First Recipe for a Pale Ale - Is it ok?

So this will be my third batch and I am going to try to make my own recipe. This is kind of a spin from Palmer's Cincy Pale in in the "How to Brew" Book with a few changes. Tell me what you guys think.

1 lb - Steeped UK Pale Grains
4 lbs Pale Malt Extract -LME
2 lbs Plain Amber DME
1 oz Citra Hops - 45
.5 oz Centennial hops - 15 min
.5 oz Centennial hops - 5 min
1 Packet of Dry Ale Yeast

PS: I am still learning in terms of the science of everything, so there is really very little method to my madness here. Any suggestions/thoughts on making this better, or does it sound ok. Thanks for the help!

On further thought, I will probably get an active yeast and another oz of hops. Any other additions needed?

Looks like a good session beer to me. Maybe some amarillo to go with the citrusy theme.(dryhop about 1/2oz)

That's gonna be just slightly higher in IBUs than the BJCP guidelines for American Pale Ale, but I wouldn't give that much of a second thought if I were you.

I don't think your steeping grains are going to do much for you. If it were my recipe, I'd switch the extracts for extra light (or the lightest I could find) and use a bit of crystal 20 or 30 or 40 for steeping.

Edit: +1 on the dry hop addition, and Amarillo. Amarillo's always great!



Here's the recipe in BeerSmith:

pale
American Pale Ale

Type: Extract
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 5.72 gal
Boil Time: 60 min

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.00 lb Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 28.57 %
4.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 57.14 %
1.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 14.29 %
1.00 oz Citra [11.00 %] (45 min) Hops 44.2 IBU
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (15 min) Hops 6.0 IBU
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.7 IBU
1 Pkgs Safale Chico Ale Yeast (Fermentis #S-05) Yeast-Ale


Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.047 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.37 %
Bitterness: 53.9 IBU
Est Color: 8.2 SRM

bill_skar said:

So this will be my third batch and I am going to try to make my own recipe. This is kind of a spin from Palmer's Cincy Pale in in the "How to Brew" Book with a few changes. Tell me what you guys think.

1 lb - Steeped UK Pale Grains
4 lbs Pale Malt Extract -LME
2 lbs Plain Amber DME
1 oz Citra Hops - 45
.5 oz Centennial hops - 15 min
.5 oz Centennial hops - 5 min
1 Packet of Dry Ale Yeast

PS: I am still learning in terms of the science of everything, so there is really very little method to my madness here. Any suggestions/thoughts on making this better, or does it sound ok. Thanks for the help!

Click to expand...

Welcome to recipe creation!

Is there a particular taste you are going for? What goals do you have for this beer?

I am going for a cross of an American pale and an ipa I guess. More than anything I hope it has a full but crisp taste with the hoppy slightly bitter finish. I'll add the amirllo for dryhopping and keep the rest the same, but thanks
for the light suggestions! I'll use that on the next run!

I would not steep the pale malt. Instead I would drop the Amber extract in favor of pale and steep some crystal for some body/flavor. You could also through some biscuit or victory malt for some more interesting malt flavors. (EDIT: I see that Rick said the same thing, I agree.)

Citra for 45 minutes?!? Oh, it has such a great aroma hop. I would personally move the centennial back in favor of the citra for flavor/aroma. Amarillo would also be great in there. All great hops.

So do pale dme instead of amber, keep it at 2 lbs and then switch the centnnial and citra hop times? Where does the victory malt come in? and no need to steep the grains? Thanks for the advice

I personally would steep 8 oz of both victory and 60L crystal. I think that make for a great background malt for a pale ale.

You do not have to switch the hops, it is up to you. Maybe use half of each to bitter and half of each later in the boil?

Beerrific said:

I personally would steep 8 oz of both victory and 60L crystal. I think that make for a great background malt for a pale ale.

You do not have to switch the hops, it is up to you. Maybe use half of each to bitter and half of each later in the boil?

Click to expand...

+1

Good choice for steeping grains. The use od 1 type of base extract is smart too.

You can also change the profile of the beer by the type of yeast. Do you have a chance to use a different yeast? Not that your choice is wrong, I am just curious.

So should I steep the grains in place of the 2lbs of amber dme or in addition to the dme?

I like the idea of splitting the hops. This is shaping out to sound tasty!

bill_skar said:

So should I steep the grains in place of the 2lbs of amber dme or in addition to the dme?

I like the idea of splitting the hops. This is shaping out to sound tasty!

Click to expand...

In addition to the DME (pale in place of the amber).

K, so the final recipe will be:

4 lbs of pale lme
2 lbs of pale dme
8 oz of victory grains
8 oz of crystal60 grains
.5 oz of centennial 45 min
1 oz citra 15 min
.5 oz of centennial 5 min
.5 oz on ammirrillo dry hopped
white labs ale yeast

that sound good?

So the only issue is that they dont have a male dre at my brew shop, so in its place i will go with muntons (UK) light. Is that correct?

bill_skar said:

So the only issue is that they dont have a male dre at my brew shop, so in its place i will go with muntons (UK) light. Is that correct?

Click to expand...

Yeah the muntons light or extra light will do fine. Or you could do all LME if they sell it in bulk or whatever.

Yeah the key here is to use the lightest LME or DME as your base (doesn't matter which and you don't need to combine) and use steeped grains for any flavoring/color additions. The steeped grain will give you fresh flavors and color that are better than you can get from amber or dark DME or LME, which have already added them. You can buy DME or LME malt that is already bittered/hopped, but you don't want to do that for the same reasons. You'll make beer in any event, but we all want to optimize flavors.

So the brew is done and tastes great! The fermentation, color, taste and body really worked out well! This recipe was a keeper! Thanks for your help guys!