Pale Ale Recipe Help

Hey everyone,

I've got a few brews under my belt now. I want to start designing some my own recipes--simple stuff. I've tried Blue Moon clones and CitrusWeizens, but I never get the results I want.

So, I'm wanting to design simple, IPA, APA, and Pale Ale recipes. I guess my questions are "What will these taste like?" and "Do my recipes look like they will produce something in the style I'm going for?"

I know a number of variables exist, but when evaluating, assume everything goes right(sanitization, efficiency, no boil overs, ferment temps are good, pitch rate is right, etc.).

Here's number one:

Brew: Amarillo/2Row SMaSH
Brewer: Jacob
Style: American Pale Ale
Yeast: Safale SO5
Boil Volume: 3.25 Gallons
Batch Size: 3 gallons
OG: 1.043
FG: 1.012
IBU's: 47

Grain Bill: 5 lbs Rahr 2-Row

Hops: .5 oz Amarillo(9.2%) 60 minutes
.25 oz Amarillo(9.2%) 30 minutes
.25oz Amarillo(9.2%) 15 minutes

Mash in 6.25q water @ 155* for 60 minutes. Sparge with 5q @ 170*. Top up to 3.25 gals and start boil. Add hops according to schedule.

I'm hoping for a fairly hoppy very light colored Ale. I love Amarillo, so I figured this would be a good SMaSH.

#2
Brew: Bald 'N Harry Pale Ale
Brewer: Jacob
Style: American Pale Ale
Yeast: Safale SO5
Boil Volume: 3.25 Gallons
Batch Size: 3 gallons
OG: 1.040
FG: 1.012
IBU's:66

Grain Bill: 4 lbs 8oz Rahr 2-Row
8oz Biscuit Malt

Hops: .5 oz Amarillo(9.2%) 60 minutes
.5 oz Cascade(6.3%) 60 minutes
.25 oz Amarillo(9.2%) 30 minutes
.25oz Amarillo(9.2%) 15 minutes
Dryhop .5oz Cascade 7 Days

Mash in 6.25q water @ 155* for 60 minutes. Sparge with 5q @ 170*. Top up to 3.25 gals and start boil. Add hops according to schedule.

My main question with this one is, will the biscuit drastically change the malt characteristics of the beer? I like Fat tire, and I believe they use biscuit as part of the grain bill. Also, too much hops, or do I look ok?

I'm just looking for some feedback on how these look and if they will be tasty.

Thanks,
Jacob

 

I am no hop-head so you'll need to hear from some of those guys on your ibus.

One of the things I am learning on this forum is that a lot of brewing comes down to personal taste though. Another brewer can tell you the way THEY like it, or get your recipe adjusted to be something that there's a good chance will have wide appeal, but you need to brew some batches to get a sense for how a given ingredient or process change will actually affect the beer, and what you personally like. Your best bet is to check your recipes against recipes that others brewed of similar styles or ones you find in books or wherever, brew what you're going to brew, and then change something (preferably only one thing) next time. This will help you to learn more about specific ingredients. You gotta try recipes. Your smaller batches will help w/ experimenting.

One thing you could do with these recipes is brew a batch with a bit less hops, and then split it into two secondary fermenters and dry hop one but not the other. For this purpose it would be fine to use a plastic pail for one (or both) secondary fermenters because you won't do a long secondary and don't need to worry about oxidation so much.