First Pale Ale recipe

What do you guys think? Somewhat based off of Beermunchers

Recipe Type: Extract, Specialty grains
Yeast: Irish Ale - Wyeast Labs #1084 (prior slurry)
Yeast Starter: Light DME
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.054
Final Gravity: 1.015
ABV: 5.2
IBU: 32.6
Boiling Time (Minutes): 75, Extract last 15
Color/SRM: 14 Copper to red/Lt. Brown
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 10 Days at 68-75* degrees
Bottling/Conditioning (# of Days & Temp): 14 Days at 68-75* degrees

*Optimally would like fermentation temps around 68 but can't regulate my basement temps that well, fluctuates between these temps throughout summer.

The Yeast isn't common for this beer either I would think, but want to utilize a prior yeast slurry I have.

Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Size: 5 gal*
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:------------
Amount Item
3.3 lb Briess Munich LME 38%
3 lb Pale Malt 2-row US 35%
1 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine 12%
0.5 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt 60L 6%
0.3 lb Sugar 4%
0.25 lb Biscuit Malt 3%
0.25 lb Honey malt 3%

0.5 oz Centennial (40 min)
0.5 oz Cascade (30 min)
0.5 oz Centennial (20 min)
0.5 oz Cascade (5 min)

Single infusion mash at 155 degrees steep for 30 min. Sparge with 165 deg water bring it up to 5 gallons*. I don't have the volume to boil off 2 gallons from a 7 gallon boil. I was just going to compensate later by adding cold water to chill the wort and bring up the appropriate volume. Is this process ok?

Reading the percentages of malts in the Briess Munich extract, it says that 50% is base 50% Munich, so with this addition being 37% of fermentables in my recipe Munich will make up 18.5% of my wort. Is this a good amount? Also, I know that honey malt isn't traditional but I like this grain a lot and would like to try to use it unless it throws this beer way out of whack or something.

Hmmm. That's a lot of "sweet" stuff. You've got 22% crystal, and then 3% honey malt. I like biscuit malt, but that's quite a bit of it also. Then some table sugar to dry it out?

I'd rework the grain bill. I'd go with 10% crystal total, and consider getting rid of the biscuit malt and/or the honey malt. Munich LME is good, for giving a "malty" flavor, but with all the other grains in there I think it'll be too "thick" and sweet.

The hopping is unusual for any pale ale. English and German hops are nice hops, but probably not expected in a pale ale.

The Irish yeast will cause some fruitiness. That might be ok, but it might be really weird with noble hops like tettnang.

I guess I feel like I don't know what you're going for. You've got a very sweet, malty grainbill and the Irish yeast would go well with that for a Scottish ale or even an English pale ale (I'd still cut out some of the mish-mash). But then the German hops which are "clean" is odd. If you want a malty rich English pale ale, you have a decent start, though.

I do like a good malt taste in my beer, but seeing how this is a pale ale you are probably right it would be a little much. I reduced the amount of crystal 6%, and biscuit 3%, and upped the pale malt 2 row to 35%. Does this seem a little better balanced?

Which hops would you recommend? I got the main idea for hops from Biermunchers Bitter recipe.

Brew_4iT said:

Which hops would you recommend? I got the main idea for hops from Biermunchers Bitter recipe.

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It depends on what you want to make. An English bitter is a fine beer, but it ain't no pale ale!

Think about your goals- what do you want? Then you can choose the malt bill and hops schedule based on that. You've got some great ingredients, but maybe you don't want them all in one beer.

I'll give you a (bad) analogy (which I'm famous for). I love spaghetti, peanut butter, and fruit sorbet. Even so, I would NOT want a spaghetti, peanut butter and fruit sorbet casserole.

That's kind what you got going on with this beer. I love Munich malt, crystal malt, tettnang hops. But you've got yourself a spaghetti, peanut butter and fruit sorbet beer here.

If you want to make a pale ale (English or American), then you need to clean up the grain bill a bit more and fix the hopping. If you want to make a bitter, same thing. A combined bitter/pale ale would work but then you should lean more towards the English bitter and simplify the grain bill.

I'm with Yooper. Too much going on iin the recipe.
Try a good ole American Pale like this one https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/high-sierra-sierra-nevada-pale-ale-88930/

Yooper said:

It depends on what you want to make. An English bitter is a fine beer, but it ain't no pale ale!

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I thought in England Bitters were often referred to pale ales and vice versa? Is that just in the context of American pale ales?

I've used Williamette quite a bit for past recipes so wanted to try something different for hops and schedules, maybe omit the tetnang all together and use Fuggles for aroma and a little bit of bittering?

The hops and hop schedule is based on Biermunchers hops and hop schedules from "Captain Hooked on Bitters" clone recipe.

I guess I want this beer to be a little bit original and different, I'll see if it turns out good, or if it tastes like "Peanut, Spaghetti, and Sorbet"

Brew_4iT said:

I thought in England Bitters were often referred to pale ales and vice versa? Is that just in the context of American pale ales?

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Well, yes. English bitters are EPAs, but I was thinking of APA when I said that! A "bitter" is a low ABV session strength of EPA:

Low gravity, alcohol &carbonation make this an easy-drinking beer. Some examples can be more malt balanced, but should not override the overall bitter impression. Drinkability is a critical component of the style; emphasis is still on the bittering hop addition as opposed to aggressive mid &late hopping in American ales
Profile: The lightest of the bitters.AKA "bitter". Some modern variants are brewed exclusively with pale malt & are known as golden/summer bitters. Most bottled or kegged versions of UK-produced bitters are higher-alcohol versions of their cask/draught products produced for export. This is the "real ale" ver of style, not the export formulations of commercial products.
Ingredients: Pale ale, amber, &/or crystal malts, may use black malt for color adj. May use sugar adjuncts, corn/wheat. Engl. hops typical, but USA &Euro var. are becoming common (esp. in the paler examples).Characterful English yeast. Often med sulfate water used

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If you want to make a bitter (English pale ale), it definitely needs simplification.

If you want to go with an ESB (also an English pale ale), the BJCP style guidelines are:
An average-strength to moderately-strong English ale.The balance may be fairly even between malt &hops to somewhat bitter.Drinkability is a critical component of the style; emphasis is still on the bittering hop addition as opposed to the aggressive middle and late hopping seen in American ales.
Profile: More evident malt and hop flavors than in a special or best bitter.Stronger versions may overlap somewhat with old ales, although strong bitters will tend to be paler and more bitter. most strong bitters are fruitier and hoppier than Fullers.Some modern English variants are brewed exclusively with pale malt and are known as golden or summer bitters.
Ingredients: Pale ale, amber,&/or crystal malts, may use black malt for color adj. May use sugar adjuncts, corn/wheat. Eng. hops typ. but USA &Euro var. are becoming common (esp.in paler examples).Characterful Eng. yeast.Burton versions use med to high sulfate water.

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If you want to use the English/American/German hops schedule, that's fine. But I'd really simplify the malt bill then. An English beer will be ok with the Irish yeast, but keep the fermentation temperature under 72 degrees!

Wow, thanks for the info! More than I bargained for, but don't have any excuses in the future regarding pale ale's.

I was actually reading earlier regarding the water around European areas in the past having a huge influence on the type of beer that can be made and style names, especially with bitters, interesting stuff.