American pale ale recipe needs critiquing

[Oii]

Planning on brewing this for my regular easy drinking house beer but I need some help on my recipe. I am going for cheapness but I also want something everyone can enjoy around 5% alcohol. I'm looking to spend ~$30 per 10gallon batch with this recipe but I don't want to leave out any complexity. I am a hophead but I do fine with american pale ales. I brewed a similar 5gallon batch 2 weeks ago and its tasting good out of the secondary. It is currently cold crashing awaiting bottling in 3 days. Was planning on a black IPA next but I'm almost out of brews and want something that will ferment fast so I have plenty to drink before summer is over. I thought the recipe needed a little work so I'm asking for some help.

Here is a link to my recipe that I am bottling soon. http://hopville.com/recipe/786448/american-ipa-recipes/cheap-summer-ale

Here is a link to the new recipe I'm working on. http://hopville.com/recipe/819314/american-pale-ale-recipes/cheap-american-pale-ale

My brewing buddies thought the last batch tasted too alcoholic and was a little sweet. I think we overdid the citra so I tried to change some things up for the better but I'm new to all grain so I don't know how things are going to turn out.

I am planning on fermenting 2 5gallon batches with different yeast strains in seperate carboys. For yeast I have started a yeast starter from sweetwater IPA (Atlanta Georgia.) After this I am planning on propagating some rogue pacman yeast from a 6 pack of dead guy. I was thinking of mixing the 2 yeasts but am unsure how it will turn out but I know I will never know unless I try it. I was also thinking about stealing some yeast from dragonmeads final aboslution and brewing 5gallons with that to see how it turns out. My brewing buddies and I recently tried flying dogs "raging *****" which is a belgian ipa and got us thinking about brewing one. What would you guys do? I can't get sweetwater beer up here and really like the taste so I am hoping the yeast will bring back some of the flavor I miss.

anyways here is my grain bill for 10gallons

8lb. 2-row
6lb. vienna
1.5lb. honey malt
1.5lb victory malt
1lb. caramel 20L

steep all grains together at 152* for 75 minutes

hops schedule
boil 60 mins 1.0 Cascade pellet 5.0
boil 60 mins 0.5 Magnum pellet 14.0
boil 30 mins 1.0 Cascade pellet 5.0
boil 10 mins 1.0 Brewer's Gold pellet 8.0
boil 5 mins 1.0 Amarillo pellet 7.0
boil 5 mins 1.0 Cascade pellet 5.0
boil 5 mins 2.0 Simcoe pellet 13.0
dry hop 7 days 2.0 Cascade


Last brew I ended up with too much efficiency and higher gravity/more alcohol than I was expecting. I used my corona grain mill for the first time and I think I might have crushed my specialty grains too much. I'm unsure about where I will end up with my efficiency so its a little hard to work on my recipe. Last time seemed like about 85%. Is it bad to crush your grains too much or does it just make for cloudy/harder to clean beer?

I was also wondering how much wort I should bring to a boil with my hops because its messing with my IBU's. I assumed the more wort I bring to a boil the better but I'm clueless. I am using a 10gallon pot and a cooler mash-tun. I usually end up with 8gallons or so after I'm done with the boil. I just steep 150* water over my grain for 15-20minutes to top my carboys off at the end of the boil is this a good way to do it or should I be doing something different to top off my carboys?

More questions to come after a few are answered thank you everybody for all the help already

 

[djsethall]

What are your starting gravities? 18lbs of grain seems like a nice 5 gallon batch to me.

 

[stubbornman]

What are your starting gravities? 18lbs of grain seems like a nice 5 gallon batch to me.

A nice high gravity 5 gallon batch... I would drop the honey malt down to .5lb and add 1lb back as pale malt. Honey malt adds perceived sweetness imo.

 

[Malticulous]

You need to set the average boil volume to get closer IBU calculations.

I just steep 150* water over my grain for 15-20minutes to top my carboys off at the end of the boil is this a good way to do it or should I be doing something different to top off my carboys?

You have to boil any spage. It will contaminate the wort. If you need it boil it in another pot.

 

[Oii]

Sorry for the late replies thanks to the mod who moved this to the right section. :rockin: Sorry I'm a noob here

What are your starting gravities? 18lbs of grain seems like a nice 5 gallon batch to me.

Hopville recipe calculator is telling me 1.054 18lbs would be good for a 5gallons but I'm trying to brew 10gallons of cheap beer successfully. The less I have to use and buy the better with this batch but that's not what I'm going for with most of my brews

A nice high gravity 5 gallon batch... I would drop the honey malt down to .5lb and add 1lb back as pale malt. Honey malt adds perceived sweetness imo.

High gravity? I thought only 1.07+ was high gravity? The only reason I planned on using 1.5lb of honey malt instead of 1lb of is because I want to use the leftover from my last batch. I think I am going to bump it down to because of what I read about how much sweetness it will add. I'd be willing to bump it down to a .5lb if I will still get some flavor out of it. What would everyone do with my 1.5lb of honey malt and victory malt for this recipe? I'm leaning towards .5lb of honey and 1lb. victory.

You need to set the average boil volume to get closer IBU calculations.

You have to boil any spage. It will contaminate the wort. If you need it boil it in another pot.

I brew in a 10gallon pot I think I can safely hold about 8gallons of beer but that is a rough estimate.

Thanks for the advice on boiling my sparge I never thought about it but I hope I didn't ruin my last batch this way. This could explain how I ended up with wild yeast 2 batches ago.




What does everyone think of my choice of yeasts for 2 different carboys? (belgian yeast from dragonmead and sweetwater ale yeast) Do you think the recipe will taste good with these or do you have some suggestions on better yeast? Still contemplating rogues pacman yeast.

Also wondering how my hop schedule looks to everybody for a pale ale?

 

[Oii]

I have revised my recipe again..

48% 8 0 Two-row Pale 1l
36% 6 0 Vienna Malt 3l
6% 1 0 Crystal 20L 20l
6% 1 0 Victory Malt 25l
3% 0 8 Honey Malt 25l
16.5lbs of malt
Batch size: 10.0 gallons


Original Gravity
1.050 / 12.4° Plato
Final Gravity
1.012 / 3.1° Plato
Color
6° SRM / 13° EBC
(Yellow to Gold)
Mash Efficiency
84%

hops
boil 60 mins 0.3 Columbus pellet 15.4
boil 60 mins 0.5 Magnum pellet 14.0
boil 30 mins 0.5 Simcoe pellet 13.0
boil 15 mins 1.0 Cascade pellet 5.0
boil 10 mins 1.0 Brewer's Gold pellet 8.0
boil 5 mins 2.0 Cascade pellet 5.0
dry hop 7 days 2.0 Cascade pellet 5.0
dry hop 7 days 0.5 Simcoe pellet 13.0
dry hop 1 day 0.7 Columbus pellet 15.4
Boil: 8.0 avg gallons for 60 minutes


Bitterness
40.7 IBU / 22 HBU
BU:GU
0.82