Help with a great PA grain bill

[bannerj]

I've got six crowns of hop plants that are mature enough to produce more than enough hops for me to mess with next fall/winter. I'm a huge PA fan. Think Lagunitas, light color, crisp, nice floral hop aromas.... I'm somewhat burned out on the IPA, heavy bitter thing. I'm seeing a correspondence between my early interest in those bigger IPAs with my early taste for dark roast coffee. Pale Ales seem to have more room for me to taste the nuances/complexities like I do now in milder roasted coffee beans. Hope that makes sense.

In the time before the hops are ready I want to try a few different grain bills while keeping the hop schedule fixed. Then once I have nailed down a favored grain bill, I'll switch it around and try different hop combinations through the fall/winter.

I'll be partial mashing with a 5 gal setup. So, what are your favorite grain bills for pale ales?

 

[daksin]

I've been digging on this guy (80%eff, 6gal):

8lbs pale malt
1lb C40/60/80 (I switch them out)
0.5lb wheat malt

 

[bannerj]

This kinda what I was thinking but maybe going with some rye and some wheat. Lagunitas sucks is a fav and they say it's a cereal. And then I love love Red's Rye. I'm leaning toward C40.

With C40 is there any need for carapils?

 

[daksin]

Nope, carapils is good for recipes where you want the body/head of a beer with crystal, but not really any crystal flavor. I like 15-20% rye malt in my rye beers. Don't think you need any wheat in a rye beer, though.

 

[bannerj]

now I'm assuming that maybe the rye PA might not be the best way to go about this learning curve with my hops...that the stronger rye flavor might compete too much with what I'm hoping to learn about the different hops schedules.

 

[benflath]

I agree, if you're specifically playing with hops, skip the rye for now.

That's basically the grain bill I used on my first PA, though I didn't have the wheat. I'm pretty sure the next batch will include it, though.

 

[bannerj]

Okay. As I research recipes, I think the philosophy behind this beer should be moving away from heavy bitterness to identify hop and grain complexity. What I want is a something crisp but not thin between 5-6%, with floral and citrus flavors/notes--on the lighter side but not generic. I like the aromas of Lagunitas Sucks, but the body of the Dogtown PA.

 

[julioardz]

My basic grain bill for an American PA and IPA is 90% pale ale malt, 6% Crystal 60L or sometimes 40L, and 4% carapils. I give percentages becase my OG and grain bill in pounds varies per the specific recipe.