pale ale recipe

[debtman7]

Ok this weekend I need to do a pale ale. Ingredient wise they are all pretty similar, except the hops. Can anyone offer some tips on hops? What I'm looking for is something like Three Floyds Alpha King or our local micro brew, Columbus Pale Ale. Basically these beers are nicely balance, not overly bitter, but they have a whole lot of citrus/piney hop flavor and aroma. If you've ever had three floyds, that's pretty much what I want. A lot of pale ales tend to be pretty mildly hoppy and I'm not sure what I want to do to get that citrus/pine intensity without making them overly bitter.

Any tips or recipes that might get me close? Should I dry hop? I'm assuming since I want to keep a balance with a lot of flavor and aroma, I need to pick some appropriate hops and do a big 20 minute addition and flame out addition, but I'm not sure what hop varieties or amounts are best for this sort of flavor.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I haven't had those, but citrusy/piney is frequently a Chinook/Cascade beer. Bitter with Chinook, flavor and aroma with Cascade. Dryhopping is up to you. Set your bittering to around 0.8-0.9 BU:GU (for my tastes), make a 15-20 minute addition of Cascade to get your IBU's where you want them, and then toss in a full ounce of Cascade at 0 minutes.

 

[Walker]

IMHO, Northern Brewer lends a piney taste, too.

 

[debtman7]

I haven't had those, but citrusy/piney is frequently a Chinook/Cascade beer. Bitter with Chinook, flavor and aroma with Cascade. Dryhopping is up to you. Set your bittering to around 0.8-0.9 BU:GU (for my tastes), make a 15-20 minute addition of Cascade to get your IBU's where you want them, and then toss in a full ounce of Cascade at 0 minutes.

I figured cascade, I have magnum in the freezer now so I was thinking of those for bittering, I've never used them before but several references mention them as being citrusy and floral. Three floyds says they use centennial, cascade and warrior. I don't have any centennial and warrior on hand, but they seem to have similar characteristics so I can stick to just cascade. No warrior either, but I think magnum would work ok for bittering.

I figure I'll brew it up and ferment it, sticking to around 60 IBU (three floyds says alpha king is 66). Then after primary if a sample isn't quite there yet, I can always throw in some more cascade to try hop.

 

[david_42]

Magnum is fine for bittering. You might want to use 1/2 oz. for flavoring as well. Dry hopping a Pale is always a good idea.

 

[debtman7]

Magnum is fine for bittering. You might want to use 1/2 oz. for flavoring as well. Dry hopping a Pale is always a good idea.

I might, the magnum are pretty potent though so maybe a few pellets for flavor

Another consideration as I'm trying to get my IBU's figured out, my beer software (BeerAlchemy) says that 1 oz of magnum hops with give me an IBU of 82 if I add all the extract at the end of the boil, but an IBU of 33 if I add the extract at the start of the boil. Is that actually right? The tastybrew.com calculator gave a similar result. Does the gravity of the boil really make that much of a difference?

 

[david_42]

Yes it does.

 

[SkaBoneBenny]

What are you using for a recipe for your Pale Ale? I'd like to try doing a Pale Ale with cascade hops, I just need a good base recipe.
-Ben

 

[debtman7]

What are you using for a recipe for your Pale Ale? I'd like to try doing a Pale Ale with cascade hops, I just need a good base recipe.
-Ben

Just a basic ale base, I figure most pale ale's are similar with the difference mostly being in the hopping. I'm planning 8 lbs of LME and 1 lb of crystal 60, fermenting with american ale yeast.

 

[chillHayze]

Just a basic ale base, I figure most pale ale's are similar with the difference mostly being in the hopping. I'm planning 8 lbs of LME and 1 lb of crystal 60, fermenting with american ale yeast.

Your brew might be a bit on the malty side, depending on the brand of LME. It sounds like you might want the emphasis moreso on the hops, maybe cut the LME down to 7lbs?

 

[debtman7]

Your brew might be a bit on the malty side, depending on the brand of LME. It sounds like you might want the emphasis moreso on the hops, maybe cut the LME down to 7lbs?

I don't mind malty, plus this is going to be a bit hoppier than the average APA, so I think the extra malt will be good to balance it out. I'm aiming for 50-60 IBU's.