Conundrum Pale Ale

This was a brew for the brew club challenge to define and compare pale ale. I see in my notes that I call this a session IPA actually, but is there a difference?

Edit yellow cells in System Setup. Edit green cells for recipe creation. DO NOT edit red or blue cells.					System Setup
Volume into Fermenter	3.5	gal	13248 grams		Brewhouse efficiency		0.7	%
Boil Time	60	min			Boil off rate		0.5	gal/hour
Select Style	American Pale Ale		<-- Style Guideline		Loss in kettle		0.2	gal
Expected OG / FG	1.043	1.009	1.045 - 1.060	1.010 - 1.015	Yeast attenuation		0.8
Expected ABV	4.5	%	4.5 - 6.2	%	Grain Absorption		0.11	gal/lb
Expected Bitterness	45.8	IBUs	30 - 45	IBUs	Loss in MashTun		0	gal
Grain Build
Grain Name	Amount (lbs)	Eff (optional)		Hop Schedule
Pilsner	2		907g (33%)	Hop Name	Alpha Acid %	Amount (oz)	Time (min)	IBUs
Golden Promise	2		907g (33%)	Columbus	15	0.27	60	24.0
White Wheat	0.7		318g (11%)	Pride of Ringwood (Hop-Stand)	8.6	0.15	60	7.6
Caramel 20	0.56		254g (9%)	Crystal	3.7	0.4	15	4.7
				Columbus	15	0.26	5	7.2
				Crystal (Hop-Stand)	4	0.3	5	2.2
Malt Extract
DME	0.6	24.6	272.2 grams
LME		0
Adjuncts / Sugars	Amount (lbs)	Gravity Units		Columbus		0.5	dry - 2d
				Pride of Ringwood		0.2	dry - 2d
				Crystal		0.3	dry - 2d
Total Gravity Points		160.0976
Brew Day Instructions
Desired Mash Temp	153	F	67.2 C
Mash Water Volume	2.5	gal (1.90qt/lb)	9463 grams
Grain Temperature	70	F	21.1 C
Strike Temperature	160.95	F	71.6 C
Grain Absorption Loss	0.5786	gal	2190 grams
Sparge water needed	2.2786	gal	8625 grams
Pre-boil gravity=1.038	Pre-boil volume=4.2gal

As one would expect nothing remarkable about brewing a pale ale. This was a BIAB brew.

Came out pretty hoppy, but maybe not as malty as I was going for. I submitted this one to the enchanted brewing challenge so hopefully get good feedback on this style that I'm non to fond of. 

Daniel Belgian Dark

This beer was inspired by the man whom I bought my stir plate from on etsy. I love the stir plate btw, and this beer, while not as strong as Daniel's, still could use the yeast starter. I also found this Omega yeast (Belgian Ale R) was very slow to start up. I also got to try making invert sugar for this brew.
The recipe:

Edit yellow cells in System Setup. Edit green cells for recipe creation. DO NOT edit red or blue cells.					System Setup
Volume into Fermenter	3.5	gal	13248 grams		Brewhouse efficiency		0.6	%
Boil Time	70	min			Boil off rate		0.5	gal/hour
Select Style	American Pale Ale		<-- Style Guideline		Loss in kettle		0.2	gal
Expected OG / FG	1.072	1.014	1.045 - 1.060	1.010 - 1.015	Yeast attenuation		0.8
Expected ABV	7.5	%	4.5 - 6.2	%	Grain Absorption		0.11	gal/lb
Expected Bitterness	23.1	IBUs	30 - 45	IBUs	Loss in MashTun		0.1	gal
Grain Build
Grain Name	Amount (lbs)	Eff (optional)		Hop Schedule
Pale Ale	7		3175g (73%)	Hop Name	Alpha Acid %	Amount (oz)	Time (min)	IBUs
Briess C20	1.4	0.7	635g (15%)	Pride f Ringwood	10	0.35	70	17.0
Special B	0.35	0.75	159g (4%)	Pride f Ringwood	10	0.3	10	6.1
Malt Extract
DME	0.5	20.5	226.8 g (5%)
LME		0
Adjuncts / Sugars	Amount (lbs)	Gravity Units
Darkened Sugar	0.5	38	226.8 g (7%)
D-180	1	38	453.6 g (14%)
Total Gravity Points		266.353
Brew Day Instructions
Desired Mash Temp	154	F	67.8 C
Mash Water Volume	3.5	gal (1.60qt/lb)	13248 grams
Grain Temperature	70	F	21.1 C
Strike Temperature	163.56	F	73.1 C
Grain Absorption Loss	0.9625	gal	3643 grams
Sparge water needed	1.745833333	gal	6608 grams
Pre-boil gravity=1.064	Pre-boil volume=4.3gal

Making invert sugar was pretty easy (after burning the first batch), just go slow and add water to reduce the temp until the color got to where I wanted it. I did this several days in advance of the brew.

I started the yeast starter in a 1L flask, but it took two days before it really seemed like it was working. This delayed the start date, so a second round of yeast propagation was done after a few days in a 1gal fermenter just to get a massive amount of healthy soldiers. 

Brew day was straightforward as I recall. I also used for the first time an O2 stone that I got for beefy brews like this one. Gave the thing some O2 on day2 along with adding the D-180 sugar.

In the secondary I used a heating pad to warm the carboy to 77F just to try to dry out the beer a little. Other than that, nothing really remarkable. As usual no FG measurement, but it's not cloying to me. The esters are good, the sugars added a nice raisin-ish character I was hoping for. All in all I would definitely repeat the beer. Also submitted two bottles to the Enchanted brewing challenge, so we'll have objective reviews soon hopefully.