Deschutes River Ale - recipe critique requested

[fosaisu]

I really enjoy Deschute's River Ale, couldn't believe that a session ale had so much going on flavor-wise when I tried it. I took a hack at a clone recipe and would love some feedback!

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 1187 (Ringwood Ale), 1.5L starter
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Est. Original Gravity: 1.041
Est. Final Gravity: 1.011
Est. ABV: 4%
IBU: 28.4
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 34.1

Grain:
7 lb American 2 Row
12 oz Carapils
8 oz Caramel malt
8 oz Munich malt


Mash @ 150 for 60 minutes.

Hops:
60 min.: .3 oz Nugget
40 min: .5 oz Crystal
20 min: .5 oz Crystal
10 min: .5 oz Cascade
Dryhop: .5 oz Cascade


Fermentation:
- oxygenate (O2 wand @ 1LMP for 2 mins)
- 64 degrees for seven days
- ramp up to 70 degrees for diactyl rest
- cold crash at 18 days

 

[fosaisu]

Bump - anyone have thoughts on this before I buy ingredients? Will post my results regardless!

 

[Juno_Malone]

Looks pretty good to me! My only thoughts would be, I'm not a huge fan of 40min hop additions. Or really any between 20min and 59min. Personally I'd go with:

0.25oz Crystal @ 15min
0.25oz Cascade @ 15min
0.5oz Crystal @ 5min
0.5oz Cascade @ 5min
0.25oz Crystal @ dry hop
0.25oz Cascade @ dry hop

And then adjust the Nugget accordingly to keep your IBUs in line with Deschutes' numbers. Also, I don't think you really need to do a diacetyl rest for ales. But ramping up to 70F after a couple weeks in the mid sixties is never a bad idea to help the yeast clean up after themselves. Good luck with the brew!

 

[fosaisu]

UPDATE

Here's the final recipe I went with last year (tweaked slightly from the first post):
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 1187 (Ringwood Ale), 1.5L starter
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Est. Original Gravity: 1.041
Est. Final Gravity: 1.011
Est. ABV: 4%
IBU: 28.4
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 34.1

Grain:
7 lb American Pale Malt
12 oz Carapils
8 oz Caramel malt
8 oz Munich malt 10L


Mash @ 150F for 60 minutes.

Hops:
60 min.: .35 oz Nugget (13.3% AA)
15 min: .25 oz Cascade (7.1% AA) / .25 oz Crystal (3.7% AA)
5 min: .5 oz Cascade (7.1% AA) / .5 oz Crystal (3.7% AA)
dry hop: .25 oz Cascade (7.1% AA) / .25 oz Crystal (3.7% AA)

Fermentation:
- oxygenate (O2 wand @ 1LMP for 2 mins)
- 64 degrees for seven days
- ramp up to 70 degrees for diactyl rest
- cold crash at 18 days


I was quite pleased with how the beer came out. My tasting notes were that it was a little dry and slightly less hop character compared to the commercial beer, so next time I'll:

• bump mash temp to 152F
• up the 5 min and/or dry hop additions (maybe .75 each variety at 5 mins and .5 each variety in dry hop)