Okay so now that I have the attention of all you brewing intellectuals. Just finished a 6 pack of Sam Adams Crystal Pale Ale. WONDERFUL!!! Love the citrusy, grapefruity bite. Anybody got a recipe for it or something close you may have created on your own. I’ve got a reference to US Crystal Hops balanced by UK hops. Surely somebody out there has this flavor nailed. I WANT YOUR RECIPE!!!
You’ll get all the credit for this one. I just need more of this beer!!!
If you go to their website, SA gives the ingredients as well as the IBUs and SRM. This should help you get within the ball park. I think this is something very new so i doubt anyone will have a clone yet. But if you play with it long enough in beersmith, i can’t see why you could not get close. If not, then a few more brewing sessions should get you closer.
I realize now in retrospect that I probably should have posted this in the recipe section of the forum. My apologies to all. I got a bit excited!!! I know one of you is gonna come thru on this!!!
I’m on it patriot. Thanks And congrats on the win yesterday. (I’m assuming???)
My first stab was:
5lbs Marris Otter
5lbs 2 Row
2lbs honey malt
1 oz fuggle at 60
1 oz crystal at 10 and 5
1 oz east kent at 10 and 5
London Ale Yeast or California Ale Yeast.
Someone with much more experience than me will probably be able to concoct something better but this would be my first try. The hops are hard to guess as I have yet to taste the beer. If it is very hoppy tasting, I’d add a flame out addition as well as a dry hop.
It is a very nice crisp hoppy taste. Literally taste as crisp as the fresh hops smell.
so elaborate on that last part as I am still very young to brewing. Never done an all grain but I can cook damn near anything so it doesn’t scare me. i just got to produce the system. I’m assuming the first 3 your suggesting all grain. Next 3 are my hop additions. And then obviously the yeast. Elaborate on the “flame-out” and “dry hopping” I havent gotten as far to experiment with this yet.
you are saying 2 oz of crystal and 2 oz of east kent. 1 each at 10 and 5?
I’m on top of this come Saturday morning.
Flame out additions are the hop additions you make when the boil is over and you shut off the heat. Dry hop is the addition you make later on after primary fermentation has ended. Flame out adds more flavor without adding to the bitterness of the beer. Dry hopping adds to the aroma. I usually have huge additions at these two stages of my brews but without tasting the beer i can’t really make a suggestion. The recipe i gave you earlier was simply to get you to the key SRM, IBUs, and alcohol content that Sam Adams has on their site. Before you brew, it will probably be a good idea to read How to Brew by John Palmer or do some more research on the internet.
I used honey malt for the first time today and it’s got a strong, sweet flavor. I think 2 pounds in a five gallon batch could be cloying. I’d cut it back to 8-10 ounces, but I haven’t tasted the beer either, so that’s a guess.
Agreed. Honey malt is soooooo cloying and sweet. I would never use more than 0.5lbs in a 5 gallons recipe. 2lbs would be undrinkable.
Good to know. I’ve never brewed with it. I simply added it until i got to the SRM that SA calls for. So…other than adding more of this malt how else would you boost the color to hit the same as SA? Provided that you wanted to strictly adhere to the recipe that SA has. Would you just boil it longer and more rigorous in order to caramelize it some?
I’m still gung ho about trying this. I think I will wait and further my reading in “How to Brew” first though. If anybody nails this before I get a chance let me know.
In general, I usually use a Carafa III or any dehusked roast malt in small amounts to boost color and at such a small amount it adds little to no flavor. At ~500L it doesn’t take much at all to darken the beer.
In your recipe you were using 2 row and SA’s website calls for THEIR Pale Ale malt. Who knows the L° of that malt but most Pale Ale malt is 3-4° L. This is going to make a pretty big difference when trying to make up color.
This is of course under the ASSUMPTION that the notes tell the whole story (this goes for any brewery’s site).
Good point, i was just talking to a brewer that uses a base malt that is 8.5L.
