Critique my pale ale

[discokid2k]

So here is a recipe I made a few months back. Going to make it again for my personal keg. Just wondered what others thought.

9.5# 2-row
.5# Red wheat
.5# munich light
.25 # C20
.25# C60
2 oz Victory

Hop Schedule
.5 Northern Brewer 90min
.75 cascade 45 min
.5 cascade 15 min
.5 cascade 5 min
.75 Northern Brewer flameout
2 oz chinook 4 days,

14 days in primary
Add dry hop on day 14 for 4 days.

I originally used wyeast 1056.

Mash temp 152*- 5.5 gal batch.
FG 1.008
OG 1.050
Expected of was 1.052

I let it sit in The keg about two weeks before temptation got the better of me. This time I am going to use wyeast Greenbelt available through Austin home brew. I have used it many times in hoppy beers with great outcomes.

My first batch fermented at 67* and cold crashed for two weeks at 36*. Just wondering what others thought. My first thought on the original batch when first tasted was slightly too hoppy but after a few days it mellowed out and had a great balance.

Any thoughts?

 

[Pappers_]

That looks really nice. I might consider experimenting with moving some of the Chinook to the boil and some of the Cascade to the dry hop. Also, the Greenbelt yeast sounds really interesting, I'd not heard about that strain before. I might try it - thanks for the heads up!

 

[m00ps]

i agree with shifting the hop additions a bit. 45 and 30min additions are a complete waste IME. You are better off adjusting your bittering addition a bit and saving the rest of it for flameout. This will also give more hop character without imparting as much bitterness

 

[discokid2k]

That looks really nice. I might consider experimenting with moving some of the Chinook to the boil and some of the Cascade to the dry hop. Also, the Greenbelt yeast sounds really interesting, I'd not heard about that strain before. I might try it - thanks for the heads up!

The Greenbelt strain is only available from Austin Homebrew, from what I've seen. I like it a lot. I have used it a lot since it came out sometime last year. I really liked the first batch. The only tasting notes I wrote were simple..."tastes great!". Greenbelt cleans up well after itself, minimal esters and enhances hop favors so it has become a staple in my hoppy beers lately.

I played with additions on previous test batches and came out with this which seems to work nicely. The last one I used C40 vs the C60, but they are close enough so I don't think it will matter. The wheat helped give a nice body. Let me know if you make a variant, I would like to hear how it came out/what you changed.

 

[discokid2k]

i agree with shifting the hop additions a bit. 45 and 30min additions are a complete waste IME. You are better off adjusting your bittering addition a bit and saving the rest of it for flameout. This will also give more hop character without imparting as much bitterness

I have actually had pretty decent results with 30/45 min additions. I have another beer I've perfected that I first wort hop, then follow with a 60/30/flameout schedule that has been a favorite of my friends. I have made a few variants of it but I've stuck with the original because it gave the best flavor. The last batch of it I split into two batches to see how first wort hopping vs dry hopping affected the end result.

I can post that recipe if you would care to see it.

 

[12thHoleBrewer]

Sure, go ahead and post it. I brewed a batch recently and tried first wort hopping for the first time. I'm curious to see what others do.

 

[discokid2k]

Sure, go ahead and post it. I brewed a batch recently and tried first wort hopping for the first time. I'm curious to see what others do.

I call it Sierra Nasty... Don't hate on the name. It was inspired by Sierra Nevada and my college nickname, nasty.

10# 2 row
.5# Honey many
.5# C60
.5# Carapils

60 min mash, shoot for lower mash temp. 148-150. I averaged 148. Think session-able.

1oz centennial@60 min
.5 cascade@30 min
.5 cascade@5min

I've used multiple yeasts for this, wlp299, wyeast Greenbelt, wyeast 1056. 299 added a citrus tone to it but just wasn't right, Greenbelt did what I wanted, minimal esters and clean beer, wyeast added what I thought was floral tones, not bad.
OG 1.051
FG 1.012
Made @ 5.5 gal but got closer to 5.15

Where I deviated: ran complete mash and sparge, and then split into equal 3 gal batches. One batch I added .3oz of centennial for 30 min while heating to boil.
Then did an equal addition into each pot:
.5 centennial @ 60 min
.5 cascade @30min
.5 cascade @ 5 min

Add dry hops, .25oz cascade @ 14 days to fermenter without first wort hop.
Each brew prior to and after was treated the same. Placed into secondary @14 days, fermented at 67*, cold crashed and legged after a month.

First wort hop brew was smooth. Very hoppy but restrained and delicate. The dry hop beer had the hop bite, pungent but still very tasty. Myfriendslikedthedry hop better but I liked how smooth the first wort hop beer came out.