American Pale Ale Recipie Feedback Please

[wfred]

I'm new to all-grain brewing and I am just venturing into creating my own recipies. I do not like bitter beers, I prefer stouts and wheats that are more malty than bitter but I am learning to enjoy the different aromas and flavors of hops in lighter beers. Lately, however, I have had a few pale ales from brewpubs that aren't bitter at all but explode with hop aroma and flavor. I am trying to re-create those beers that I have had. They are light, crisp, and have a ton of hop aroma and flavor with no bitter acrid aftertaste. I'm looking for something that is more of a session beer that isn't too bitter. Here is where I am to start with:

5 gallon batch

11 lbs. Pale Malt (2 Row US)
.75 lbs. Caramel/Crystal malt 20L
.50 lbs. Briess 6-Row Carapils

Single Infusion Mast at 154 degrees for 60 minutes
Fly sparge at 170 degrees for 60 minutes

.5 oz. Citra - 60 minutes
.5 oz. Citra - 15 minutes
.5 oz. Cascade - 5 minutes
.5 oz. Cascade - 2 minutes

2 oz. Cascade Leaf Hops dry hopped for 28 days in secondary

OG is 1.056 FG is 1.014
SRM is 6.0 IBUs are 35.93

I appreciate any feedback you can give me.

Thanks,

Fred

 

[aseg]

This looks pretty good. I've never used Citra for bittering, so I can't speak to the bittering quotient, but for my pale ales lately I have been doing a bunch of late hopping. I also am not a fan of bitter beers and enjoy a malty beer with a big hop character.

The only thing I would add is more (1-2 oz) flavor hops (added in the 20-5 timeframe). maybe 1-2 oz cascade @15 to merge the aroma and flavor. Cascades have a great aroma, but I really like them for flavor too.

At any rate, looks like you have a great start!

 

[wfred]

It looks like Citra hops are out so I'm leaning towards Chinook to replace them. Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Fred

 

[aseg]

For bittering I like Magnum - super clean. As far as flavor hops go, it depends on what you are looking for. I like the Willamette/cascade combo for my pales, with a touch of chinook.

 

[Yooper]

For bittering I like Magnum - super clean. As far as flavor hops go, it depends on what you are looking for. I like the Willamette/cascade combo for my pales, with a touch of chinook.

I also like magnum. I don't think you'll like chinook for bittering, if you don't like an assertive bittering flavor. Chinook is one of my favorites, but it's often considered a harsher bitterness due to the high cohumulone content of them. Magnum is far more neutral, as is galena. They would be great for bittering. For hops flavor and aroma, cascade is great, and so is amarillo or even centennial. Willamette has a bit of an earthy flavor, and is very nice with cascade. Those are all far less harsh than chinook in flavor.

 

[944play]

Yeast?

Carapils is kinda adverse to the light, crisp idea. Besides, you could likely get the same textural effect just by mashing a bit hotter.

 

[wfred]

Yeast?

Carapils is kinda adverse to the light, crisp idea. Besides, you could likely get the same textural effect just by mashing a bit hotter.

I'm leaning towards wyeast American ale 2.

 

[wfred]

Yeast?

Carapils is kinda adverse to the light, crisp idea. Besides, you could likely get the same textural effect just by mashing a bit hotter.

What should I replace carapils with?

 

[TimTrone]

Nothing. Carapils adds body by adding unfermentables. That's what he meant by that.

 

[cyclonite]

If you want some extra hop flavor without harsh bitterness, do a first wort hop with some of the cascade and/or the citra (cascade works great for FWH). FWH smooths out the bitterness, but leaves some great hop flavor.

 

[GlenF]

As it stands, w/ the specialty malts and 154 mash temp, you'll have a fairly malty pale ale that will be balanced more toward malty sweetness. I don't think it will be bad though at all. The 35 IBUs will hold up just fine. But as stated earlier, if you want it crisp and dry, mash at 149-150 and omit the CaraPils or dial it back.

I would skip the 5 and 2 minute additions and move them to dry hop, so you'd have 3 oz total. Also, dry hopping for 4 weeks will probably not get you much more than if you did it for 2 weeks. The contribution will plateau and you won't have to wait as long. 10-14 days has been very successful for me, and I dry hop often.