Brewing this one up again. In looking back at judging notes, I've scored very well with this beer and won several gold medals and even placed in BOS a couple of times. Comments that keeps surfacing is that the beer needs more crispness to the mouthfeel to make it more drinkable. Some of the judges have said it's too dry. Interestingly enough, the beer is often complimented on how well balanced the hops are for the aroma impression it provides. It seems like I take the biggest point deductions in flavor and overall impression, while scoring almost flawless in all other categories. There's never any comments about the hops, usually just picking on the malt profile.
Taking all of this into consideration, I'm going to tweak the grain bill a bit and make the color a tad bit darker and drop the ABV a little, as follows:
74% American 2 Row
18% Munich
8% Crystal 10
This will raise the SRM up by almost a full point and drop the OG and lower the ABV. I'm also going to split batches and ferment one with US05 and try an english yeast in the other. I think the excess alcohol in the beer was contributing to a dry mouthfeel. I still don't get what the "crispness" factor is. I always attributed a "crisp" flavor/mouthfeel to being well balanced and having a somewhat dry character to a beer. I must be wrong. Anyway, hoping to see what the malt profile and yeast changes do.
Also going to tweak some of the hop profile a bit. Going to back down some of the citra and mosaic, keeping amarillo where it is, and bumping up simcoe additions. In my opinion, I think most people (and judges) will identify with a more pronounced simcoe character in a pale ale.
