BeerBorg

OK, just opened the "flavor pack" to read the brewing instructions for this kit I plan on brewing tomorrow. Let me start by posting the recipe and I'll follow with my complaining below.

Firestone Walker Pale 31
American Pale Ale

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (G): 6.0
Total Grain (lb): 10.000
Total Hops (oz): 4.50
Original Gravity (OG): 1.046 (°P): 11.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.52 %
Colour (SRM): 4.3 (EBC): 8.5
Bitterness (IBU): 14.2 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
8.000 lb American 2-Row (80%)
1.500 lb Munich II (15%)
0.500 lb Carapils (Dextrine) (5%)

Hop Bill
----------------
0.25 oz Fuggles Pellet (5.3% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0 oz/Gal)
0.25 oz Chinook Pellet (12% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil) (0 oz/Gal)
1.00 oz Cascade Pellet (6.9% Alpha) @ 1 Minutes (Boil) (0.2 oz/Gal)
1.00 oz Centennial Pellet (9.4% Alpha) @ 1 Minutes (Boil) (0.2 oz/Gal)
1.00 oz Cascade Pellet (6.9% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Dry Hop) (0.2 oz/Gal)
1.00 oz Centennial Pellet (9.4% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Dry Hop) (0.2 oz/Gal)

Misc Bill
----------------

Single step Infusion at 152°F for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 64°F with Wyeast 1968 - London ESB Ale


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

I plan on changing a couple of things right away. Morebeer's instructions on their kits leave something to be desired. If a newb were to brew one, they would surely have questions. This is my second kit of theirs and the first wasn't much better... instuction-wise.

The .25 oz of Fuggles at 60 min is listed on the instructions as being a 90 minute addition. Nowhere does it say 90 min boil and I see no need for a 90 min boil. It is now 60 min. Under specific recipe information it says... "Matt Brynildson recommends mashing at 145 for 45 minutes, then bringing your mash temp to 155 for 5-10 minutes prior to mashing out at 168." This is about a 1.045 OG beer. Why would you want to mash at 145?... not that I'm worthy of questioning Matt Brynildson. Why even mess with 155 after 45 minutes at 145?

I plan on mashing at a more standard 152.

Now I flip to the Firestone Walker web site to see what they have to say about this beer.

Morebeer says OG 1.042-45.
SRM 4... Firestone Walker says SRM 7.
IBU 11-14... Firestone Walker says 38.
ABV 4.5%... Firestone Walker says 4.9%.

The Firestone Walker site mentions Maris Otter and Crystal in the grain bill. None appear in the Morebeer kit. Firestone Walker mentions Cascade, Cenntennial, and Chinook dry hops while the Morebeer kit misses Chinook.

I don't think I'm being overly picky when I say if you stick the name on the kit, make the beer like the beer, right?

Yea, I agree. At least make it as close as possible. I get that they may not want to divulge their exact recipe, but make it close.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's interesting. I had always heard that the Pale 31 was a blend of two beers. One is a pale they contract brew IIRC and the second was their Double Barrel Ale. That's why I've never tried to clone it.

Interestingly enough in a recent article on their new IPA Matt said they recently released the Pale 31 recipe to a well known brewing publication. I wonder if it's BYO?

In any case, good luck with yours and if anybody sees the recipe posted somewhere please share!!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

I scrounged around and found .5 oz of Magnum I didn't realize I had. That should get my IBUs into the 30s somewhere. That just sounds like a better APA to me.

I am fairly certain Matt worked directly with Morebeer to create that kit, also keep in mind it was design for you too make at home, not how he makes it at his brewery, they will not always be the same thing. On the 90 minute hop addition Matt always does a 90 min hop addition it is his thing and he will always boil for 90 min for any style. Again it is a product of him helping with the design of the recipe, seems not fair to get mad at them for both sticking with the recipe and not sticking with recipe

The 90 min addition will give you different bitterness than a 60 min one..not just in Ibu but also the character of the bitterness.

The mash schedule is also an important part you are getting different sugar chains by mashing that low, which should give you the attenuation that is required for this beer.

Good luck with the brew day, personally I wouldn't mess with recipe much but I am sure it will be close either way. You are free to do what you want but seems unfair to criticize it before you even tried it the way they intended.

Sorry I am defensive of Firestone lol

No, no... defend away.

I really don't care if I have a Pale 31 clone on tap or not, but I do want a decent APA. Those instructions seem to lead to a 11-14 IBU Pale Ale that will ferment down to nothing with that low mash temp. Maybe I'm looking at it wrong, but I don't want 5 gallons of that.

Pudge wrote:Original Gravity (OG): 1.046
Bitterness (IBU): 14.2 (Tinseth)

BUGU = 0.3 for a pale?
Not in my brew closet!

"Matt Brynildson recommends mashing at 145 for 45 minutes, then bringing your mash temp to 155 for 5-10 minutes prior to mashing out at 168." This is about a 1.045 OG beer. Why would you want to mash at 145? [...] Why even mess with 155 after 45 minutes at 145?

I mash low to produce a drier finish. An alpha rest @155°F gets the max extraction from your mash. Pretty much SOP for me.

I don't think I'm being overly picky when I say if you stick the name on the kit, make the beer like the beer, right?

Right.
Why else would one brew a clone if it weren't true to form?

---
Sidebar
BrewBorg ate my original post while editing.
Page expired during preview.

MoreBeer kits are 5 gallon batches. Why do you list 6? That changes IBUs. Not enough, but it does change them.

Now doing that, if you do a whirlpool/hopstand with those 1 minute additions before cooling, then your IBUs will actually approach the right number.

Your recipe doesn't say to do that? That's what I'd do. But that's what I do with all such additions anymore.

Mashini that is a good point about batch size, one of the main reasons I do not buy kits, since I always base my recipes in 6 gallons, so I get only the best wort into the fermenter. Kits are always set to 5 gallons so that will make some difference

I always do 6 gallon recipes to get 5 gallons of "stres free" beer. No panicking over every drop. This is a 5 gallon kit at 70% efficiency. I set the software to 75% which is more likely where I'll be and it will tweak the numbers but not nearly enough.

Herb, I agree. That mash schedule should dry the beer out. I just don't think this recipe needs drying out. It isn't very big to start with.

Totally my bad. I should never have bought this kit. I was wanting a nice APA and got caught looking at the name instead of the numbers. With a few adjustments, it should still be a nice beer to have on tap.

Oh well, I'm already mashed in at 152 and on my way.