Small batch cascade pale ale

[chase]

I was just hangin' around a little bit ago, with nothing to do, and I decided to try my hand at creating my own recipe. I wanted to use stuff I had on hand. This is what I came up with (pale ale):

3.15lbs light organic LME
.75lbs light DME
0.75oz cascade hops (bittering)
0.25oz cascade hops (aroma)
Safale s-04

3 gallons
OG: 1.049
SRM: 7.4
IBU: 32.4

I want to try the "late extract" method.

Any thoughts? Will this be hoppy enough? Should I dry hop?

 

[Brett0424]

Well right now I'd normally say do not waste cascade on bittering but since it's only 3 gallons and you already have it...it doesn't look bad. You might want to add amber extract or a crystal malt for that american pale ale color and malt flavor but as is it looks like a nice drinkable light pale ale. The late extract method will only reduce your color, but if that's what you want do it. The 04 yeast is an interesting choice and I'd like to hear how it turns out on a pale ale. It won't be as clean and crisp as your average apa but should be good. Any reason you don't have flavor hops?

 

[Yooper]

I love cascade hops, but I'd do the additions at 15 minutes and 5 minutes (or dryhop) with them, and use a different bittering hop if you have one. You'll get very little bittering from them, as they are probably not very high AAU. What is the AAU percentage on yours?

 

[chase]

They are 5.9%AA, yoop. The only other bittering hop I had was summit (17.9%) but I didn't want to use that because I'm using it for another batch, next weekend.

I'm planning on dry hopping w/ 1/2oz. cascade.

I ended up being too bored to resist making this last night. Everything went really well. It was the first time I had done the late extract method. This seems to make sense b/c you get better hop utilization, and less caramelization of the extract. I can't think of a downside.

I thought the S-04 was an interesting idea too. I looked up the spec sheet for it from Fermentis and everything seemed okay. With 70-75% attenuation and high flocculation, I thought it would be good because I'm not planning on using a secondary.

BTW, this was my first brew of '08!

 

[Orfy]

It looks fine to me. I think I'd want to up the IPA a little though. (Personal preference thing)

 

[chase]

I opened up the fermentor today to get a gravity reading. It is only down to 1.018, which is still higher than it should be. I was expecting something closer to 1.013. F'ing A.

It has a very distinct caramel flavor. I'm going to stir up the yeast a little, although I don't expect that to do much. I'll give it another week, and then bottle it. It isn't bad, just under attenuated.

EDIT: After giving it a little swirl, the airlock has started bubbling again about once every 20 seconds. It looks like the "highly flocculant" S-04 flocculated a little too early. (He says as he sighs a breath of relief and wipes the sweat from his forehead)