First Recipe - Galaxy Pale Ale - Feedback Request

[RockChalkBrewer]

All -

I created my first recipe today based off a great Pale Ale I tried a year ago from Flat 12 Bierwerks in Indianapolis. The beer is called Walk About Pale Ale and is Pale Ale that only utilizes Galaxy hops (http://flat12.me/flat12beers/walkabout-pale-ale/). To me it is the one of the best utilization of the hops I have ever tried, only second to the Hopstache black IPA I just brewed.

I put together the recipe listed below by utilizing Brewing Classic Styles, Designing Great Beers, and the Beer Smith software. I would love to hear some feedback before I order any ingredients. Mostly I am not sure about the hop additions. I played around with it enough on the software to know that the recipe will meet the pale ale guide lines, but is there something I am not seeing? Would love some thoughts.

Galaxy Pale Ale:

Type: Extract
Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Size: 4 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Est Original Gravity: 1.053
Est IBUs: 41.3
Est Color: 10.1 SRM
Est ABV: 5.2%

Steeping Process
1lbs - Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) - Grain - %/IBU: 12/5%

Boil Process
1lbs - Briess DME Golden Light (3.0 SRM) - Dry Extract - %/IBU: 12.5%
6lbs - Gold Malt Syrup (3.0 SRM) - Liquid Extract - %/IBU: 75.0%
0.75oz - Galaxy [14.00%] - Boil 60 min - Hop - 34.4 IBUs
0.75oz - Galaxy [14.00%] - Boil 5 min - Hop - 6.9 IBUs

Yeast
American Ale - Wyeast Labs #1056 - 1 liter starter

Dry Hop
1.5oz Galaxy

Thanks in advance for your time and thoughts.

RockChalkBrewer

 

[beerman2013]

I don't have much to add about your mix up of ingredients. Just started brewing myself. Interested to hear how this add I live in Indy and love Flat 12.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Weezy]

12.5% crystal is going to give you a very sweet beer. I haven't had the reference beer but I doubt its that high. I'd change that to at least half that, maybe a third. hops look fine.

As a general tip, consider thinking in terms of percentages and not weight. The subconscious impetus to use " 1 lb" of grain usually, unfortunately, isn't wise.

 

[RockChalkBrewer]

Thanks Weezy. I believe I added the 1 pound based on other recipes I have seen. I appreciate the feedback and will do that.

 

[mattd2]

12.5% crystal is going to give you a very sweet beer. I haven't had the reference beer but I doubt its that high. I'd change that to at least half that, maybe a third. hops look fine.

As a general tip, consider thinking in terms of percentages and not weight. The subconscious impetus to use " 1 lb" of grain usually, unfortunately, isn't wise.

This is something that I have been wondering with extract recipes, the 1# of grain might make up 12.5% of the bill by weight but would it not be less of the total fermentables since only a portion of the weight would end up as sugar? If you estimate to get 70% eff with steeping it would only be 9% of the total fermentables.

But I agree think in terms of % not nice whole number of pounds

 

[Weezy]

I had written something and deleted it. I might have at first misunderstood what you meant.

You understand Potential Extract of different malt extracts and malted grains, yes? DME is more concentrated than LME? LME will provide a similar level of sugars as malted grains while, by weight, DME provides more, right?

Now you're specifically talking about treating the different parts of your grain bill differently on anticipated different efficiency of extracting the potential sugars from each, right? That's true. You could treat them differently. Assume something like 80% from the extract and 70% from the steeped grains? I'm not sure if any of the commercial software lets you do that. They mostly just have an overall, brewhouse efficiency. You could write a spreadsheet to do that. I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. I think finding and using an average overall brewhouse efficiency for extract w/steepeing grain recipes, in general, would be close enough. I expect our recipes have a pretty similar ratio of extract to grains to them, so an average should be applicable to many different brews. If you're brewing them often and you're not hitting your target OG, adjust your assumed brewhouse efficiency up or down to match what OG you are getting.

Is this what you meant?

I do some quick brews with extract that I like very much but I do quick, partial mashes with some base grains to supplement the extract. There are sugars in the crystal and roasted grains that can be converted. My brewhouse efficiency is actually the same as my all grain efficiency.