Pale Ale - 1st Recipe ?'s

[silver02ws6]

Wanted to run this by the board and get some feedback. This is my first recipe and first all grain run so any and all advice is welcome.

Style - Pale Ale
batch Size 11 Gallon - Assuming gallong lost to fermenter etc

19lbs 12.9oz Pale Malt 2 row
1lb 1.5oz

Hops
2.17oz cascade - 60 minute
.54 oz Citra 60 min
.54 oz Citra 2 minute

Mash in 7.18 gallons at 168.2 aiming for 156 Mash Temp.
Mash 45 minutes according to Beer smith.. Shouldn't it be 60 minutes?

Batch Sparge 2 steps

1st step 2.18 Gal at 168
2nd Step 6.61 gallons at 168

As i said this is my first all grain and its on our new eHERMS setup. My assumption is that once my grain bed is settled and I lower the HLT to 156 I can start circulating keeping the water just above the grain bed and adjust the flow to keep it there? Should i stop the recirculation and let the temp come up to the 168 for mash out or keep it circulating as it comes up? Any advice here for a newbie in general? while i "understand" in theory im sure practice will be very different.

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[chickypad]

What is the 1 lb 1.5 oz? There is no malt listed. For simplicity I'd just round it, 20 lb of 2-row and 1 lb of I assume some specialty malt. That's pretty light finishing hops with just a half oz of flavor/aroma for an 11 gal APA (I assume APA, what yeast?).

You'll generally want your HLT hotter than your actual target temps or it will take forever to raise the temp, as with a mash step or mash out (or may never get there with temp losses in the system). I don't know what others do but I keep my HLT in the low 170s for mash temp adjustments and raise it up to 180 at least for mash out. Aren't you fly sparging with the HERMS?
edit: just saw you've got an electric set up, you're probably talking temps coming out of the herms coil not the HLT actual so disregard

 

[silver02ws6]

so the 1lb is crystal malt. 20l i belive is what i put in Beersmith.

The HLT temp is 168.2 so basically 170 prior to mash in to get a target of 156. Yes you are correct it would be a fly sparge.... i forgot to change that in Beersmith.

 

[chickypad]

Looks good then, though I'd personally up the finishing hops if you're aiming for a typical APA. For comparison a 3 gal citra/mosaic APA I did not too long ago had 0.5oz additions at 5/0/and dry hop - so 3 times what you've got on your 11 gal batch. It was good hop character but not crazy over the top or anything.

 

[silver02ws6]

I played around with it a little and have

1.75oz of Cascade for 60
1.5 oz of Citra for 20
1 oz of Citra at 0

and assume dry hoping with citra would be a good idea at 1 oz.

Thoughts?

 

[chickypad]

I like the looks of that better, if the IBU's are in line. I think a 1-2 oz dry hop sounds like a good idea.

 

[Chadzilla]

The cascade is going to be a real subtle bitterness, maybe Columbus for a small decent battering charge? I have bittered with cascade at 2oz 60min mark and just didn't get the desired charge I would of liked unlike using columbus or chinook, but looks like a nice recipe with the later additions fixed. Cheers