Summer Ale Recipe Advice

Hi everyone,
I am setting up to brew a batch this weekend, and I am pretty sure I have got a recipe I am happy with, but I would love some feedback. I am going for something highly drinkable, nice and refreshing for the hot summer days.

Wild Dog Days Summer Ale
6.0 lbs. (Muntons) Pale DME
2.0 lbs. (Muntons) Extra-Pale DME
0.5 lbs. Crystal Malt 20L steeped at 150 degrees for 30 mins.
0.5 oz. Centennial (9.9%) hop pellets for 60 mins.
0.5 oz. Centennial (9.9%) hop pellets for 45 mins.
1.0 oz Fuggles hop pellets for 10 minutes
Zest from 2 oranges for 10 minutes
Zest from 1 orange in secondary fermenter
White Labs 001 (California Ale)
½ tsp. Irish moss for 15 mins

I tend to like my beers strong but am thinking it may be a bit too much DME for the level of drinkability I am aiming for, especially since I am splitting this batch with friends, so I may drop it to 5lb./2lb. or even 4lb./2lb.

Thoughts? Advice?

I take it you were planning to add the greater portion of the DME as a late addition? If so, great!

I prefer the 4/2 scenario, mainly because I like to have more than a couple of beers at a sitting. 6 lbs of DME in a 5-gallon batch puts it at the upper limit (~1.048) of my personal ABV "knock back a sixer" comfort zone.

Looks good!

Bob

I actually wasn't thinking of adding any as a late addition - I didn't realize that made a difference with extract. I thought when using extract all of your starches had already been broken down and fermentable sugars catalyzed, and as such it didn't when it was added... I am assuming, now, that I was somewhat wrong... What changes with late addition extract versus full-boil extract?

Never mind on that - I just did alittle searching and figured out that I WAS right inasmuch as the OG is not affected due to when the extract is added, but rather the late addition reduces the density of the original boil and helps prevent carmelization of sugars and hence keeps the beer lighter and also improves hop utilization... it is a shame I did not realize this for my last batch, which was a IIPA... I usually boil with 2.5 - 3 US gallons, so maybe I will boil 3lbs. of DME the full time and add the remainder, whatever it may be, for the last 20 mins? Does that sound about right?

I love the citrusy ales in summer and found I can get a nice grapefruit flavor that is not overpowering by dry hopping with cascade. maybe .75 oz per 5 gall

For late additions, I believe adding 75% of your DME bill in the final 20 min of the boil is pretty common. But you can do 50-50, 60-40, whatever you're comfortable with.
Over all, looks like a nice recipe. You might want to consider switching the hops (ie bitter with the fuggles and use the centennials for aroma). The citrusy nature of the Centennials will prob mesh really nicely with the orange peel. But that's just one guy's opinion.

When I first started brewing I would intentionally use anything but Cascade, since everyone else used them. I very quickly came to recognize whythey are so used. I had not even thought of dry-hopping with Cascade. Thanks for the tip.

On a tangential note - Does using a hop bags, either in the boil or when dry-hopping, mitigate the hop utilization? I suppose the same question would go for a grain bag when steeping specialty grains or doing a partial mash?

I was originally hoping to use Williamette, not Fuggles, but the homebrew store was out of them, so I made a last minute change, without thinking of maybe switching things around...

hop bags do lower your IBU numbers to some degree, but I'm not sure how much. Grain bags not so much. What you might want to do for the hops is to use the larger grain bags. This allows more of the wort to come in contact with the hops, keeping the bad loose. When you use the smaller bags the hops expand and often stretch out the bags. The hops in the middle don't get utilized as well, thus the lower IBU.

I use the 2 gallon paint strainer bags with a zip tie then toss them in the keg without weights in bag. They sink within a week. They stay there until the keg is empty. first week seems a little grassy but week 2-4 is heaven. hop union has a pdf for download that is very imformative about many hop varieties.
when boiling I use the 5 gallon bag clospined to the side so they float arounf in the keggle quite a bit.

Well, I had bought 6lbs. of light DME and 2lbs. of the Xlight, just because it was more economical and I figured I would use whatever was leftover in my next batch, and then I approached my roommate, since I am making this brew with her (and she is splitting the cost, and will most likely assist in the brew process) and explained the differences between using 4, 5 or 6lbs, and she said she would rather go for the high octane, so I am going with the whole 8lbs. I figure I will put the 2lbs. of XLDME in the full boil, and the 6lbs. of Light DME I will put in at 20 minutes.

Now I just need to make sure I can keep my fermenting closet a little cooler, to try and avoid the alcohol-y flavor that this will have a lot of potential for as it is going to spend quite a bit of time fermenting. I am thinking I will go with a wet t-shirt anda fan, at least for the first 3 days or so of fermenting...

jacksonbrown, the more i think about it i may take your suggestion and switch the hops around. Throwing the whole thing through Tasty Brews Recipe Calculator, it seems that by switching the hops around I will be going from 48 IBU to 32 IBU, and that may be more favorable with this batch... I am not entirely sure yet, but I think I am leaning towards that direction...

it will probably still taste like "hi octane" especially if you don't age for a considerable time. You are looking at 1.073 OG for all of the fermentables. I don't know enough about yeast yet so I have no idea if wlp001 has the tolerance for that kinda of alcohol. you might want to check that out

I expect it to taste like it is a strong brew... just not like grain alcohol mixed with beer...

the WLP001 should be OK, as it actually has a moderate/high attenuation and a high flocculation, so it should be able to go to town on all of the sugars. Plus, it likes a fermentation temp of 68-73, which is good, since it will likely be around 70. I am going to make a starter tomorrow and pitch it on Friday when I brew, so I am thinking it will be OK... plus, it is not TOO high an ABV, only comes out to about 7 or so, which should stall the yeast...

I agree that you may want to drop the amount of extract in this if you want it to be a refreshing summer beer.

Hmmm. Well, like I mentioned, I am brewing with a friend and she had suggested we go for the stronger brew. I wasn't thinking the alcohol would be too prominent at 7%... I will check with her and see what she wants to go for... I like to make really strong brews, so it might be nice to make one a little softer around the edges

After some thought, I am going to go with a 5/2 combo of LDME and XLDME, and I will be bittering withe the Fuggles and using the Centennials as flavor/aroma. That should keep the ABV right around 6.2 which is not too strong and hopefully will not detract from flavor, and by switching the hops around I can capitalize on th grapefruity notes of the Centennial while simultaneously lowering the IBU a bit. Thanks for the advice, folks! I am brewing tomorrow afternoon, so if anyone has a last minute thought feel free to share it, otherwise I will post up how it goes when I am done...

Brewed this yesterday!

Went with 5lbs. Light DME and 2 lbs. XLight DME. The amount of orange zest used in primary ended up being 2.5 oz.

Tastybrew's Recipe calculator estimated the OG to be 1.065, but when I pitched my yeast (at 65 degrees) it was 1.060. I did have a slight mishap with my yeast... see here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=72997 so I am nervous. It is actually fermenting in my bedroom with the AC always on, because the room I had wanted to ferment in turned out to be a nice 83 degrees, at least yesterday. My room has been fluctuating between 65 - 75 degrees, and if it stays on the cooler side the fermentation will take longer, but I don't have anywhere to go. I pitched the yeast about 9 hours ago, and I am just starting to see bubbles.

I only boiled the XLDME for the full 60, I did not put the LDME in until the final 15, but it was still a bit darker than I had hoped. Next time I might switch the quantities of XLDME and LDME. It smelled really good when pitching yeast, the orange was very noticeable, but I snuck a small sample, and the hops bit through the orange nicely, so nothing seemed too overpowering. Obviously that was just a tease, so I will post back when I switch it to the secondary... Thanks for everyone that offered their advice!

I just took a hydrometer reading, getting prepared to throw it in the secondary and add some additional orange zest...

The SG was 1.012, which means the ABV was 6.3. The sample actually tasted amazing. The orange was noticeable on the aroma, and a small bit on the taste, but it went away quite soon as the hops hit the palate and smoother out the rest of the tongue. Very nice. I will be putting it into a secondary tomorrow or the next day, as it has fermented more than I had expected it to anyway so I am going to assume it is close to done, and give y'all another update when it is bottling time...

Well, I lost this whole brew. Dropped the carboy. Shattered gladd, flooded kitchen. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=74452

However, I will rebrew this on Monday, pitching onto the old yeast cake, and I learned two good things. Firstly, I am not going to use any citrus in the secondary, the citrus zest from the boil seems to carry through nicely. Second I am going to give it a hair more hops, most likely just do my 60 minute and 45 minute additions simultaneoulsy at 60, just to up the IBUs a few points.

It looked and smelled great, and the SG was .012, which is good.

I can't believe I dropped the carboy. But I used it as an excuse to buy a Better Bottle this morning.

Hey, thanks for the recipe. I converted the DME to all LME (cheaper) and then added a few things to it that I highly recommend: I added crystalized ginger (maybe 1/2 c.), corriander, crushed (maybe 2 Tbl) and juniper berries, crushed (another 2-3 Tbl). It was jaw-dropping good. Nice and complex, the flavors came in layers. I am a novice, at best, maybe 12-15 batches under my belt but this was one of my 2 best (other being Rogue's Hazlenut Brown, kicked up with chocolate and coffee malts and a bag of espresso in the secondary fermenter to make it a Hazlenut Mocha Brown.)

For a little extra flavor and fun, you could add a little Grains of Paradise. Sam Adams uses it in their Summer Ale and I really like the slight white-peppery zing it adds to the pot.

A 2-4 grams should do ya good