House Pale Ale - advice please

Well, now that I graduated to a kegging system, I want to come up a foolproof, unique and delicious pale ale that I always have on tap, brew it every few weeks. Sure I may change the hops occosianally, but this will be the basis of the recipe. Please let me know what you think? The hint of pale choco, is for a touch of toasty in the background....just that extra little something. Also, note that there is no hop additions before 30 minutes......

I will dry hop this in the keg with centennial, amarilo, cascade, or whatever else I have around...but it will always be dry hopped.


9.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 77.39 %
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 8.60 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.30 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 4.30 %
0.25 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2.15 %
0.25 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2.15 %
0.13 lb Pale Chocolate Malt (200.0 SRM) Grain 1.12 %
1.00 oz Centennial [10.80 %] (30 min) Hops 26.2 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.80 %] (10 min) Hops 12.4 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.80 %] (5 min) Hops 6.8 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [10.80 %] (1 min) Hops 1.5 IBU



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.057 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.52 %
Bitterness: 46.9 IBU
Est Color: 8.2 SRM

I'm no expert, but that looks tasty!

BTW, I have a question about the Cara-pils. I haven't used it before, and all the fiddling I've done with the body of my beers has been by changing the mash temp. What does it add to the beer, and is it different from (say) mashing high?

That will work, but I would drop the chocolate and bump the crystal to C-40 or C-60. I might also drop the honey malt and double the victory. (I've never used honey malt, but I like victory/biscuit a lot).

This simplifies your grain bill which will help if you brew this beer often, and I think chocolate is not typical for a pale ale (although I doubt 2 oz would add much coffee/cocoa flavor). Of course, one of the other advantages of a house recipe is that you can tweak it so that it's just the way you like it.

What temp are you planning to mash at?

I am thinking 152 for 60 minutes. Pacman yeast

with the victory malt and the 2-row, you will be getting a biscuit flavor come through, you could simplify the grain bill by using Marris Otter instead of them, maybe bump the crystal to 40 or 60 as stated above and drop the chocolate since the toasty would come from the crystal and the MO. you should have good mouth-feel and head retention without the carapils based just on the other ingredients.

all being said, your base recipe looks good in its own right, make it as is, then maybe try some of our suggestions on successive batches and evolve your recipe. my house ale is in its 8th iteration and was edworts haus recipe to start, nowhere near the same recipe now.

at 152 I'd recommend you drop the carapils. I think you'll have good body and head retention without it, as mentioned in a previous post. Since it'll be your house ale, you want it drinkable, and I think the added body of the carapils will make it just a little heavy.

Other than that, I think it looks good. Previous posters might be right about simplifying the grain bill by dropping the pale choc and bumping the crystal, but I'd probably give it a go with the current bill minus the carapils and see how you like it.

I think the hop schedule looks good, but I would consider adding another variety in with the centennials in one of the late additions to give a bit more complexity, maybe .5 Centennial and .5 Citra or Cascade at 5 mins... but if you're a big centennial fan it'll be ok as is but I think that with a fairly complex malt bill, the single hop variety might seem a little one-dimensional.

Maybe i keep the 30, minute centennial addition, ans finish with cascade and willamete...So the carapils may not be necassary at 152....that is good to know, I will drop that.

The inspiration for this beer comes from two different commercial beers. Bells Two Hearted (Vienna and Centennail) and New Belgium Might Arrow (honey, Victory and chocolate malt).......awesome....

I am going to order up some ammarilo soon, I think that would be a nice finishing hop, but at this point I want to dial in the mash temp, yeast and grain bill perfectly.

I have the bells strain, WLP029 and pacman all on my radar for this brew...but pacman is just so clean and consistent.....I know it is blasphemic to some folks...But I like it better then WLP001,1056-US-05.

Alright, I have ordered up the grains.

Briess 2-Row Brewer's Malt 9 lb
Briess 2 Row Caramel 20 0.5 lb
Briess 2 Row Caramel 40 0.5 lb
Weyermann Light Munich 0.5 lb
Briess Victory 0.25 lb
Gambrinus Honey Malt 0.25 lb
Crisp Pale Chocolate Malt 0.125 lb
.5 oz magnum %10 AA at 60
1 oz ammarilo %6.9AA at 10
1 oz willamete %4.7 AA at 10
1 oz ammrilo % 6.9 AA at 1
1 oz willamete %6.9 AA at 1

1 oz amarilo dry hop
1 oz willamete dry hop


Pacman Yeast, mash at 152.