Pale ale advice

[Cozzyb]

Hi,

Just tried a Pale ale I made back in June, sadly I lost the recipe but I have a rough idea what is in it.

11ltr batch
90% Pale Malt
10% Cara Malt

Hops

Unknown 60 mins (40-50ibus worth of something)
Citra 10 mins 14g
Citra 5 mins 14g

So I love the smell and taste except for one thing which I want to change for the remake I will do this week/weekend. And that is, it is bitter, i.e. that tongue scraping/taste bud destroying bitter, nowhere near as bad as a brewdog ipa, but on its way, so is this simply a matter of dropping the 60min addition/using a cleaner hop or is it something else? I was thinking drop to say 30ibus?

So any advice?

[killer]

Yes it can be that simple..

Reducing the 60 min bittering charge to 30 IBU is a good idea and what I would do. You can use a clean bittering hop - Magnum or Warrior are good options - I used Apollo with my Citra IPA. To be honest most hops (but not all) are probably fine just for bittering.

The other option could be to up the FG which would decrease the apparent bitterness by making the beer sweeter.

But the first option is the best if you are happy about all other aspects of the beer.

[mabrungard]

Dropping the bittering down sounds like the appropriate approach if you targeted 40 to 50 IBU prior. That is quite high for a typical PA. I aim for about 35 to 38 IBU in a 1.053 OG PA and that is bitter, but almost balanced. 30 IBU would probably be too low. I don't recommend raising the mash temperature too high since that will reduce the dryness of the finish. You do want a dry finish with a lingering malt note.

I assume that your Cara malt is a medium colored malt? Carapils would not provide enough color or flavor to make a pleasing PA.

[JKaranka]

@mabrungard: caramalt is usually the very light crystal malt in the UK. It's ok in a pale ale, without much effect on the colour but some sweetness.

I'd definitively drop the IBUs in that unless you're brewing something around OG 1.060.