Critique my American Pale Ale

[MrBrown]

American pale ale. 1 gallon.
1lb 12.8oz 2 row,
8oz C 40L,
4oz Carapils
.1oz Cascade @ 60
.3oz Cascade @ 30
1/2tsp Irish moss @ 15
1/8tsp yeast nutrient @ 15
.15oz Willamette @ 0
1/2 safale s-05

I think i may have put a bit more than half packet when i made it.

 

[MrBrown]

Some pics from brew day

 

[BridgeBrew]

well you will definitely have a huge caramel flavor in there with that much c40. That would be 2.5 pound of c40 in a five gallon batch!! BUT that doesn't mean it wont be delicious, just rich.

 

[MrBrown]

I think i did that to fix the color.

 

[chickypad]

And with the carapils that's almost 30% crystal. Hopefully it doesn't finish too high for you.

 

[stpug]

One MAJOR problem with your brewday:
You're gonna have to smile bigger if you want sufficient aeration!!

Critique: My brain doesn't work well in 1 gallon batches so bare with me. I'd scale back the crystal and carapils both a bit (3 oz and 1.5 oz respectively). I think the IBUs need to come up by a good amount (maybe double). Otherwise, you should be good.

 

[BrewWNC]

I agree with the others. It may turn out a little sweet/rich and the IBUs may be a little low. Stpugs suggestion is close to what I would change.

But if that is what you like than no worries. Unless you are competing in competitions there is no need to worry about the color and the beer style guidelines. Brewing your own beer and creating your own recipes is about experimentation and making beer you like.

Personally, I would dry hop and would not use the yeast nutrient. You just dont need a nutrient. Some might disagree but I have never used a yeast nutrient and have never had a problem with any yeast even without a starter. By the way, I love Safale 05-its a awesome yeast (good choice) for a pale ale. Though, I would suggest a starter though.

Dry hopping adds a ton of aroma. If it will fit, I suggest using leaf hops in a muslin bag with marbles(so the hops sink)-its easier to clean this way. If this wont fit, just dump the whole leaf hops or pellets in there and filter when you bottle.

 

[chickypad]

By the way, I love Safale 05-its a awesome yeast (good choice) for a pale ale. Though, I would suggest a starter though.

Did you mean re-hydrating as it's a dry yeast? There may be some harm to doing an actual starter with dry yeast, at least as explained here. Anyway, OP had a 1 gallon batch so a little over 1/2 packet should be plenty even without rehydrating.

 

[MrBrown]

I'd like to try dry hopping on this one. i'm just not sure which and how much hops to use. Maybe .4oz Willamette??? It's been in primary since Thursday so call it 6 days before i switch to secondary. I appreciate your input and am all for learning through this and many more experiences. Again i greatly appreciate the input.

 

[stpug]

0.4 oz willamette dry hop sounds like a reasonable amount, although I've never dry hopped with willamette but it should fit the profile of the beer. Although it won't directly affect the bitterness of the beer it's perception can slightly affect the bitterness.

In case you find the bitter too lacking (or sweet too much) in this beer you can boil up a small amount of bittering hops in plain water and create a bitter hop tea (30+ minutes of boiling), and then cool it and keep it sanitary. You can then slowly add this to your brew (ounce by ounce), mixing and tasting after each addition until you've reached an appropriate level for your liking. Just keep the mixing smooth and steady so as not to introduce additional oxygen.

And remember, your next batch is always better than the batch you're drinking.... and your neighbors grass is always greener too!!

 

[BrewWNC]

Yeah sorry I meant rehydrate.

 

[Moose1231]

The problem with that is you made only 1 gallon!

 

[MrBrown]

Thinking out loud since i'm gonna go through the effort to transfer to secondary and dry hop i might as well add some oak chips. No? Thoughts?

 

[MrBrown]

Went with .2oz of Willamette. First time dry hopping. I pray for no infection. Used a whiskey stone instead of a marble.

 

[stpug]

It's looking good. I'm eager to hear your synopsis once you give it a taste. Particularly, I'm interested in the "sweet" factor and if you feel it's too much. Anyway, looks like you omitted the oak which is probably a good thing just to keep it simple. Assuming you let that whiskey stone sit in some sanitizer for a while you are probably good.

BTW, what is your impression of those whiskey stones? I've used them twice on some neat bourbon but felt like they "did" something to the bourbon. I haven't used them since. They are pretty cool though (pun intended ).

 

[MrBrown]

It's been 8 days since initially pitching the yeast. 2 days after switching to secondary i see no noticable pressure inside the fermenter from my S-airlock. I turned off the fan on my swamp cooler to slightly raise the temp. I plan to leave it in secondary for two weeks. We'll see what happens.

As for the Whiskey Stones i too noticed it imparts a taste on my scotch. I stopped using them because they never really stay cold for long.

 

[stpug]

Intrigued about how this turned out. Do you have an update for us yet? Hopefully it's all good!!

 

[MrBrown]

Bottled yesterday. Whiskey stone was a bad idea. Trying to get my dry hop apparatus out of the 1 gallon jug was impossible without cutting the hop bag and washing out the hops. I was on a rush and forgot to taste it. I had saved the yeast slurry in the fridge from when I racked to secondary. Being experimentative I poured off the wort from the top of the now compacted slurry into my last bottle to see what would happen. Altogether 9 bottles. I plan to let them carb up for 3 weeks then taste. I put the experiment bottle in a ziplock bag then in a plastic bottle and then in the second bathroom. Just in case I made a bomb. I'll report back with tasting results

 

[stpug]

It sounds and looks like it's working out nicely. Do you have another already brewing?

 

[MrBrown]

Haven't brewed anything yet but i'm looking at brewing a magic hat #9 clone when i come back from vacation in Jamaica. I managed to talk to someone at Red Stripe Brewery to get a tour. :rockin:

 

[MrBrown]

It only took 8 weeks for me to figure out I didn't mess it up. Slight but noticeable bready mouthfeel no off flavors I can detect. Dry hopping brings it closer to an IPA but not an overwhelming aroma. Carapils didn't help with head retention as I had hoped. Good brew easy drinking.

 

[stpug]

I'm glad to hear that the amount of crystal didn't render this batch overly sweet; that's good to know actually. Maybe my eyes are deceiving me but I swear I see almost an inch of head on your beer. Now that you have one success in your basket it's time to add a few more (i.e. time to get brewing )