Pale Ale Recipe - First Design - What do you think?

[ParkerCantLose]

My first recipe that I've fully designed myself. I used Beer Smith to put the build together and decided on the hops because I was given some Simcoe and Apollo.

What do you guys think?


Pale Ale

0.50 oz Burton Water Salts (Mash 60.0 mins)

9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US

1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L

4.0 oz Biscuit Malt 0.50 oz Apollo - Boil 45.0 min

Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)

0.50 oz Simcoe - Boil 15.0 min

0.50 oz Simcoe - Boil 10.0 min

0.50 oz Simcoe - Boil 0.0 min

1.0 pkg Lallemand BRY-97 American West Coast Ale Yeast

1.00 oz Simcoe - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop

 

[masskrug]

An all-Simcoe pale ale? It looks good to me. Have you ever tasted Simcoe before? It is quite "pungent." I love 'em, but others do not care for them.

Why did you decide to bitter at 45 minutes? Is this a 45 minute boil? How many IBUs is this recipe?

I'd dry hop for a week.

 

[ParkerCantLose]

I chose to bitter at 45 for no good reason, i just wanted to see what would happen. The bittering is apollo, so its not all simcoe. i also was trying to keep the ibu's down a little and not take it out of style, and pushing the bittering to 45 minutes dropped the ibu's into APA style guidelines.

 

[Psycotte]

Using Brewer's friend I see you are high in IBU for the style even with the 45 minute bittering. Check my inputs though as I sometimes mess up.

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Pale Ale

Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: American Pale Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.25 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 7.5 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.035
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: 1.014
ABV (standard): 4.73%
IBU (tinseth): 60.58
SRM (morey): 11.05

FERMENTABLES:
9 lb - American - Pale Ale (87.8%)
1 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 60L (9.8%)
4 oz - Belgian - Biscuit (2.4%)

HOPS:
0.5 oz - Apollo, Type: Pellet, AA: 20, Use: Boil for 45 min, IBU: 38
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 13.04
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 9.53
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 0 min
1 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Dry Hop for 3 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 152 F, Time: 60 min

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 each - whirfloc, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil
1 each - Burton Water Salts, Time: 60 min, Type: Water Agt, Use: Mash

YEAST:
Danstar - American West Coast Yeast BRY-97
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 72%
Flocculation: High
Optimum Temp: 62 - 75 F
Fermentation Temp: 65 F
Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / deg P)

TARGET WATER PROFILE:
Profile Name: Burton on Trent (historic)
Ca2: 270
Mg2: 41
Na: 113
Cl: 85
SO4: 720
HCO3: 270
Water Notes:


Generated by Brewer's Friend - http://www.brewersfriend.com/
Date: 2013-12-20 15:26 UTC
Recipe Last Updated: 2013-12-20 15:26 UTC

 

[RonPopeil]

yeah your IBU's are whacky.

realistically you're not shaving much IBU by moving the bittering to 45. i would adjust to .25oz of apollo at 60.

 

[BeerGrylls]

Unless you want this to be more like a session IPA, I would back off that crystal by quite a bit. ~10% is pretty high in a pale. 11 SRM puts it more in the amber/esb range. Then again, I like my pales pretty pale.

 

[Psycotte]

yeah your IBU's are whacky.

realistically you're not shaving much IBU by moving the bittering to 45. i would adjust to .25oz of apollo at 60.

Yep. That will bring the IBU's into style guidelines.

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Pale Ale

Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: American Pale Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.25 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 7.5 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.035
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: 1.014
ABV (standard): 4.73%
IBU (tinseth): 43.27
SRM (morey): 11.05

FERMENTABLES:
9 lb - American - Pale Ale (87.8%)
1 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 60L (9.8%)
4 oz - Belgian - Biscuit (2.4%)

HOPS:
0.25 oz - Apollo, Type: Pellet, AA: 20, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 20.7
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 13.04
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 9.53
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 0 min
1 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Dry Hop for 3 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 152 F, Time: 60 min

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 each - whirfloc, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil
1 each - Burton Water Salts, Time: 60 min, Type: Water Agt, Use: Mash

YEAST:
Danstar - American West Coast Yeast BRY-97
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 72%
Flocculation: High
Optimum Temp: 62 - 75 F
Fermentation Temp: 65 F
Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / deg P)

TARGET WATER PROFILE:
Profile Name: Burton on Trent (historic)
Ca2: 270
Mg2: 41
Na: 113
Cl: 85
SO4: 720
HCO3: 270
Water Notes:


Generated by Brewer's Friend - http://www.brewersfriend.com/
Date: 2013-12-20 16:08 UTC
Recipe Last Updated: 2013-12-20 16:08 UTC

 

[Jayhem]

What is your OG? If it's close to 1.050-1.055 you don't want more than 40 IBU's if you don't want it too bitter. My house pale ale is OG 1.050 and 34 IBU's and it's perfect! Nice aroma, plenty of body, bitter enough to be an APA without making it a harsh drinker. A malt I really love in my pales is Vienna and/or Munich. I use about 25% of one or the other and stick with 5% Crystal 60. Yields a nice deep blonde, light copper color.

 

[ParkerCantLose]

Thanks for the advice. I realized the IBU's were high for the style, but according to my BeerSmith calcs I was right on the edge (maybe a little high for style)

As for the brew day, I started this morning and I had a stuck mash that was a total mess. My steel braid gave me problems last time and this time it served only to screw up everything....I guess its time for a false bottom (any recommendations would be appreciated, I use a 10 gal round home depot mash tun). I ended up having to pull pitchers from the top and pour through a strainer.

Anyway, my OG ended up really low as a result of the stuck mash, which drastically reduced my efficiency, something like 1.020 (maybe i'll get luck and my hydrometer is totally off - although I'm not sure if that's lucky). I was too depressed to care what the reading actually was at that point.

This was just one of those bad brew days, couldn't hit numbers, stuck mash, etc. I pitched the yeast anyway and we'll see, but I don't have high hopes. I should have invested in the false bottom as I was somewhat expecting this.