West Coast Bitter

Brewing this Saturday, hoping for something that satisfies my hop craving without all the alcohol!  ;D

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: West Coast Bitter

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: American Pale Ale
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 3 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 3.8 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.033
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.041
Final Gravity: 1.012
ABV (standard): 3.91%
IBU (rager): 42.84
SRM (morey): 5.27

FERMENTABLES:
3.5 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (72.3%)
0.75 lb - United Kingdom - Golden Promise (15.5%)
8 oz - American - Caramel / Crystal 20L (10.3%)
1.5 oz - German - Acidulated Malt (1.9%)

HOPS:
1ml - HopShot, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.8, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 24.62
5 g - Galaxy, Type: Pellet, AA: 15, Use: First Wort, IBU: 6.92
5 g - Galaxy, Type: Pellet, AA: 15, Use: Boil for 30 min, IBU: 11.3
18 g - Galaxy, Type: Pellet, AA: 15, Use: Boil for 0 min
1 oz - Galaxy, Type: Pellet, AA: 12, Use: Dry Hop for 4 days
1 oz - Citra, Type: Pellet, AA: 11, Use: Dry Hop for 4 days
1 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Dry Hop for 4 days
1 oz - Columbus, Type: Pellet, AA: 15, Use: Dry Hop for 4 days

MASH GUIDELINES:

  1. Infusion, Temp: 156 F, Time: 60 min
    Starting Mash Thickness: 1.25 qt/lb

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 72%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Temp: 59 - 75 F
Fermentation Temp: 65 F

NOTES:
5 gallons distilled water, 1.5 tsp gypsum and 1 tsp calcium chloride

I’d mash higher if you’re hoping to end at 1.012. sounds tasty though.

Awesome, thanks! 158F or so?

To get that kind of attenuation with Chico, I would need to mash at ~162°F. YMMV.

10% crystal malt is quite a bit for a pale ale. I’d consider reducing it, substituting a more complex crystal malt, and/or using a mix of crystal malts.

I don’t think 10% is too much for a Pale Ale that’s this small. When I’ve “sessionized” recipes, I’ve found that you may need a bit higher percentage of the specialty malts compared to the original.

What I would suggest is using a higher percentage of the GP. In smaller beers like this, a more flavorful base malt is a nice way to make up for the smaller grain bill.

I would recommend 162F as well. That’s right where I mash my session beers.

IBU’s look right to my palate, but keep in mind that in a smaller beer there will be less malt sweetness to balance out the bitterness. Depending on your palate, this may be borderline “session IPA” territory. Which isn’t a bad thing, but it’s something to be aware of.

As others have said 162 is a good target for a small beer. I’ll +1 to the more gp comment as well. I like to use munich as part of the base for session beers for this reason.

Cool, thanks so much for the help!

I looked into a few other recipes of this type, and it looks like most with around 10% crystal malt mash around 158F and with this yeast end up around 1.010 - 1.011. 162F looks like what I want!

I have a full pound of Golden Promise, so I’m going to shift my 2 row percentage around to use the full pound.

Again, thanks a lot guys!  :smiley:

+1.  Munich and a higher % of crystal for me.  +1 to 162F.