Collaboration Pale Ale

[Glocke_Ale]

I am collaborating on a brew with a couple of guys from work, and this is what they have so far.

6# Golden Light or Light Pilsner LME
1# Munich Malt
.5# Honey Malt
.5# Crystal 60L
1oz Simcoe Pellet Hops for 60min
1oz Citra Pellet Hops for 15min
1oz Galaxy Pellet Hops for Dry Hopping
WLP001 California Ale Yeast

I'm just not sure that the hop profiles go well with the malt bill. Thoughts?

 

[ong]

Sounds good to me; but my preference would be to lose the 15 minute hops and just do a big whirlpool addition (between 2 and 4 oz).

 

[m00ps]

is this an IPA or hoppy pale ale? If so, I'd loose the crystal, or add a bit of cane sugar to help dry it out. The munich and honey will give it a decent amount of sweet grainy character. Then hopstand/whirlpool the absolute crap out of it. If you can talk them into getting more hops, that is. My last IPA had 10oz in a hopstand and 6 more for dry hopping and its pretty cool seeing peoples faces when they fist take a sip

 

[Glocke_Ale]

It is supposed to be a hoppy pale ale, now they are wanting to bump up the grain bill and to do 10% abv, so I don't even know what's going on now.

 

[m00ps]

haha, oh well. I guess thats the nature of collaboration. So barleywine? Hoppy Strong Ale? or DIPA?

Either way at 10% I would definitely advise using 1lb of cane sugar to help it not be cloying

 

[Glocke_Ale]

haha, yeah, only slightly frustrating. I agree, we will definitely need to use some sugar to dry it out. It will be interesting to see how this turns out for sure. When you talk about whirlpool are you just talking about at flameout?

 

[m00ps]

yeah hopstanding or whirlpool additions are done at flameout, but you let them sit for a length of time before chilling. Having the hops at just below boiling temperatures gets you a ton of hop flavor and aroma but next to no bitterness at all. Its a great technique for any hop geared recipe

 

[Glocke_Ale]

Alright, I will see if I can talk them into doing that.