Falconers Flight Session Pale Ale

[histo320]

So I wanted to get some feedback on a recipe I've been contemplating for sometime. Been making pretty hop forward beers and boozy beers and wanted to scale it back a bit for my next brew. I've never used Falconers Flight but I have heard pretty good things about this hop combo.

OG - 1.054
IBU - 45.5
Color - 9.5
ABV - 5.0

Water:
Beersmith 3 - Hoppy Pale

Malt:
8 lbs Maris Otter
1.5 lb Munich
1 lb Caramel/Crystal - 40

Hops:
.50 oz Falconers Flight - FWH
.50 oz Falconers Flight - 15 Min
.50 oz Falconers Flight - 10 min
.50 oz Falconers Flight - 5 min
1.00 oz Falconers Flight -Steep/Whirlpool - 15 min @ 130F

Yeast:
Wyeast 1331 - Northwest Ale

 

[thehaze]

The grain bill is busy and favours lots of malty, caremelly flavours in the beer. I wouldn't use Crystal malt in hoppy beers, especially at that %. Not what you would want for a hoppy* anything. 100% Maris Otter or any other pale malt is the way to go.

You are low on hops, if this is a 5 gal batch. My latest Farmhouse ale got 4.5 oz of Motueka + Mandarina Bavaria BBC, and I still think it could have used more. ( 6.5 gal - NO dry hopping )

Your planned OG is 1.054 and it's high for something you want to be session*able. That's standard Pale Ale/IPA territory. I would shoot for 1.045-1.048 to make it sessionable.

 

[balrog]

To each their own I say, it will depend on what you like.
My personal fav pale ale is actually much maltier (@Yooper 's Haus Pale) with MO, Vienna, Munich, C20, C40. So, everyone's different.

As to Falconer's Flight, I prefer straight Cascade. Falconer's Flight is a little darker, piney-er, muted, not as bright as Cascade, but it could also just be the batch I got.

 

[TallDan]

Grain bill is busy? There's only three grains there. 1lb of crystal 40 wouldn't be caramely to me. SNPA uses 8% crystal 60.

Hops don't seem out of line for an easy APA, which is what this looks like.

I'd agree that it's in the standard gravity range for an APA, not really a "session" APA, but if you're comparing an APA to an imperial stout or DIPA, this would comparably be sessionalbe.

 

[histo320]

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, sessionable to me is around 5%. I'm not trying to fit a specific style with this one.

I've had lots of luck adding small amounts of CC in IPAs especially when I want more malt flavor.

Maybe use Cascade for the FWH addition to get a bit more brightness to the hop profile.

Never used 1331 before, anybody know what to expect from it?

 

[histo320]

Been looking up info and hearing that Cascade can be somewhat overbearing when used as a bittering hop.

Any suggestions for other hops that compliment FF or am I just overthinking this one?

 

[TallDan]

Been looking up info and hearing that Cascade can be somewhat overbearing when used as a bittering hop.

Any suggestions for other hops that compliment FF or am I just overthinking this one?

Probably overthinking. Personally, I'd stick with FF or Cascade here. If i were to guess, people who disliked cascade for bittering were probably using a lot of it. I wouldn't use it to bitter a DIPA.