House Pale recipe help

[KraphtBier]

I'm planning on brewing another batch of pale this weekend to rebuild my shattered pipeline and I wanted to see what the folks had to say bout the tweaks I made. The recipe is for an APA and is as follows:

5.5gal batch
Expected OG: 1.058
Expected FG: 1.014
SRM: 8.4
IBUs: 44.2
Efficiency: 75%

10lbs Crisp 2-row
1lbs Weyermann Light Munich
.5lbs Briess Crystal 60
4oz Light Brown Sugar (added at flame-out)
1oz Chinook 11.9%aa 60min (36.8 IBUs)
1oz Cascade 6.6%aa 10min (7.4 IBUs)
1oz Cascade 6.6%aa 0 min (flame-out addition)
.5 Whirlfloc added at 10 min
1 package Lallemand Nottingham ale yeast (rehydrated)

The grainbill is milled and ready, I'm up in the air on the brown sugar but I thought it would be fun to see how it plays with a smaller beer (I've used it in my barleywine and liked it). Any constructive criticism, jokes, and/or humerous ancedotes are appreciated.

 

[BrewKnurd]

Any ... jokes... are appreciated.

What's brown and sticky?

 

[BierMuncher]

Not sure how the brown sugar plays out. Like the grain bill and hop schedule. Feels like a beer that ought to mash at 154 degrees for 60 minutes. I prefer safale 05 for my ales, but that's a personal choice. I would skip the sugar, but that's the purest in me.

 

[KraphtBier]

@ discnjh - Dunno man, let's here it!

@ BierMuncher - I was gonna go with S-05 as it is my favorite dry yeast but my LHBS was out. I decided Notty was my next best option and I haven't used it since they changed the packaging (shiny new things draw my attention easily ). The brown sugar idea derives from the fact that I have a ton of it laying around after holiday baking and I was looking for a little bump in the alcohol department. Might skip it though and just stick with the malts for fermentables. Thanks for the advice on the mash temp and time. I will definitely take that into consideration.

 

[BrewKnurd]

@ discnjh - Dunno man, let's here it!

A stick!

 

[KraphtBier]

I see what you did there....very nice!

 

[KraphtBier]

Brewed it up today sans the brown sugar and hit my projected gravity dead on (1.054). I pitched the Notty a little warm but hopefully the cold night air will finish bringing the temps down to where i want it before fermentation really kicks in and raises the temps.

 

[KraphtBier]

Bottled last monday after a 7 day dry hop. Good beer! Its still a bit green but the flavor is oh so nice, the hops balance the slight malt sweetness of the crystal/munich very nicely. As this brew ages it will improve tremendously. All in all one of the most easy drinking beers I've ever brewed. This recipe will continue to be refined but I feel that I'm closer to perfecting my house pale than ever before.

 

[KraphtBier]

Instead of starting a new thread I thought I'd post here. Summer is coming up quick and I want to reformulate my house pale for easy drinking during the heat. The munich makes the current rendition a bit malty and I'm lacking a strong citrus punch from the hop schedule I've been using. Lil Sumpin Sumpin is one of my favorite beers and I'm shooting for something a little lower gravity with a similar hop aroma and flavor. I realize my grainbill is crazy different, but this is what I have on hand and I think it looks pretty tasty. The recipe isn't finalized yet, just posting here for some critique.

9lbs 2-row (Breiss)
3lbs Vienna (Weyermann)
0.5lb Carastan 30L (Hugh Baird)
0.5oz Colombus 12.5%aa 60 min
0.5oz Colombus 12.5%aa 30 min
1oz Amarillo 7.2%aa dry hop 14 days
1oz Citra 12.2%aa dry hop 14 days
1oz Cascade 6.4%aa dry hop 14 days
0.5 Whirlfloc tablet 15 min
13 grams S-04

Ferment at 62F for 21 days.

Thoughts?