5.1% Hazy Pale Ale - Recipe advise/critique

[Banzai Lizard]

Hi all,

I've recently started taking home brewing a bit more seriously and I'm looking to begin putting together some of my own recipes.

I've got a 3 Vessel, stainless steel brewhouse which includes a water pump and a heat exchanger. I've also just invested in a second steel FV so I can secondary ferment.

I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this recipe. The aim is to create a low IBU, tropical, hazy, 5.1% pale ale.

Ingredients:
28L Water (total in, aiming for 21L in the FV)
3.8kg Pale Malt
375g Flaked Wheat
150g Munich Malt
500g Carapils
7g Citra (60 min)
7g Simcoe (60 min)
7g Citra (10 min)
7g Simcoe (10 min)
14g Citra (1 min)
14g Simcoe (1 min)
28g Citra (dry hop)
28g Simcoe (dry hop)

Method:
Mash 4.5L of 61.5 C water with all of the grains/adjuncts. Stabilise and maintain temperature at 54.5C for 30 mins.
After 30 mins, add 5 Litres of 93 C water to raise temp to 70C, maintain at this temperature for 30 minutes.
After 60 minutes, sparge the mash with 18.5L of 77C water.
Pass through heat exchanger into a steel FV, seal and place in approximately 23C room for 5 days. Transfer into a secondary FV, and add the 56g of Dry Hops and seal the FV.
Move the secondary FV to the garage for 9 more days where it sits at around 12 C. Then bottle.

The main parts I'm not sure on are, whether the ratios of the malts are correct. I want this beer to be really pale and hazy. I also want a good, silky mouthfeel. I'm also keen to add some oats if this would improve the look and texture!

I'm also not sure if this is enough hops at all stages. I want a low IBU, but strong hop flavours. I accidentally ordered whole leaf hops, so will be using a muslin bag.

This beer will be packaged into bottles, then in a month I'll be looking to re-brew this with some adjustments to refine the recipe.

I appreciate any tips/opinions on this.

Thanks

 

[mongoose33]

I'd say you're light on the bittering hops (the 7-g Simcoe and Citra at 60 minutes). You do need some bittering to offset the sweetness, for a pale ale i'd think that's a bit shy. I personally would at least double that, to a full ounce. Much of this depends on the alpha acids of the hops.

Also, i think you're high on the carapils; what's the purpose there? I'd drop that a bit and add the difference to the Munich malt, personally.

The recipe, other than those suggestions, looks ok.

The other issue is the step mashing you're doing. I've never done that, not sure why you would. It's a needless complication, in my opinion. I'd mash at roughly 67 or so, with no ramping up. The only exception is if you're using undermodified malt and need a rest for it to perform.

Finally, I'd sparge at a few degrees lower, maybe 75. When you get to 170 degrees or higher (which is what 77 is), you run a risk of drawing astringency out of the grain husks. That's also dependent upon pH, but why risk it? You can sparge with any temp water, even cold water, it's not going to matter. The only reason to heat it is if you're trying to stop enzymatic conversion, or to shorten the time to bring the kettle to boil.

My 2 cents.

 

[sicktght311]

Drop the Munich, and substitute with white wheat malt or more flaked adjuncts

For all of my Hazy IPAs i use no boil hops at all. I keep my high AA hops in the Whirlpool and start it at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes. I extra bitterness from that, and some Aroma, and then do a large dryhop on day 2 during active fermentation. If i double dry hop, i do the second charge around day 5 when fermentation is a few gravity points away from final.

Also i wouldnt transfer to secondary. Hazy IPAs are extremely tempermental with oxygen, so avoid any chances for oxygen introduction post primary fermentation. Plus with a good yeast strain, NEIPAs are grain to glass in 10 days for me, no need for secondary.

Finally, if you're bottling this, purge the bottles with co2 first. Again NEIPAs are extremely intolerant of o2 and oxidize quickly, so if you're not careful, you'll go from delicious and pale yellow, to brown and flavorless in a few short weeks

Cheers and brew on!

 

[IslandLizard]

Welcome to HBT!

Sounds like you have a great brew setup!
Brewing hoppy beers, especially NEIPAs and Hazy IPAs, need some special care and treated right to prevent oxidation, or the hop sensation will be ruined in short time.

Here's a large thread for inspiration:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/northeast-style-ipa.568046/page-193#post-8520192

There are many others, do a search for NEIPA.

A few quick pointers:

• Don't use your flavorful and aromatic hops for bittering, save them for later additions.
• Use a 'cheap' neutral bittering hop, like Warrior, Magnum or even Nugget. There are others.
• Focus on adding most of your hops after the boil, during the whirlpool or hopstand, at reduced temperatures, rather than traditional late boil hops.
• You didn't mention yeast, some are better for this style of beer. Such as WY1318 or WLP95 or offerings from other yeast labs.
• Aerate or oxygenate when pitching yeast.
• Prevent any air/oxygen exposure thereafter, to prevent oxidation. This is very serious.
• Secondaries may not be to your advantage or even needed, especially with these beers.
• These beers are best drank fresh and young.
• Kegging is the recommended way of packaging due to oxygen exposure limitations and timing.
• They can be bottled but it takes a few precautions. Having CO2 available will help.
• Transferring into 100% liquid pre-purged kegs is highly recommended.
• Look into oxygen free transfers.
• Work under CO2 whenever working with the fermenter, like when adding dry hops, stirring, etc.
• Have plenty of CO2 available and use it to purge, flush, work under, transfer, take samples, cold crashing, etc.

Again, air/O2 exposure is detrimental to these beers.

 

[IslandLizard]

Amazing how the 3 of us replied with such different advice, and with one in common: Prevent unwanted air/oxygen exposure!

You need to pay some attention to your water mineral profile too (high Chloride). It's all in those NEIPA threads.

 

[brew703]

I agree with M'Goose. I personally do not care for Simcoe in a NEIPA. I just brewed a variation of a NEIPA that was in Craft Beer and Brewing magazine recently called Acadiana Haze.
I kept the grain bill as noted in the article but changed the hops to Citra/Azacca/El Dorado and it turned out to be the best NEIPA I've brewed to date. I used OYL 052 (Conan strain) for yeast.
I did 2 oz each WP and 3.5 oz each DH. No bittering hops this time. Probably should have added a touch of magnum at 60 or 30 min but it was a very good turnout for me.

 

[IslandLizard]

seal and place in approximately 23C room

23C (73.4F) is too hot for most ale yeasts. It's about the upper limit to finish/condition out after the bulk is done. Control your ferm temps. Such as using a temp controlled ferm chamber (fridge, freezer), water bath, swamp cooler, etc.
And ferment lower @65-67F (18-20C).