Pale ale tastes like Blue Moon?!?!

[safedude]

So I made what I thought to be an APA (recipe from homebrew kit store). After fermenting out and kegging, I poured a glass and it was not what I was expecting. It wasn't bad at all (in fact quite good), but it certainly did not taste like an American Pale Ale. It tasted more like a hefe or bluemoon - reminiscent of Hoegaarden in every way (color, lack of clarity, taste, aroma). Slightly sweet aftertaste with dominate citrus notes (from the dry hops probably).

My question is: What the heck did I brew? Is it possible to take a recipe for one style and make a different style?

Recipe:

5 Gallons - fermented at 64 degrees - 2 weeks
OG: 1.051 , FG 1.010 (hit on day 5)

6.5# Pale LME
8 oz Corn Sugar
8 oz Crystal 40L
8oz Wheat flakes
0.25 oz Columbus (60 min)
1 oz cascade (20 min)
0.75 oz Columbus (0 min)

1 packet us-05 yeast
Dry hopped with 2 oz Citra (4 days)

 

[HollywoodTK]

Color, I'd say it's just because that's what you designed it to be with the grain bill.

Clarity, the wheat didn't help, nor the big dry hop.

Taste...I'm not sure. Could be the wheat, could be the water you used. I would normally think mash pH, but given that you used LME, that's not really an issue.

Citrus notes come from using 2 ounces of citra...It's a pretty powerful hop and will impart lots of flavor. I imagine that's a big part of what you are tasting.

 

[mattdee1]

I've got a blonde ale that is 75% 2-row and 25% Vienna, fermented with S-05, that also has some "unexpected" flavors that remind me of the ester/phenol yeast character of a wit beer. It's not strong (or bad, by any means) but it's definitely there.

I've used S-05 many times on very similar beers and never had this happen. As well, I should mention that the other half of the same batch was fermented with Bry97 and it has none of those unexpected flavors at all.

So, it looks like we have anecdotal evidence that this is just something that happens with S-05. On my end, the fermentation temperature control went a bit funky (too low on the first night) then was brought back up. That is probably the cause.

 

[Morrey]

US-05 will flocculate and clear nicely if you'll lager your keg at cold temps and give it adequate time to condition. Sounds to me that you may be sampling it young.

Your hop bill suggests "citrus forward", so unless you back off on that part, including the dry hop portion, you'll continue to get beers that have strong citrus notes. BTW, what IBU did this kit say you'll get?

Just my .02, but I learned to begin modifying my hop bill to suit my tastes when I used to buy kits. Cascade, Centennial and Columbus are the big "C" hops which mean CITRUS in my book. You can tone them down and sub out a more easy going hop if you choose. Just because a kit contains something doesn't mean you have to use it per se.

 

[safedude]

Thanks for all of the info, guys! So, this may be a dumb question since you're not here drinking it, but based on my post - would you consider this beer to have turned out to be an APA, or something else? I wan't to be able to say to myself, "This beer I'm drinking is a/an .. X".

 

[Bosh]

Recipe looks fine. How much time did you give it? US05 can take some time to drop out.

 

[Morrey]

Thanks for all of the info, guys! So, this may be a dumb question since you're not here drinking it, but based on my post - would you consider this beer to have turned out to be an APA, or something else? I wan't to be able to say to myself, "This beer I'm drinking is a/an .. X".

Try a trial version of a program called Beer Smith. Plug in the recipe from your kit and see how closely it falls into the Pale Ale profile. Beer Smith can tell you gravities, color, IBU and related values from the data you input. It is a really neat program and I use it all the time to create recipes and/or modify AG kits and existing recipes. It serves for extract brews too. This will better serve telling you if you are in the parameters of a particular beer's profile.

 

[boydster]

That's a lot of wheat for an APA. You're probably close to an American Wheat Beer, although I wouldn't really worry about trying to put this beer into a category unless you want to enter it into a competition. If it's good, take it as it is.