Can I change this fizzy yellow beer recipe into a decent pale ale recipe?

I have the grain already mixed for 10 gallons of fizzy yellow beer based on Yooper's recipe and mostly made of Vienna and Pilsner malt. My buddy wanted 10 gallons of a guzzler for an upcoming social event but now has changed his mind and wants an american pale ale style brew instead. Is there anything I can do with altering the hops and grain below to turn this into a decent pale ale?

Grains
13 lbs Vienna
6 lbs Pilsen
12 oz Flaked Wheat
10 oz Carapils

Previous Hops
1 oz perle at 60 min (14 IBU)
1.25 oz tettnang at 60 min (10 IBU)
1.25 oz tettnang at 15 min (5 IBU)
1.5 oz tettnang at 5 min (2.5 IBU)
1.0 oz tettnang at flame out

Yeast
US-05

I have thought about replacing the perle with simcoe and then replacing the tettnang with centennial and cascade but I have not used Vienna and Pislen malt before in making a pale ale since there is pale malt for this style. I really wish I had not assembled all of this grain mixed so I could separate it back into its primary components.

Thanks for any ideas and suggestions you might have.

Yeah just swap out the hops. Hit it with centennial or another bittering hop at 60, and cascade, and or centennial and or simcoe at 15/5/0.

Maybe mash at 150

What about trying to change this into an amber ale since Vienna has a sweeter malt taste than pale malt or 2-row? I can always make a pale ales from other malts and use this for an amber. I have plenty of fizzy yellow beers brewed at the moment.

Thanks for the reply.

yeah, that works too. You could either add a touch of roasted malts for some darker color (roast barley has some strong flavors, but will redden it up a bit), or some caramel 60 or 80 to add color and more sweetness. if you go the amber route, i'd mash higher, 152-154.

If you go amber, you'll probably want to change the hops too, depending on what type of profile you're going for. just use hops that fit with the nationality you're looking for: american, or english, or german.

Or make a hoppy amber...I like your hop combo. I guess I would use a lower yeast count and try to go for that sweeter beer set against those aforementioned wonderful hops.

Can you lager? the original recipe might be pretty solid done as a lager with something like Saflager 34/70

and, i forgot to mention earlier: i wouldnt use the simcoe to bitter; simcoe's main properties seem to be best utilized as flavor and aroma.

SouthBay said:

and, i forgot to mention earlier: i wouldnt use the simcoe to bitter; simcoe's main properties seem to be best utilized as flavor and aroma.

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Second. I would go with something "neutral". Like Columbus...or maybe Nugget.

So thinking along the amber styles I would like to hear anyone's opinion on this recipe.

10 Gallons of untitled beer

13 lbs Vienna
6 lbs Pilsen
2 lbs Munich
1 lb Amber malt
1 lb Crystal 60
1 lb Crystal 80
12 oz Flaked Wheat
10 oz Carapils

1 oz Centennial (FWH) 60 minutes
0.5 oz Centennial 60 minutes
2 oz Liberty 30 minutes
2 oz Crystal 1 minute

Either US-05 or Nottingham yeast

mash at 152 for 60 minutes.
OG 1.064 IBU 38


any thoughts?

SouthBay said:

yeah, that works too. You could either add a touch of roasted malts for some darker color (roast barley has some strong flavors, but will redden it up a bit), .

Click to expand...

I have very little experience using roasted barely so would ypu suggest 2 oz or 4 oz for a 10 gallon size batch? I know many brewers will say use as much as you like but not having much experience with it I am not sure of what is the best amount.

Vienna makes a great base malt so I would just stick to original recipe for grains. Just use the mix of centennial and cascade instead of the tett IMHO. It might not fit the exact mold of a APA (because Vienna is a flavorful malt), but will make for a good brew.