Pale ale recipe critique?

Hey everyone! I'm brewing with 3 of my buddies this weekend, all of whom are just now getting into brewing, to show them my process and give them some tips. By the way, I'm by no means an expert, just the guy in our group that started brewing first!

Anyhow! I want to make a really drinkable, citrusy and deliciously hoppy pale ale, and I've always wanted to try an extreme late hop brew (like, 10 minutes left in the boil kind of hopping), so I figured now was the perfect time. Just wanted to get your thoughts on it:

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.32 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 5.82 gal
Final Bottling Vol: 5.00 gal
Est Original Gravity: 1.053 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.4 %
Bitterness: 46.7 IBUs
Est Color: 7.8 SRM
Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %

9 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) 78.3 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) 8.7 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) 8.7 %
8.0 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) 4.3 %

0.10 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min 5.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min 10.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min 8.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min 5.9 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min 9.0 IBUs
1.40 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 2.0 min 5.4 IBUs
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 2.0 min 2.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop

Thanks for any future input!!!

That looks awesome, I'll be interested to hear how it turns out! My only critique is that it may be a bit heavy on carapils.

Grain bill looks fine to me. You might want to consider making a 6 gallon batch. All those hops are going to absorb an awful lot of wort/beer and leave a lot of hop material in the fermenter and when you dry hop. Sounds delicious though...

Bramstoker17 said:

That looks awesome, I'll be interested to hear how it turns out! My only critique is that it may be a bit heavy on carapils.

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I was considering scratching the carapils altogether and subbing 1# of flaked wheat, just wanted something for head retention… wheat might add more mouthfeel as well.

Hammy71 said:

Grain bill looks fine to me. You might want to consider making a 6 gallon batch. All those hops are going to absorb an awful lot of wort/beer and leave a lot of hop material in the fermenter and when you dry hop. Sounds delicious though...

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That's a really good point… thanks for the tip! :rockin:

I think you are bordering on IPA territory here with that many hops. I mean I have no problem with using a bunch of hops but technically you are going more for a session IPA.

Also, IMHO crystal malts can take away from hop flavors. I would maybe cut out the crystal all together or go with a pound total of crystal/carapils. I personally like the flavor carapils can impart. I would maybe cut the aroma malt down to 4oz. You could eliminate the carapils, add a pound of munich light instead, and drop the crystal and aroma down to 4oz each. Just depends on how malty you want this brew. I believe the malt will appear to be more present because of the lack of bittering hops.

Looks like a good recipe, I have one that uses a similar grain bill. You can keep the carapils if you want, I use 1lb too. My only suggestions would be make the 60 minute Simcoe addition 0.5oz, and then your 1.4oz of Simcoe at 2 minutes would be 1oz. But I would also change those 2 minute additions to a hopstand, when the wort cools to about 180F.
And like hammy said, you will have a lot of hop material that ends up wasting volume. Use a muselin bag for all you hops additions or get a hop spider to keep that stuff out as much as possible.

I would knock the carapils down to 5%. at 8.7% you might get some sweetness from it. The hops schedule is a little heavy for a pale ale but I love hops so "F" it! GO FOR IT!!!