American Light Pale Ale

I just started with the idea of brewing a pale and decided to lighten it up a bit for a session ale and more appeal to casual beer drinkers.

6lbs Pilsner LME
.5lb Crystal 20L - steeped 25 min. @ 152*F
1lb Rice Syrup Solids
.5 oz. Summit - 20 min.
.5 oz. Cascade - 20 min.
.5 oz. Summit 5 min.
.5 oz. Cascade 5 min.
.5 oz. Summit - flameout
.5 oz. Cascade - flameout
Fermented with US-05 American Ale Dry Yeast

What are you thoughts about how it might turn out or potential changes? I'm pretty excited as this is the lightest recipe I have brewed so far.

To keep color lighter, definately do a late extract addition. Also, after about a week in primary you could add a tsp of amylase enzyme to the fermenter. It will add a little alcohol and dry it up a bit. Makes for a nice crisp ale.

unionrdr said:

I'd cut the 6lb pilsen LME to 3lbs,& sub in about 3.5 lbs of plain extra light DME.

Click to expand...

it wouldnt be a session ale if you did that. also, i disagree with the need for a bittering add, its perfectly fine hop bursted.

With the super high alpha acid content of Summit, I think the hop schedule should be fine. What benefit comes with adding the extract at flameout instead of the beginning of the boil?

ztanner25 said:

With the super high alpha acid content of Summit, I think the hop schedule should be fine. What benefit comes with adding the extract at flameout instead of the beginning of the boil?

Click to expand...

Other than hop utilization, it reduces caramelization that is characteristic of extract (especially LME) brewing.