Galaxy single hop pale ale - extract recipe

[Linalmeemow]

I've recently made the switch to extract brewing after doing this recipe:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6q2GBHKZAxUX203SDhjeEJmZ2s/edit

It turned out fantastically well, and I'd like to do other single hop pale ales using this as a base. If I use a hop with a similar alpha acid percentage will it come out OK? I'd like to try it with Galaxy hops which have an AA roughly 1 point higher - I've put the recipe through a calculator and it looks OK, but are there any issues you could think of that would make this a bad idea?

Ta for the assistance in advance...

 

[strange-steve]

The simple answer is yes, if you swapped the citra for galaxy you'd have another great beer.
A couple of things to consider though, some people find galaxy to be rather harsh when used for bittering and needs a little time to mellow, others have said it can cause some odd flavours (I have made a galaxy single hop beer and personally I didn't notice this).
Also galaxy can be relatively expensive, so it might make sense to use a cheaper, cleaner bittering hop (magnum?) and keep the galaxy for later additions where it will really shine. Galaxy is a truly beautiful flavour/aroma hop, make sure you have a substantial dry hop also to get that wonderful passion fruit aroma.

 

[Linalmeemow]

The simple answer is yes, if you swapped the citra for galaxy you'd have another great beer.
A couple of things to consider though, some people find galaxy to be rather harsh when used for bittering and needs a little time to mellow, others have said it can cause some odd flavours (I have made a galaxy single hop beer and personally I didn't notice this).
Also galaxy can be relatively expensive, so it might make sense to use a cheaper, cleaner bittering hop (magnum?) and keep the galaxy for later additions where it will really shine. Galaxy is a truly beautiful flavour/aroma hop, make sure you have a substantial dry hop also to get that wonderful passion fruit aroma.

Thanks for the reply!

Harsh as in excessively bitter, or something else? When I used this recipe with citra hops I found the bittering to be on the light side and the AA is nearly the same as galaxy.

I've been using thehombrewshop.com and they do a "choose your own" extract kit for £22 with up to 160g of any hops they have in stock so the hop price doesn't affect the overall price...

 

[strange-steve]

It's not so much that it's excessively bitter, but rather the kind of bitterness is more harsh if that makes sense. It's something to do with the high cohumulone levels in galaxy. You could try something like challenger or magnum for a more neutral bitterness or just go for it as a smash, mine was perfectly drinkable after 2 weeks.
If you found the bitterness a little light, use your recipe software to increase the bittering hops for an extra 10 or so IBUs.

 

[Linalmeemow]

Ah, cohumulone levels. Never heard of them, though having done some reading now everything you say makes sense! I've just bottled a Sculpin clone bittered with Columbus, Magnum, Northern Brewer and Warrior to an IBU in the high 70s so in a couple of weeks I'll see exactly how that's come out (it tasted amazing when I sampled it at the time, even warm and flat) and maybe use the same formula for bittering again.