Simple Pale Ale

Simple Pale Ale

Being on a bit of a roll with the Session IPA's I switch my attention back to a standard pale ale.  Something with a bit more malt and a bit less hops.

I wanted to keep it around the 5% mark so I could at least knock a few back without getting plastered so I built my malt bill around that.

For the malts I decided to give the Coopers Ale malt a whirl since it is local and cheap.  With 80% of the malt being Ale Malt I added in some Gladfield Munch Malt and also decided to give their Supernova Malt a whirl as it is supposed to add color without being too sweet.  There is a good blurb about it here at the Gladfield site.  I chucked in some oats to again try and boost the body and not have it come out too thin.

For the hops I wanted to try added bittering hops through out the boil so I could get the bitterness but not have it come across as being too harsh.  I used Columbus for bittering and boil hops until the hopstand which I used up some Amarillo I had in the freezer.  For dry hopping I went with one of my favorites Galaxy and another favorite Mosaic.

When it came to the yeast, 1272 or go home.

Recipe:

American Pale Ale

OG 1.046

EBC 13.7

IBU 36

ABV 4.7%

FG 1.009

Fermentables:

4.2 Coopers Ale Malt (79%)
500g Gladfield Munich Malt (9%)

300g Gladfield Supanova (6%)

300g Flaked Oats (6%)

Yeast:
Wyeast American Ale II 1272

Mash:

Mashed at 65 degrees C for 60mins

Raised to 75 degrees for 10mins

Boil:
Boiled for 60mins

Hops:

Columbus 5g (16.6AA) 8.8 IBU @ 60mins
Columbus 10g (16.6AA) 13.5 IBU @ 30mins
Columbus 5g (16.6AA) 6.4 IBU @ 10mins
Amarillo 30g (9AA) 7.8 IBU @ hopstand once chilled to 80 degrees C

Fermentation:
Fermented at 18 degrees C for the first 5 days then raised up to 20 to finish it off.

Dry Hops:
Galaxy 60g (14.2AA) @ Dry Hop
Mosaic 30g (12.3AA) @ Dry Hop

Tasting:
The color is exactly what I was aiming for, even with just 6% of the Supnova Malt it made quite a difference, I wouldn't have wanted it any darker.

It has a really nice malt profile to it, not too sweet or cloying.  Some of my earlier beers I would use too much crystal and they would end up overly sweet and not enjoyable.  I think I will try removing the Munich next time.

The idea of using the Columbus hops throughout the boil to kind of layer the bitterness seems to have worked.  I think next time on the dry hops I will maybe sub out the Mosaic for with more Galaxy or maybe go with the Simcoe to try and get some pine.  Maybe Cascade?

Overall pretty happy with this one, I've been on a pretty good run lately and seem to have hit the sweet spot with both malt profiles and hop combos.