My First Pale Ale Recipe: Input Please!!

The following is my first ever attempt at crafting my own recipe (I plan to brew it this weekend). I'd love any input anyone might have...there's so much wisdom and experience here I'm sure it would be beyond helpful to me. Thanks in advance to all of you who take the time to add your critiques/suggestions etc.:

House Pale Ale
O.G. 1.051
IBU: 45.74 (Tinseth)
Boil: 60-Minutes
Mash: 154 for 60-Minutes (1.25 Qts/lb)
Yeast: Safale US-05
Primary: 68F for 14-Days
Secondary: 68F for 7-Days

Grain Bill:
9 lbs US 2-Row
2 lbs Vienna
0.5 lbs Crystal 60
0.75 lbs Carapils
0.25 lbs Honey Malt

Hops:
0.5-oz Warrior FWH (13.7% AA - 22.77 IBU)
1-oz Cascade @ 15-min (6.9% AA - 10.35 IBU)
1-oz Cascade @ 10-min (6.9% AA - 7.56 IBU)
1-oz Cascade @ 5-min (6.9% AA - 4.16 IBU)
1-oz Cascade @ 1-min (6.9% AA - 0.9 IBU)
2-oz Cascade Dry Hop (7-days)

Looks good! I would roll with it.

Typical me...I'd say the carapils is not needed. Half a pound of c60 is going to give you a good amount of body. The honey malt won't provide any body but it will add sweetness to the final product. Mash around 152-153 and I think you'll be fine without the carapils. Nice recipe though, it looks similar to my newly reformulated house pale.

Yeah, I would say less carapils. Also, it will probably be a pretty hop dominant beer. Nothing wrong with that if that's what you're looking for, but may be a shade outside of the style guidelines. My preference would be to back off on the bitterness about 5-10 IBUs, but go for what suites you best. Let us know how it comes out.

Thanks for the input guys...I appreciate it. The recipe is very slightly outside the style guidelines as far as IBUs are concerned, but I do want it to be more of a hop-forward beer. I've never used Warrior before, but as I understand it, it's a pretty clean bittering hop. My thoughts are that although the IBUs are are little higher than style dictates, the perceived bitterness will likely be lower due the FWH with Warrior. I'm not much for following the rules too closely...as long as I can produce a solid beer, I'm okay bending the guidelines a bit As for the Carapils, what about maybe knocking it down to 0.25 lbs? Thanks again, I really appreciate the input.

0.25lbs sounds good

I love honey malt in my pales. A little goes a long way with it

I just picked up the grain bill today, but changed the hop schedule some. I plan to brew it this weekend, and will certainly post the results in a month or so. Here's the final recipe:

O.G. 1.049
IBU: 47.6 (Tinseth)
Boil: 60-Minutes
Mash: 152 for 60-Minutes (1.25 Qts/lb)
Yeast: Safale US-05
Primary: 68F for 14-Days
Secondary: 68F for 7-Days

Grain Bill:
9 lbs US 2-Row
2 lbs Vienna
0.5 lbs Crystal 60
0.25 lbs Carapils
0.25 lbs Honey Malt

Hops:
0.5-oz Warrior FWH (13.7% AA - 22.77 IBU)
1-oz Cascade @ 15-min (6.9% AA - 10.35 IBU)
1-oz Cascade @ 10-min (6.9% AA - 7.56 IBU)
0.5-oz Cascade @ 5-min (6.9% AA - 2.11 IBU)
0.5-oz Centennial @ 5-min (10% AA - 3.06 IBU)
0.5-oz Cascade @ 1-min (6.9% AA - 0.46 IBU)
0.5-oz Centennial @ 1 min (10% AA - 0.66 IBU)
1-oz Centennial Dry Hop (7-Days)
2-oz Amarillo Dry Hop (7-Days)

I would skip the secondary and dry hop in primary, works out fine.

I would only dry hop for 3 days max, and only at the end of the secondary. I find longer than 3-days you get too much of a hop bite.

This will be pretty hippy for a pale ale. Personally I would scale back to 40 ibu. I love Amarillo for dry hopping. Looks likd a great brew. Agree with carapils no a must. Good luck

Throw all those late additions in at whirlpool. And you should dry hop in a clean secondary. You don't want dead yeast and hops mixing together.

I brewed this beer yesterday...I'll be sure and check back with the results. Here's what I ended up with (Less IBUs than I originally thought):

O.G. 1.052
IBU: 40.31 (Tinseth)
Boil: 60-Minutes
Mash: 152 for 60-Minutes (1.25 Qts/lb)
Yeast: Safale US-05
Primary: 68F for 14-Days
Secondary: 68F for 7-Days

Grain Bill:
9 lbs US 2-Row
2 lbs Vienna
0.5 lbs Crystal 60
0.25 lbs Carapils
0.25 lbs Honey Malt

Hops:
0.5-oz Warrior FWH (13.7% AA - 23.12 IBU)
1-oz Cascade @ 15-min (5% AA - 7.62 IBU)
1-oz Cascade @ 10-min (5% AA - 5.56 IBU)
0.5-oz Cascade @ 5-min (5% AA - 1.53 IBU)
0.5-oz Centennial @ 5-min (8.1% AA - 2.48 IBU)
0.5-oz Cascade @ 0-min (5% AA - 0 IBU)
0.5-oz Centennial @ 1 min (8.1% AA - 0 IBU)
1-oz Centennial Dry Hop (7-Days)
2-oz Amarillo Dry Hop (7-Days)

This beer has been in the keg for 7 days and is very tasty. The nose from the Centennial & Amarillo dry hops is amazing. I nailed the OG at 1.052, but the US-05 brought the FG all the way to 1.008 (I'd hoped for 1.012...mashed at 152). Even though it's drier than I'd intended, it's still a great beer, and definitely a success for my first attempt at an original recipe. I think next time I'll mash at 154 to try and raise the FG a little. Thanks for all the input!

That's how you do it. Brew it, evaluate, adjust, re-brew. Repeat until it's perfect.

That's what I'm doing with my pale ale currently. I've got the 4th iteration in the fermenter now.

I like the malt bill. Looks very similar to what I've come to use for my standard pale. I'm also a big fan of getting those IBUs at 60 then loading up the hops 10 minutes or less.

I like US 05 and the convenience and flavor profile..but I'm becoming a big fan of using 1272, 1450, or WLP051, which leaves more body and sweetness.

I think your adjusted recipe looks good. And for the record, I disagree with both of these posts:

Sparky said:

I would only dry hop for 3 days max, and only at the end of the secondary. I find longer than 3-days you get too much of a hop bite.

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3 days max? Dry hops are basically just aroma - there is no "hop bite" from dry hopping. I get best results from dry hopping around 10 days.

Maltose said:

Throw all those late additions in at whirlpool. And you should dry hop in a clean secondary. You don't want dead yeast and hops mixing together.

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Hogwash.

Maltose said:

Throw all those late additions in at whirlpool. And you should dry hop in a clean secondary. You don't want dead yeast and hops mixing together.

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Just curious why you don't want hops mixing with dead yeast? I've been dry hopping in primary forever and haven't noticed any ill effects yet.

I reuse my yeast so I always transfer to a secondary and dry hop.

I have noticed US-05 bringing me down low, too. The first time I sued it I had a low OG, so I thought nothing of it, but the second time, it brought her down from 1.057 to 1.009. I may adjust my mashing when using it in the future.

tennesseean_87 said:

I have noticed US-05 bringing me down low, too. The first time I sued it I had a low OG, so I thought nothing of it, but the second time, it brought her down from 1.057 to 1.009. I may adjust my mashing when using it in the future.

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Agreed...I think a 154 or 155 mash temp might do the trick next time. The dryness of this beer makes it VERY drinkable, but I was hoping to get the ABV down around 4.8% or so. I ended up at 5.7%, which is fine, but I was hoping to have it be a little more sessionable.