Thoughts on this recipe please...

I am planning this recipe for my next brew. I'm looking for a fruity, tropical easy drinking ale for summer. However, I'm starting to have second thoughts given the amount of hoppage and that it might be overkill, and I could get similar results by removing one of the hops altogether? I also considering adding 250g of maltodextrin at 15 mins , and removing the barley as I have had disappointing results with this of late.
I would appreciate any experienced thoughts on this.

Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
1 kg Bestmalz - Pale Ale 37 2.81 47.6%
0.3 kg United Kingdom - Caramalt 34 15 14.3%
0.75 kg Bestmalz - Vienna 37 3.8 35.7%
0.05 kg Flaked Barley 32 2.2 2.4%
2.1 kg Total
Citra Pellet 12 Boil 30 min 15.13
10 g Citra Pellet 12 Boil 5 min 6.54
10 g Motueka Pellet 7 Boil 5 min 3.82
10 g Amarillo Pellet 9 Boil 5 min 4.91
15 g Citra Pellet 12 Aroma at 80 °C 0 min
15 g Amarillo Pellet 9 Aroma at 80 °C 0 min
15 g Motueka Pellet 7 Aroma at 80 °C 0 min
20 g Citra Pellet 12 Dry Hop 9 days
20 g Amarillo Pellet 9 Dry Hop 9 days
20 g Motueka Pellet 7 Dry Hop 9 days
Show Summary View


Mash Guidelines
Amount Description Type Temp Time
6 L Strike 67 °C 60 min
11.5 L Sparge 80 °C 15 min

Looks like a 10L brew or so. Like you say, a lot of hops. Citra is very over-powering, especially as a bittering hop.

I would leave it out altogether and use some cheap (cheaper than Citra) bittering hop for whatever bittering you want, then just add the other two in much the way suggested.

Get rid of the 30 and 5 min hop boils. Just use any old hop at 60 mind for a bit of bitterness and use the hops saved from 30 and 5 mins in a bigger dry hop

Slid said:

Looks like a 10L brew or so. Like you say, a lot of hops. Citra is very over-powering, especially as a bittering hop.

I would leave it out altogether and use some cheap (cheaper than Citra) bittering hop for whatever bittering you want, then just add the other two in much the way suggested.

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Thanks for this. I did initially have some magnum in the recipe at 60 mins for the bittering, but removed this as I wanted the IBU a little lower. I thought that adding hops at 30 mins would add to the flavour though, hence using a little citra here?

That's not "easy drinking". The hop bill is just plain crazy and 9 days dry hopping is going to give you loads of grassy notes.
In what way have you had a bad experience with flaked barley?
Did you formulate this recipe yourself, otherwise, where did it come from?
Let's not beat about the bush, I'm not optimistic. Easy drinking with a nice hop profile sound to me like an APA, in which case you should build the malt and not muddle the hops.
What do you hope to achieve by adding maltodextrin, by the way?

An Ankoù said:

That's not "easy drinking". The hop bill is just plain crazy and 9 days dry hopping is going to give you loads of grassy notes.
In what way have you had a bad experience with flaked barley?
Did you formulate this recipe yourself, otherwise, where did it come from?
Let's not beat about the bush, I'm not optimistic. Easy drinking with a nice hop profile sound to me like an APA, in which case you should build the malt and not muddle the hops.
What do you hope to achieve by adding maltodextrin, by the way?

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I put the recipe together myself, after previous recipes which were quite successful, with lesser hoppage. But despite these being perfectly good first efforts, I was hoping for more in the way of fruitiness and body. The maltodextrin I have read, aids head retention and gives the beer more body and mouthfeel. I have seen others using this in all their brews.
The dry hopping is 'at' 9 days, rather than 'for' 9 days. So with 14 days in the FV, this would mean 4-5 days of dry hopping.
If you've ever had Lost Cosmonaut, by North Brewing then this is the kind of thing I am aiming towards.

Leon103 said:

Get rid of the 30 and 5 min hop boils. Just use any old hop at 60 mind for a bit of bitterness and use the hops saved from 30 and 5 mins in a bigger dry hop

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Interesting. What kind of results have you experienced with loading all the hops cold side? Not averse to this at all, but would like to know what I could expect?

Cool.
Easy drinking, for me, is well south of 6%. But now that I see what you're on to, go for it. Still a bit wary of the maltodextrin, though. Good luck.

An Ankoù said:

Cool.
Easy drinking, for me, is well south of 6%. But now that I see what you're on to, go for it. Still a bit wary of the maltodextrin, though. Good luck.

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I agree re the ABV. This one should come out around 4.3%.
I think I may try the suggestion of removing some of the boil hops, and loading the dry hop more. Maybe even try a double dry hop.

Duncan Dobbin said:

Interesting. What kind of results have you experienced with loading all the hops cold side? Not averse to this at all, but would like to know what I could expect?

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That is where you will get your flavour and aroma from. You mentioned you want a tropical pint. You will need plenty of cold side hops.

Leon103 said:

That is where you will get your flavour and aroma from. You mentioned you want a tropical pint. You will need plenty of cold side hops.

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I agree. Hops at flameout and dry hop

This is interesting reading. I would certainly take the advice of the grown ups but fwiw.....

For head retention I would up the FB to a max of 9%

I did a bitter earlier this year with a similar grain bill, 61% MO, 20% Munich, 10% Caramalt and 9% FB - that worked out really well but being a bitter was hopped with First Gold... (Maybe a tad sweet, might ease off on the Caramalt next time)

And I'll soon be brewing an APA with 61% lager, 20% Vienna, 10% Amber and 9% FB - this will be hopped only with Chinook (hey, I like it even if you don't!) but I'm still tinkering with the hop additions...

I've also done a Simcoe/Citra/Amarillo IPA before - I really like Amarillo, big tangerine hit. It's fruity for sure but I'm not sure if I'd call it tropical.

Fwiw, El Dorado is pineapple-ey, and I believe summit is white grapefruit-ey - but I imagine your hops will make a nice beer, just a question of what you add and when to get the desired outcome!

Good luck

I have brewed this kind of thing with 100g hops added at 75 - 80 c for 30 mins and then a big (100g) dry hop for 3 days in a 20l brew. It was my best brew yet. My understanding is that you will get some bittering with post flame out hops, although the software may say not.

Mosaic if your looking tropical probably my favourite hop