What am I doing?

[MBM30075]

So, I've got a recipe put together with the help of my LHBS owner.

Here are the ingredients:
1 3.3 lb. can of Munton's Plain Extra Light Extract (unhopped)
2 1 lb. bags of Munton's Extra Light DME
2 lbs. crushed American 2-row Grain (Briess)
1 lb. crushed Munich (light) Grain
.5 lbs. crushed Carapils (Dextrine) Grain - Briess
.5 lbs. crushed Crystal Grain - 10L - Briess
1 oz. Cluster Hop pellets (for bittering)
1 oz. Cascade Hop pellets (for flavor and aroma)
Safale US-05 (#56) American Ale Yeast (dry)

Target OG: about 1.050
Target FG: about 1.012
Target SRM: about 7
Target ABV: about 5.6%
Target IBUs: about 30-32

So, I've got a couple of questions about this brew.

1. What do you think? My goal is a tasty, decently hoppy (but not overly so) American Pale Ale.
2. What am I doing? Is it still extract since I'm using extract? Is it partial mash? Is this "intermediate" level brewing yet?
3. I had played around and made up a similar recipe on a website, but had my original modified fairly extensively. Here's what I had:

Same can of LME
Same bags of DME
Same 2 lbs. of 2-Row
2 lbs. of Caramel Pils
None of the other grains
Nottingham dry yeast

Why did he tell me that the carapils was too high? What effect would that have had? Why did he add the Munich and Crystal grains? What about switching the yeast?

I know I should have asked him these questions, but he was in a hurry and so was I.

Can anyone help?

 

[2bluewagons]

I'm sure someone more experienced than me will chime in here, but this looks like a partial mash (or intermediate as you say) recipe. Although if your, OG is really supposed to be 1.050, then that assumes a roughly 35% efficiency on the grain portion. You might be able to get that kind of efficiency by just steeping the grains for 30 minutes, so maybe your LHBS owner was trying to give you a PM recipe that you could do similar to an extract with specialty grains recipe. If you maybe heard him wrong, an OG of 1.060 would be closer to the ABV you provided, and would assume an efficiency above 60%, which should be easily do-able using DeathBrewers brew in a bag PM stovetop method.

Either way, you are going to need a way to steep/mash 4lb of grain.

Not sure what to tell you on the hops, it will depend on if you are doing partial or full boil, late extract addition, etc. but seems like it would fit the bill of not-too-hoppy. It'd be best to run your recipe through that website you were talking about (beercalculus?) to get a good idea of when to add the hops.

Good luck, and again I'm still a noob myself, so wait for some more advice before trusting me

 

[BarleyWater]

OK, the recipe looks fine, not too hoppy, but a good Pale Ale. Make sure you don't add that cascade till the end of the boil, or you won't get any flavor or aroma out of it, add the cluster at the very beginning.

What you have there is definitely a partial mash, which means it is going to take a little more work on you part. The 2-row and munich malts must both be mashed, or you will end up with a starchy hazy beer in the end. To do this, just make sure that you hold the grains in the 150s for about an hour with about 1.5qts of water per pound of malt, with as little temp fluctuation as possible. You are going to need a way to separate the grains from the liquid, a large grain bag will work fine. After letting it sit for an hour, remove the grains and rinse them with 170F water to get to you desired boil volume.

Carapils is an unfermentable malt, that is used mainly to add body to the beer, 2lbs of carapils would make the beer damn near chewy. The other grains he added will add some complexity to the flavor of the beer, and the yeast he gave you is more appropriate for an American style of beer (although Nottingham can be used on almost anything).

Check out these links for a better understanding of what the partial mashing process entails.
Countertop Partial Mashing
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/