American Pale Ale help

[DanOmite]

Hi all, I have been working on the following recipe and I have a couple questions about the grains.

Recipe for 3-gallon batch:

0.9 lbs. American Caramel 60°L
0.3 lbs. Dextrine Malt (or C-10L?)

1.98 lbs. Liquid Light Extract
1.5 lbs. Dry Light Extract

0.44 oz. Chinook (Pellets, 13.00 %AA) boiled 90 min.
0.6 oz. Ahtanum (Pellets, 6.00 %AA) boiled 15 min.

0.6 oz. Chinook (Pellets, 13.00 %AA) used as dry hop.
0.6 oz. Ahtanum (Pellets, 6.00 %AA) used as dry hop.

Yeast : White Labs WLP001 California Ale info

First of all, I wanted to create a nice So-cal (my original home) "summer" drink using all
"C" hops, but living in Flagstaff, my summer has turned into a crazy monsoon season. Thus, I decided to throw out my original cascade and centennial hops and go for a spicy / piney hop profile to match my mountains environment. So, I decided to go with Chinook and Anthem hops, as you can see.

Now, for the malts I am not sure if I should use 0.3 oz of Dextrine or 0.3 oz of Crystal 20L. I think I will get enough color and sweetness out of the Crystal 60L, so the main purpose of the extra 0.3 oz of specialty grains should be to add body and head retention. According to beer tools, both Dextrine and Crystal 20L help in this department. Is one better than the other for this purpose?

Thanks for the help

 

[electric_beer]

I usually use Carapils, which is essentially the same as Dextrine and always had great results. Or you could always use a little flaked wheat as well.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

What is your target OG? I think .9 lbs of Crystal 60 might give you a beer that is cloyingly sweet with such a low level of DME and light liquid extract.

Is this a 5 gallon batch?

 

[DanOmite]

What is your target OG? I think .9 lbs of Crystal 60 might give you a beer that is cloyingly sweet with such a low level of DME and light liquid extract.

Is this a 5 gallon batch?

I'm sorry, I forgot to mention this is for a 3 gallon batch. I will edit the orginal post.

 

[DanOmite]

I usually use Carapils, which is essentially the same as Dextrine and always had great results. Or you could always use a little flaked wheat as well.

what does flaked wheat add? Are you suggesting I add flaked wheat inplace of dextrine or on top of everything else?

 

[electric_beer]

Basically flaked wheat adds proteins, just like carapils creating a better head retention and are both common practice. I'd probably just go with the carapils for the recipe you are planning to brew. I'd also have to agree that for a 3 gallon batch of beer you should do less crystal 60. Maybe closer to half a pound.

 

[Gregscsu]

I would use
0.7Lbs Crystal 60L
0.3Lbs CaraPils-Dextrine Malt
for your speacialty grains.