Extra Pale Ale

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rodabod

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Hi,

I'm just cobbling a recipe together for what I guess might be called an extra pale ale. Or maybe a summer ale. Anyway, the aim is to be light in colour, have a soft (slightly viscous) mouthfeel with a little froth, and for the focus mainly to be on hop flavour without much yeast flavour. I'd also like it to taste slightly sweet, but in no way sickly.

This is what I've come up with so far....

Wheat and oats to thicken it a little, and give head retention. A little vienna for additional sweetness. Low colour maris otter to keep it light. I've had pale ales with Amarillo before and love it; bittering hops were chosen as Chinook as I have some spare and it would keep costs down.

Any comments welcomed. I've not brewed an ale in this style before.

Roddy



Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: American Pale Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 20 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 25 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.034
Efficiency: 75% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.042
Final Gravity: 1.009
ABV (standard): 4.33%
IBU (tinseth): 37.63
SRM (morey): 4.73

FERMENTABLES:
3 kg - United Kingdom - Low Colour Maris Otter Pale (83.3%)
0.2 kg - Torrified Wheat (5.6%)
0.2 kg - Flaked Oats (5.6%)
0.2 kg - German - Vienna (5.6%)

HOPS:
25 g - Chinook, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 13, Use: First Wort, IBU: 26.25
20 g - Amarillo, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 8.6, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 11.38
40 g - Amarillo, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 8.6, Use: Boil for 0 min
40 g - Amarillo, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 8.6, Use: Dry Hop for 5 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Temp: 69 C, Time: 60 min

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 81%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Temp: 12.22 - 25 C
Fermentation Temp: 19 C
Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / deg P)
 
Looks a good'un. I like quite a lot of wheat in these kinds of beer. I like the texture and the frothiness. 25% ish.
 
Ah, that's one thing which I wanted to query: how much can you get away with? I'm concerned it could end up looking cloudy if I added more, given that it's more noticeable in paler beers. I put 20% in my black IPA which didn't show noticeable cloudiness, but then it is very dark...

The other thing I forgot to mention was, I raised the mash temp to 69c to aim to get more unfermentables for sweetness. Does the small addition of vienna seem pointless? I really need to try with and without....

Cheers.
 
I'd use pale crystal or caramalt for sweetness ahead of Vienna, I think.

Wheat will cloud the beer, but I see that as a part of the style. Oats will cloud it too, more so.
 
I am going to be adding wheat grain to my next brew for the first time. Not too worried about a bit of cloudiness but really don't want a wheat beer. Was thinking 250g as half the bag. Seems I might get away with that.
 
That's not a lot, will boost head and shouldn't affect clarity.
 
You could, perhaps, use flaked maize rather than oats. Will help clarity + colour. Will not help the mouth feel. Might make it taste more American, not sure whether even Americans would use flaked maize in this beer style though.
 
Thanks guys. I've almost got around to brewing this and will report back when I have done so.

I've bought a new bag of 2014 crop Amarillo as the first bag I bought from eBay turned out to be 2012 and looked a bit stale (yellow-y). I'll still open the 2012 to see if it smells ok.

Also, the 0 IBUs calculated for the 0 minute hop addition is not true as they will remain throughout whirlpool and chilling (say 20 mins) so I will reduce the bittering addition accordingly by guessing...

@HebridesRob, I have relatives from Harris. I haven't been to visit though (I'm originally from Edinburgh).
 

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