'll have an Anchor Steam-type PA. (Anchor uses northern brewer throughout and a hybrid lager/ale yeast) OR use Mt Hood for bitterng and cascades for late additions and you'll have an Anchor Liberty type ale.

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But you just changed the entirety of the recipe based on one of the hops. It doesn't look like he even wanted to get near what you just said.

It looks sweet to me (although its all just a matter of personal preference)

I would use 3.5 light DME, and 3.5 Amber then steep with 6oz 60L Crystal, and 2oz Chocolate.

Change the hops a little.. maybe use a little fuggles instead of the cascade and you
would end up with an ok brown ale.

carnevoodoo said:

But you just changed the entirety of the recipe based on one of the hops. It doesn't look like he even wanted to get near what you just said.

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It's a hypothetical brew, so it doesn't matter what I think...I looked at it as 'what would I brew with these ingredients, rather than tweak this recipe. When I see mt hood and cascades I think of my favorite IPA , Anchor Liberty (northen brewer/cascade)