thoughts on first recipe

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claymaloy

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OK, Can I get some advice from some of you seasoned professionals on a recipe i am working on.

All Grain Pale-ish Ale

12 lbs 2 row
4 lbs Honey Malt
1 oz El Dorado- 45 min
1 oz El Dorado - 15 min
1 oz Citra- 15 min
1 oz Citra- Flameout
Safale US-05

Mash @ 153 for 60 min

Boil 60 min

After 2 weeks I will transfer to secondary and then add 4 oz of Apricot flavoring.

In my head, it sounds spectacular. What do y'all think?
 
I wouldn't call myself a seasoned professional, but I would cut the homey malt down to 2 lbs, cut the 45 min el dorado to .5 oz then put that other half in at flame out. Also move the 15 minute hop additions to 10 minutes. You may also want to add some dry hops.

12lbs 2 row
2 lbs honey malt

.5 el dorado 45 minutes
1 oz el dorado 10 minutes
1 oz Citra 10 minutes
.5 el dorado flame out
1 oz Citra flame out

That's just my thoughts
 
@Chomp is onto something but I would take the edits a bit further.

4 lbs of honey malt is crazy. 2 lbs is more than most recipes that use it, but if it's your only specialty grain and it's only about 15% of the grainbill, I could see it working. However, I haven't used honey malt so I would wait for someone who has used the malt to chime in before being comfortable using that much. If you want, you could add 2-row to replace the honey malt you're taking out of the recipe.

Boiling for 60 minutes and adding your bittering hops at 45 makes no sense. The only difference between 45 and 60 minutes is that you'll lose some IBUs. You're better off adding your bittering hops at 60 minutes and reducing your bittering charge or pushing back your later additions to balance your IBUs.

Also, two ounces at 15 minutes and one ounce at flameout seems backwards. I personally like 5 minute and whirlpool/steeping additions (adding hops at flameout for bittering, flavor, and aroma or after the wort is down to about 180F for bigger flavor and aroma with little to no bitterness, then steeped or stirred in the wort for 15-20 minutes before chilling), with the whirlpool being much larger than the 5 minute addition, or even nothing but whirlpool for late hops. Here are a few alternative schedules depending on how complex you want your late hopping to be (in terms of process but not necessarily results):

Complex
.5oz each/15 min
.5oz each/5 min
1oz Citra/whirlpool

Moderate
.5oz each/15 or 5 min
.5oz El Dorado, 1.5oz Citra/whirlpool

Simple
All your late hops in the whirlpool

Finally, I've never used fruit flavoring in a beer before, but check the bottle and find someone who's used it before committing to 4oz of apricot flavoring in a (presumably) 5 gallon batch. That sounds like a lot of flavoring concentrate for a single batch, but never having used it I could be wrong.
 
Go easy on the honey malt unless you've used it before. The first time I used some I added .75lb in a 5 gallon blonde ale and thought it was to much. YMMV
 
Honey malt has an intense sweet aroma. I wouldn't use more than a pound. For my hop forward beers I use a 60 minute addition to hit most of the desired IBU then move the late additions later. Apricot flavoring might be good but I wouldn't bother with a secondary. Let it sit in primary until it clears. Because the apricot is a flavoring I would add it at bottling or kegging a little at a time until I was satisfied with the flavor/aroma it was contributing.
 
I would start with 1 lb of the honey malt and maybe 8 ounces of crystal 10 or 15.:mug:
 
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