Pale Ale?

[Gizmo]

Didn't really know where to post this, but figured it's a basic recipe. I wanted to brew up a lighter beer (currently I have a wheat and a red as my only non dark brews). I also decided to use up some of the hops I've had hanging around my freezer from other recipes. I'm not a hop head, so I don't drop 1 or 2 oz of hops in a brew and call it a day. I've got a half ounce or more of 6 or 7 different hops! I decided to use them and try and formulate a recipe around them. I've chosen what I think may be a decent pale ale, but really, I guess it doesn't matter what I call it, it'll be beer!

I'm using:
2lb 6-row Pale Malt
1.5lb 2-row Pale Malt
1lb Caramel 20L
.5 Carapils/Dextrine

Hopped with:
.25oz Centennial 60min
.25oz/.25oz Fuggles 20min/10min
.25oz/.25oz E. Kent Goldings 20min/10min

It's looking like 1.055SG, 36IBU 7SRM and 6%abv

I'm just worried about the dropoff in the hops, since they've been open in my freezer for a few months. I don't mind if the beer isn't super hoppy, I just need to make sure they do their job against the malt to give me a decent balance. Anyone have experience using secondhand hops? Should I up their numbers to account for dropoff ?


EDIT: I guess this should have been in the Advanced section.

[jimjohson]

imo if you couldn't smell hops when you opened the freezer i doubt you'll have much drop off

[philm00x]

agreeing with jim on this one. you should be good to go. sounds like a really nice brew!

[gwcr]

Yep. I've used hops that have been in the freezer for 4-5 months with no detectable difference. As long as they've been sealed up good and airtight, shouldn't be a problem. Recipe looks good too!

[Kealia]

Hey Gizmo,

My only concern in looking at the recipe is that you've got 1.5lbs of specialty grain in a 5lb batch. The 1lb of C20 and the .5lb of carapils appear to be a bit heavy in proportions to the 6row/2row. Mind you, that's just eye-balling this. If you've used this grain bill before with good results, pay me no nevermind.

[gwcr]

Good catch Kealia. That's about 43% of the total grain bill. I try to stay below 20%. 10-15% is the "accepted norm". As Kealia said, if it works for you, go for it!

[Gizmo]

I'm sure you guys are right, too late now, but that would possibly explain why I ended up way lower on my OG as well. BeerSmith had me at 1.055 and I only ended up at 1.031, and I didn't do anything differently than normal. I should have done 2lb of 2row and .5lb of Caramel 20L. I wanted to keep the numbers easy to remember for my trip to the LHBS and forgot to keep my specialty grains low. I guess I'll find out soon enough how it turns out.

[gwcr]

Even with OG of 1.031, you'll still have beer!

[FrozenInTime]

You can go here and look at recommended malt ratios in batches. Has helped me.

http://www.beersmith.com/Grains/Grains/GrainList.htm

[Kealia]

I'm sure you guys are right, too late now, but that would possibly explain why I ended up way lower on my OG as well. BeerSmith had me at 1.055 and I only ended up at 1.031, and I didn't do anything differently than normal. I should have done 2lb of 2row and .5lb of Caramel 20L. I wanted to keep the numbers easy to remember for my trip to the LHBS and forgot to keep my specialty grains low. I guess I'll find out soon enough how it turns out.

It shouldn't have affected your OG at all. The specialty grains would just be unfermentable sugars, but they would still be sugars. So it would affect your FG (ending up high and malty). I'd look elsewhere for the issue on this one.