BeerBorg

I am planning to do a pale ale next. I had a few questions about hop variety, amounts, and timings.

I don't like bitterness so I want to keep the IBU's around the low end for the style at about 30. Looking more for flavor and aroma.

I don't like grapefruit but I want other citrus/tropcial flavors for the hops

I was thinking a combination of these hops depending on availability with a few other options in case of inventory problems.

simcoe, amarillo, galaxy, citra.

If anyone has any other recommendations for what I am looking for as far as more available varieties I am gladly open to them.

I know very little about hops so the amounts and times to add for flavor and aroma are a mystery to me.

For reference I will be basing this of the BCS recipe for american pale ale with caramel.

I made an American Ale recipe from a fellow borg member that uses Simcoe. It was very good. The second time I made it, I couldn't get Simcoe so I used Austalian Galaxy. It has more of a passion fruit essense to it. While I liked the grapefruit, I liked the Galaxy a little bit more. personal preferance... I used 2 ounces at various stages.

Centennial is another good choice for citrus. I think they smell like straight lemons. I have not tried any of the others you have mentioned. If you don't like the bitterness, but want good hop presence, I suggest a hop burst. All the hops added at 30 minutes or less gives you a great hop flavor and aroma, but not as much bitterness.

JimH wrote:Centennial is another good choice for citrus. I think they smell like straight lemons. I have not tried any of the others you have mentioned. If you don't like the bitterness, but want good hop presence, I suggest a hop burst. All the hops added at 30 minutes or less gives you a great hop flavor and aroma, but not as much bitterness.

+1000 on the hopburst - this will give you awesome flavor and aroma without much bitterness. An added benefit is a much shorter boil if using extract (15-20 min boil is all you need). The grain bill for the BCS Pale Ale looks good, so you can keep it as is, and for the hops, here's the schedule I would follow (for a 5 gallon batch):

No bittering addition
0.5 oz each (1.5 oz total for each addition) Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra at 15, 10, and 5 min, plus dry-hop of 1 oz each Amarillo and Citra for the last 7 days of fermentation.

I know, this seems like a lot of hops, but trust me, this will not be bitter at all, but will give a huge tropical fruit flavor and aroma. This is similar to what I do for my Simcitrillo IPA, but scaled down to APA levels.

I've done a pale ale with a combo of Amarillo and Citra that had fantastic flavor and lots of aroma.
Very citrusy and not overly bitter for the amount of hops I used.

Dry hopping was the coup de gras as far as the aroma. I used an ounce and a half of each for 3 days before bottling.

Probably one of the most enjoyable beers I've done in my short brewing career.

Good luck!

JimH and Russki are spot on with the hop burst. I did that with Bubs' Pale Ale and it came out even better than I had imagined. The bittering is not harsh at all, and the flavor comes through very well, but still let the malt flavor be the star of the show. The one I did was 45 IBUs but tastes like half that.

This is exactly what I am looking for! Solid hop flavor and aroma with some bitterness but nothing harsh. After what I have read from you guys I am probably going to go with simcoe, amarillo, and citra. possibly some centennial as well. Again, this also depends on what is in stock at ordering time.

If I do add another variety would I want to cut the amounts down just a bit or would adding a fourth be not worth it? Also which of the hops would you say are "essential" and which would you say would be optional or would it be more of a mix and match type of thing at this point?

Centennial would be a good idea....can't go wrong with them in a pale ale.

You may want to check out Belma also. Some hints of tropical fruits, not sure if that is what you may be going for.

[quoteI know very little about hops so the amounts and times to add for flavor and aroma are a mystery to me.][/quote]

Well you have worked some things with hops that you don't like so if you want to familiarize yourself with the characteristics of different varieties consider a SMaSH or single hopped Blonde in your line up as well.

If you create a recipe with a simple grain bill and a clean yeast strain you can get a lot of impressions about a hop variety and can practice different hopping methods.

Your APA will be a great beer but you may not be able to tell which hop is giving you a certain flavor or aroma.

Also when you say you don't like bitterness is it because you are getting a strong resiny or piney profile? There are a lot of hops that will give you a "clean" bittering addition and any beer style can have to much hops added as a bittering addition and put it out of balance.

A very good source of info on hops is a site called beerlegends.com.

Goog point BB, I think after this and the big stout I want to brew I will do a few SMaSH brews to kind of learn the differences in hops and such. Maybe tool around with the same recipe and different yeasts as well to get a good idea of that too.

Full Recipe Update, the BCS recipe calls for .5lb munich malt which you have to buy in 3 lb quantity minimum and that just seems silly so I went with a full 9.15 lbs of gold extract from northern brewer. Haven't ordered yet but plan on doing that soon.

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Pale Rider
Author: D34THSPAWN

Brew Method: Extract
Style Name: American Pale Ale
Boil Time: 15 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 3 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.111
Efficiency: 35% (steeping grains only)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.060
Final Gravity: 1.014
ABV (standard): 6.06%
IBU (tinseth): 44.83
SRM (morey): 7.46

FERMENTABLES:
9.15 lb - Liquid Malt Extract - Light (90.1%)

STEEPING GRAINS:
0.5 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 40L (4.9%)
0.5 lb - American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt) (4.9%)

HOPS:
0.5 oz - Amarillo, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.6, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 4.27
0.5 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 4.97
0.5 oz - Citra, Type: Pellet, AA: 11, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 5.47
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 6.31
0.5 oz - Amarillo, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.6, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 3.12
0.5 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 3.63
0.5 oz - Citra, Type: Pellet, AA: 11, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 3.99
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 4.61
0.5 oz - Amarillo, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.6, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 1.72
0.5 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 2
0.5 oz - Citra, Type: Pellet, AA: 11, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 2.2
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 2.54
0.5 oz - Amarillo, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.6, Use: Boil for 0 min
0.5 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Boil for 0 min
0.5 oz - Citra, Type: Pellet, AA: 11, Use: Boil for 0 min
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 0 min
0.5 oz - Amarillo, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.6, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
0.5 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
0.5 oz - Citra, Type: Pellet, AA: 11, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days

YEAST:
White Labs - California Ale Yeast WLP001
Starter: No
Form: Liquid
Attenuation (avg): 76.5%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Temp: 68 - 73 F
Fermentation Temp: 68 F
Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / deg P)


Generated by Brewer's Friend - http://www.brewersfriend.com/
Date: 2013-12-27 17:17 UTC
Recipe Last Updated: 2013-12-27 17:16 UTC

I could be wrong, but it seems this recipe is a little out of balance. Not enough bitterness for the amount of malt.

mtsoxfan wrote:I could be wrong, but it seems this recipe is a little out of balance. Not enough bitterness for the amount of malt.

Agreed, looks like a mouth full of malt. Need to balance that out with a 60 minute boil. IMHO

Ok so if I cut that down to about 8lbs instead would that be a better choice? As mentioned earlier I am going for a hop-burst, it is still 45 IBUs with that. I can adjust?

IBU/OG ratio of 0.747, so it's actually leaning more toward the hoppy side of balanced. This is 5.5 gallons of beer, y'all. Not an LBK batch. And it's pretty much all LME so the 60 minute boil isn't a requirement.