Help me with hops for this recipe please.

[Banjo-guy]

This the grain bill for a pale ale I am planning. I thought I would use up my bits and pieces of hop bags but no I am starting to think that I should break into some of the unopened bags and make a beer that I really want to make.
Here is the grain bill. ( from Jamil ):

2.5 gallon batch

4.5 lbs Maris Otter 83.7%
4.0 oz Carmel 40 4.7%
4.0 oz Carmel 10 4.7%
4.0 oz Munich 4.7%
2.0 oz Victory 2.3%


Here are the hops that I have:
Amarillo Hop 3.40 oz
Cascade Hop 8.00 oz
Centennial Hop 2.25 oz
Citra Hop 1.00 oz
Columbus 0.90 oz
Falconer's Flight 0.50
Magnum Hop 1.80 oz
Simcoe Hop 3.00 oz
Sorachi Ace 1 oz

I would love suggestions.
I came up with this as a way to use up my loose hops.
.20 oz Magnum @ 60 min ( first wort )
.25 oz Centennial @ 15.00
.15 oz Amarrillo @ 10.00
.15 oz Amarillo @ 5.00

This gives me an of ABV 5.3
IBU of 36.8
Bitterness ratio of 0.677

Looking at my hops… is there a great combination that I am missing ? ( or just don't know enough about )

[BigPapaG]

You made good choices...

In fact, there are a lot of good choices in that mix of orphans...

One thing I did notice is that you will have a good bit of caramel sweetness...

Since you are using MO, Munich and Victory, I'ld likely drop some of the Caramel 40 if it were me.

[BlackDuck]

I second Papa's suggestion on removing some of the C-40, if not all. But that's just me, and I like my pale ales with little malt sweetness. I love the Maris Otter as the base.

And any of those hops you have with just about any combination would work for a Pale Ale. The hop schedule that you came up with would be very good.

[Banjo-guy]

If just substitute Falconers Flight for the Amarillo @ 10 and 5 minutes it ups the IBUs to 38.
I just brewed an APA with JimH as and RCE and would like to try something different. The only thing is my wife just loves the Amarillo APA.

If I drop the C40 should increase the MO to compensate? Does the Crystal contribute fermentable starch. I don't think that it does.

[BigPapaG]

There is a lot of unfermentables in the crystal, but you can add a few ounces of MO without raising your OG too much.

The C10 should give you enough for head retention.

[Brewbirds]

I agree with the others that your schedule looks pretty darn good, I may have to borrow it in future.

Since we all know the Golden Rule is to keep SWMBO happy you'll probably be making the Amarillo ( ).

We worked on an APA with JPSherman and he come up with a really nice, tasty hop schedule.

For a 2.30 gal. batch:
.25 oz Centennial 60 min.
.25 Columbus 10 min.
.25 Centennial Hop Stand
.75 Columbus Dry Hop

I've gotta say ou've got a great selection for making some mighty tasty APAs.

[Banjo-guy]

Since we all know the Golden Rule is to keep SWMBO happy you'll probably be making the Amarillo ( ).
:

Words to live by!

I like the hops that you are using for your RCE. My Amarillo APA came from this last RCE with Jim H.
I's really is flying off the shelves!

[Banjo-guy]

You made good choices...

In fact, there are a lot of good choices in that mix of orphans...

One thing I did notice is that you will have a good bit of caramel sweetness...

Since you are using MO, Munich and Victory, I'ld likely drop some of the Caramel 40 if it were me.

The grains are all mixed and ready to go.
Should I mash at low temperature to compensate?
One reason I don't want to do that is that I would like a little more body and thicker mouth feel to my brews in general. I was thinking of mashing at 154.

[BigPapaG]

You made good choices...

In fact, there are a lot of good choices in that mix of orphans...

One thing I did notice is that you will have a good bit of caramel sweetness...

Since you are using MO, Munich and Victory, I'ld likely drop some of the Caramel 40 if it were me.

The grains are all mixed and ready to go.
Should I mash at low temperature to compensate?
One reason I don't want to do that is that I would like a little more body and thicker mouth feel to my brews in general. I was thinking of mashing at 154.

Hmm... Already mixed... Ok, well...

Choices might be:

1.) Mash at 150-152 to obtain a more fermentable wort (lower FG, drier, less mouthfeel)
2.) Remove some grain and fortify with some extra light extract (results in less crystal in the mix)
3.) (Remove some grain maybe) Add some sugar to dry it out a bit (lower FG, drier, less mouthfeel)
4.) Leave it as is 'cause if you enjoy it, then you did it right! (easy peasy)

[Banjo-guy]

I'm going with the easy peasy method.

[Kealia]

I didn't see this until now but I will add that with the hops you have it's going to be hard to make a bad beer.

FWIW, I think Simcoe and Amarillo pair together very well, too.

[Banjo-guy]

I brewed this today. I went with the hops that I originally posted...Amarillo as the main hop with magnum for bittering and a .25 oz centennial for flavor.The only thing that I changed is that I had .10 oz of Amarillo that was unused so I did a steep at flame out. For that I actually added it when the temperature was 175.00 and left it in for the cool down.

This brew was the most stress free one for me. I had no screw ups and I hit all of my BeerSmith numbers almost dead on. I think that I have finally have it dialed in. I was only off by 2 cups for volume into the LBK.

I almost went with Falconer's Flight but because that is a blend of hops I didn't think I would learn about what the the individual hops taste like. The Amarillo APA that I did with JimH for our RCE was a hugh hit with SWMBO. I'd like to get her on my side for my brewing hobby!

This brew had Centennial at 15 and my RCE had Amarillo at 15 minutes. It will be interesting to see if there is a difference. Looking a both recipes I see that I used .25 oz of Centennial and only .15 oz of Amarillo. That will be noticed. The APA from today is 40 IBUs and the RCE is 35.6 IBUs. I wanted more hop character. SWMBO will not be thrilled.