My Pale Ale

I've been extract brewing for a year now and I'm planning on doing a bulk order to save some time and money, as well as try to develop my own recipe for a pale ale. I've got it planned out, and I've got my shopping cart set up. I just figured I'd share what I've got planned and see what you guys think.

This is includes all of my notes. If you think there is any way I can save some money or alter this to make it better, I'm open to suggestions.

Shopping List:
3lbs Rahr 2 row and 3lbs Crystal 60L
6X6Lb Gold LME
6lb Sparkling Amber DME
1lb Willamette and 6oz US Perle
6 Wyeast American Ale 1056
6 Muslin Sacs
Ultraship 35 Scale+ power cable
288 caps

Price for Northern Brewer- 265.23 (includes shipping)

two weeks primary, two weeks secondary
two weeks bottle conditioning
two weeks cold conditioning

Instructions:
1) Steep .5lb of 2 row and .5 lb of Crystal 60L at 155 degrees
for 20 minutes
2) Add 3 lbs of LME and bring to a boil
3) At hot break, add 2oz of Willamette and start 60 min boil
4) At 40 minutes in, add 3 lbs of LME and 1 lb DME
5) At 45 minutes, add 1 TSP of Irish Moss and 1 oz Perle
6) Cool the wort and pitch yeast

Calculator:
OG- 1.053
FG- 1.013
ABV- 5.21%
SRM- 7.53
IBU- 35.26

 

I'd go with extra light dme/ lme because I believe amber/ gold extracts have 60L crystal in there. 10% I've been told.
Why do you have 2-row for you're steep, the 60 does not need a base malt. No need to secondary unless you want to dry hop. I just dry hopped in the primary. It saves some time.

I just bottled the 15 minuite cascade pale recipe, and it turned out fantastic.

 

Steeping 2-row is a waste, you don't pull out any fermentables. Just leave that out. And why do you add extract with 20 minutes left? I would leave that until flameout as you won't have to pull off the kettle and bring back to a boil.

 

2-row base malt must be mashed. Since you have 1/2lb 60L in there,plain light DME would give an orange/amber color. Hot break happens right before the boil,so stir that down 1st. Then steep the crystal 60L at 155F for 20-30 minutes. I like 30 minutes myself. I prefer to use plain DME in the boil for hop additions. I mostly use plain light DME for this,about 1.5-2lbs in 2.5-3.5 gallons of water or sparged fresh wort. Do this before adding the bittering hop addition & starting the timer for 1 hour.
Cut the 40 minute malt additions.
Save flavor hop additions for 20 minutes left in the boil. Whirlfoc & the like go in at like 10 minutes left in the boil. Read instructions for it before adding to the boil,as times vary between manufacturers. At flame out,stir in remaining extract malts well to completely dissolve. cover & steep a few minuts to pasteurize,which happens at 162F. The wort still being boiling hot at the time you do the late additions will be more than enough to do this.
Then chill down to pitch temp.

 

I didn't know that about 2-row, so I'll cut that. I started to late malt additions to help my hop utilization and color. I thought they had to boil for at least 20 minutes to sanitize, but if I can add them after I pull the heat I'd rather do that. I've had problems with pulling the heat, adding malt, and returning to boil. I've ended up stopping my timer and restarting it when the boil returns. I'll switch it to Plain Light DME, I just wanted to boost the ABV and I thought Amber would help me get a color closer to the style. I'm aiming for an orange or light red. From what I've gathered from you guys....

brew day schedule:


Instructions:
1) Steep .5 lb of Crystal 60L at 155 degrees
for 20 minutes
2) Add 3 lbs of LME and bring to a boil
3) At hot break, add 2oz of Willamette and start 60 min boil
4) At 45 minutes, add 1 TSP of Irish Moss and 1 oz Perle
5) Pull heat when the 60 minutes is up, and stir in 3lbs LME and 1lb DME
6) Cool the wort and pitch yeast


another question - is there another type of grain that I should use with the 60L, or should I up that to 1lb? Most of the kits I've done have at least 1lb of grain, so cutting the 2-row seems kinda thin.

 

This seems to be a good base. Adding something else or upping the 60 is really your call. Maybe leave as is for this time, and then you can play with it a little each time to find what you like.

 

that's pretty much the idea. I've brewed enough to get me to the point where I've started modifying recipe kits, and I've had good results, but the fine details that I want to fix aren't worth the cost to me. If I'm going to get super picky about my home brew, I feel like it should be for my unique recipe. Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll post as it goes along.

 

The irish moss shouldn't be added at 45 minutes. It's intended to be added the last 10-15 minutes of the boil. It's ok to stir down the hot break before starting the boil. It happens right before the boil anyway.

 

I posted the times as they were into the boil. 45 minutes into the boil as in the last 15 minutes of the boil.


Instructions:
1) Steep .5 lb of Crystal 60L at 155 degrees
for 20 minutes
2) Add 3 lbs of LME and bring to a boil
3) At hot break, add 2oz of Willamette and start 60 min boil
4) 15 Minutes left- add 1 TSP of Irish Moss and 1 oz Perle
5) Pull heat when the 60 minutes is up, and stir in 3lbs LME and 1lb DME
6) Cool the wort and pitch yeast

 

I recalculated the grocery list- and when I cut the 2 row, replaced the DME from Amber to Light- and cut the yeast packs down from 6 to 2, I got the total down to 238.33. I think if I do my homework, I can wash the yeast and reuse it. I'm also going to price out some scales at the local shops and see if I can't get that price down a little more.

 

I got my digital scale at Walmart for $20. It can measure up to 10lbs. It can measure lb,Kg,oz,& grams.

 

Ditto! I don't think I paid that much, but it's prob cheaper and all you need, for now.

 

Yeah,it'll do for some time to come. I use about 5lbs of grains for PM,weigh out 1.5lbs of DMe at a time,parts of an ounce of hops,that sort of thing. Plenty big enough to weigh out priming sugar as well. Best bang for the buck to me.

 

S-05 dry yeast is the same as 1056 and it's cheaper/no starter. Easy money saver there. Definitely go with light lme. What if you wanted to brew something different like a Blonde ale? You could lower your cost on hops as well if you went with a clean high alpha strain like Warrior for bittering. You'd cut your bittering addition in half.

 

I was just looking through your shopping list and saw that you plan to buy 6 vials of wyeast. at 6-8$ per vial you're spending 36-48$ of your total budget.
I would suggest researching yeast washing and buy some mason jars from a thrift store for a quarter a piece. You'll save enough to make another batch of beer or buy a better bottle!

 

This is EXACTLY what I thought when I first read the OP.
In fact it isn't hard to do. And the yeast is actually better on the additional pitches up to about the 5th.

 

I just ordered a book on Pale Ales, and as many breweries use that as their flagship, I just want to focus on that style. The willamette hops are out of stock right now, so I'll change my calculations and check on some higher alpha hops for bittering. I originally wanted to use willamette simply because I've used them the most, but I wasn't married to them. I've rehydrated S-05 enough times that I can confidently do that.

 

I have recalculated. Here are the new stats.

Shopping List:
3lbs Crystal 60L
6X6Lb Gold LME
2x3lb Plain Light DME
6oz Galena and 6oz US Perle
1 Safale S-05
10 Muslin Sacs
288 caps

Price for Northern Brewer, with shipping- $170.51

two weeks primary, two weeks secondary?
two weeks bottle conditioning
two weeks cold conditioning

Instructions:
.5 crystal (steep 20 minutes)
3 pounds LME
1oz Galena 60 minutes
1 oz Perle 15 minutes
1 teaspoon Irish moss 15 minutes
3 lbs LME 0 minutes
1 lb DME 0 minutes

Calculator:
OG- 1.052
FG- 1.014
ABV- 4.88%
SRM- 8.02
IBU- 44.2

-------------------------------------------------

Thank you to everyone who's helping me get this in order. I went with galena for it's AA% and that I have used it before and liked it. I'm switching to S-05 Rehydrated. I'm going to see if I can wash and reuse 1 pack. They had a deal on 10 muslin sacs, so I upped that. I've got to admit I think it's rather incredible that we've cut almost 100$ off the budget, and I don't feel like I'm cheaping out at all.

The last question I really have for this batch is secondary fermentation. I'm not completely committed to it, and I'm not planning on dry hopping, but would it help a recipe like this?

Also, if I'm not going to dry hop, or use secondary at all, would it help the aroma if I changed it from:

1oz Perle 15min

to:

.5oz Perle 15min
.5oz Perle 5min

even further....

.5oz Perle 15min
.25oz Perle 5min
.25oz Perle 0min


Discuss! and Thank You!

 

I agree with Yooper. Perle hops might not give you what you are looking for. Cascade is a classic APA hop. I really like Falconer's flight 7C's as well.

I don't do secondaries unless I'm adding fruit or if I want to add things but wash yeast.

I've dry hopped several brews in primary and they come out excellent.

Edit: more late hops give more aroma. I usually add at least an ounce of my aroma hops at flameout on anything I want to have a hop forward aroma and I'm not dry hopping.

 

I prefer 3 minutes left in the boil to flame out hop additions. I think it smells better.

 

maybe centennial would be better. I like cascades, but I like to use them more aggressively in IPAs and things like that. I don't want this to be a very aggressive APA. I'm looking for balance and my least favorite term "drinkability". I just listened to the Basic Brewing podcast on APAs and they said the flavor your looking for with the hop character is citrus, so I'll keep digging.

 

Okay kids- after all the homework and chatting, I've made yet a couple more changes. From the Basic Brewing podcast on Pale Ales, I changed the malt additions. I'm going to do 2 lbs of the LME and the 1 LB of DME at the beginning. This will help me avoid a boil over at the end. Also, they agreed that you can add the LME after flame out and the malt will still be sterilized. I'm doing a late addition because I do partial boils, and I want to retain color as well as get the most out of my bittering hop utilization. I'm also changing the Perle to Cascade, as not only the podcast, but you guys have said that it's a good route to go for many reasons. I was hesitant for a few reasons, mainly that I want this to taste unique, but I also want to stay in the stylistic guidelines. I figure this is a base for me to adjust from. We also cut another $1.50 off the budget, which is also very cool. When punching this into the calculator, changing to cascade lowered the IBUs, which I was happy about as well. I'm also going to skip secondary for now. If I'm not dry hopping or adding a spice/fruit, I generally use secondary for clarity and aging. Since this is a Pale Ale, it may not require that. Using the irish moss all ready helps with the clarity, and I may begin "cold crashing" the primary bucket for 24 hours before racking and bottling to help it settle out instead of waiting 2-4 weeks at room temperature. So here is, yet again, the modified recipe and instructions.

Shopping List:
3lbs Crystal 60L
6X6Lb Gold LME
2x3lb Plain Light DME
6oz Galena and 6oz US Cascade
1 Safale S-05
10 Muslin Sacs
288 caps

Price for Northern Brewer, with shipping- $169.07

two weeks primary
two weeks bottle conditioning
two weeks cold conditioning

Instructions:
.5 crystal (steep 20 minutes)
2 pounds LME
1 Lb Plain Light DME
1oz Galena 60 minutes
.5 oz Cascade 15 minutes
.5 oz Cascade 3 minutes
1 teaspoon Irish moss 15 minutes
4 lbs LME 0 minutes


Calculator:
OG- 1.052
FG- 1.014
ABV- 4.88%
SRM- 8.02
IBU- 41.73

 

Looks good. But primary & bottle conditioning will likely take more than two weeks. Especially bottle conditioning.

 

how much longer and why?

 

Willamette Valley Hops still has Willamette, and cheap, esp in bulk. I know you're already paying shipping on this order though.

 

Primary typically takes 3 weeks for an average gravity ale to finish fermenting,clean up & settle out clear or slightly misty. Normal bottle conditioning time is usually 3-4 weeks at 70F or so to fully carb up & condition flavors & aromas. 1 week fridge time is usually good for clearing any chill haze,& decent head & carbonation. 2 weeks for thicker head & fine bubbled,longer lasting carbonation.
Basically,the yeast have there own time table due to temps & other things that don't coincide with ours. There is no set time table for these things to happen. The times I gave are how long it usually takes on average.

 

How about cold crashing during the last week, if I extend it to 3? I've had a friend tell me that he cold crashes his ales in his lagering friend for a week before bottling and has had good results.

 

Yeah,you can cold crash it after it reaches a stable FG. I don't do it myself & get clear beer. But you can if you prefer.

 

i've never done it- but i have a friend who swears by it. from what i understand right now- i'd do 2 weeks primary, then put the fermenter in the fridge for a week, then rack, prime, and bottle cold. then it sits at room temp to carb yada yada yada. does this sound right?

 

I just got the ingredients. I decided to just get enough to brew one batch just incase I want to make any adjustments when I do my bulk order. I also decided to get the Wyeast American Ale 1056 since I can just wash and reuse that for my next batches. I'm brewing on 5/5/13. I'll post again after the brew session.

 

Do you know national homebrew day is tomorrow? Sorry, you have to brew tomorrow!

 

I wouldn't count on the beer being done & settle out in 2 weeks. It should be at a stable FG 1st,then give it 3-7 days to clean up 7 settle out. If it's still cloudy or misty,but done,crash it. But it should at least be at FG first. And yeah,National home brewer's day (observed) is today.