What Weight of Hops for Golden Ale?

[Will808]

Hope someone can help me out with this - I'm on my first "recipe" attempt, base on Bath Ales Golden Hare, which from their own label is straightforward Maris Otter and East Kent Goldings. I've tinkered with the grain a little to add some biscuity type flavour and a bit of head retention, but I have no idea what sort of amount of EKG to use. To put this in context, Mrs. Will doesn't like it too bitter, and I'm after a lovely light summer pint, so I'm working on:

4.45kg Maris Otter
0.3kg Amber malt
0.15kg Wheat Malt

EKG 60 min 17g
EKG 15 min 17g
EKG 0 min 20g

Nottingham Yeast

According to Beersmith, this gives me 4.56 ABV, 16.9 IBU, and 13.2 EBC. The colour looks about right but I could really use some experienced comments on the hops, and possibly the yeast.

Thanks for any help

[HighHops]

Hey Wil! Can't tell without knowing your efficiency or brew length, but I'm guessing your OG is about 1050. A low hop bitterness is about 0.5 IBU/OG ratio so that would be 25 IBU / 50 OG (from 1050 OG). So I think you need to up your bitterness hops a bit to balance the malt. Aim for 25-30 IBU for a nice balanced ale with low hop bitterness, so thats probably double your bitterness hops to 34g.

I like amber malt but 300g could dominate the flavour. Cut it back to 100-150g for your first go. You can always add more next time.

[Will808]

Hi HighHops,

Brilliant, thank you very much for the suggestion - I'll give that a try and see how we go. That's the benefit of starting a summer ale early