Help please! Planning an American Pale Ale after Christmas

[farmhousekeg]

I know all about your water since I was born in Glasgow and spent my first 24 years living there!

Great stuff, whereabouts?

I was born in Harriet Street, Pollokshaws and then lived in Lochlea Road, Newlands and finally in Crossmyloof, near the old Icerink (now Morrisons! ). Happy days..... Still have my parents living up there and I make the pilgramage to Hampden for most of the Scotland home games, along with my two lads. Though they were born here in Shropshire I have kept them locked up for the past 19 years for brainwashing purposes

[farmhousekeg]

I will give a contary opinion on using crystal malt. I tend to use around 500gms in my APA's but stick to Salfale 05, you'll find that this will eat it's way through the maltyness of the crystal. Also APA's are usually copper in colour rather than straw. I would also agree that you should stick to using just one hop type.

Cheers TC. I have used Crystal in my first 2 AGs albiet at a lower proportion and I am happy with their colour - not at all dark in fact. They were made with Muntons Gold (AG1) and Safale 04 (AG2). I think I will also like the colour to be a bit more golden rather than straw so I'll take your advice. I have Safale 05 on order from H&G though I didn't appreciate that it was also a malt eater - I simply chose it cos everyone on here recommends Safale 05 or Nottingham for an APA. Many thanks for the input, also on the hop issue.

[TC2642]

Glad to help, to give you some idea of how attenuative this yeast is, the last time I made an APA I started at 1042 and it finished at 1006, this gave me a nice balance between the hops and the malt. You'll quickly work out and tone your own recipes to what you like. I used a small percentage of sugar between 5-10% to help it dry out a bit too. I hope it's a good one!

[clogwog]

2 out of 5 of my brews are APAs.

This is one I brewed last August, and I rate it my best beer to date. Complex malt profile, well balanced with the hops, giving terrific Cascade flavour and aroma.

Brew Type: All Grain Date: 13/08/2008
Style: American Pale Ale Brewer: Robert
Batch Size: 23.00 L Assistant Brewer: Elsie the Pug
Boil Volume: 29.50 L Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 % Equipment: My Equipment
Actual Efficiency: 94.17 %

Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.25 kg Pale Ale (5.9 EBC) Grain 83.33 %
0.50 kg Munich (15.0 EBC) Grain 9.80 %
0.20 kg Wheat (4.0 EBC) Grain 3.92 %
0.05 kg Amber (100.0 EBC) Grain 0.98 %
0.05 kg Chocolate Malt (689.5 EBC) Grain 0.98 %
0.05 kg Crystal (220.0 EBC) Grain 0.98 %
15.00 gm Northern Brewer [6.60 %] (60 min) Hops 10.8 IBU
12.00 gm Cascade [6.30 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 9.1 IBU
20.00 gm Northern Brewer [6.60 %] (15 min) Hops 7.1 IBU
25.00 gm Cascade [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 7.4 IBU
20.00 gm Cascade [5.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
1 Pkgs American Ale (Fermentis #US-05) Yeast-Ale

Measured Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.016 SG
Bitterness: 34.4 IBU (20.0-40.0 IBU) Alpha Acid Units: 15.7 AAU
Actual Alcohol by Volume: 5.74 %

Single infusion mash 66ºC for 70 minutes.

Don't be frightened of complex malt bills. Provided you have a good proportion of base malt, it only adds to the complexity of your beer. Same with hops.

[Trough Lolly]

Hi

I would like some advice please on a recipe I have dreamt up, partly from reading posts here, partly from my imagination, partly from using the Hop & Grain Recipe Formulator and partly due to what malts and hops I have left over! I am pretty new to AG. Done 2 AG brews so far on a very basic level with OK results but I miss a bit of hops in the beers I have made so far, thus the Cascade thing going on below and the perhaps high IBUs!

Here we go:
For a 23 litre brewlength, expected brewhouse efficiency of 65%. I am new and 65% is based on my last 2 brews though I will be using a new H&G 10 gallon boiler and a picnic plate Mash Tun in an old FV which I didn't use last time!

Pale Malt 5000g
Crystal Malt 500g
Wheat Malt 250g

The target OG for 23 litres at 65% efficiency is 1050

Hop Schedule for a 90 minute boil

Fuggles 4.3% AA 30g 80 minutes 15.14 IBU
Cascade 7.3% AA 30g 60 minutes 22.85 IBU
Cascade 7.3% AA 25g 20 minutes 11.9 IBU
Cascade 7.3% AA 20g 5 minutes 3.17 IBU

Total IBUs: 53.06
BU:GU Ratio: 1.07

I was wondering about the bittering hops? What proportion of the IBU's should I go for from the "base" hop in the 80 minute (or maybe 90 minute) boil? Should I increase that Fuggles a bit and reduce some of the 60 minute Cascade or have I gone completely off the rails!!
Comments will be much appreciated! I know from experience on JBK that you guys are the experts so please guide me!

That's not a bad recipe...If you want to brew an American APA, then you should be bittering with a typically American hop. Cascade is a fine mid-boil addition, but have you tried Simcoe or Amarillo? They are often considered to be a slightly more refined version of Cascade. On one of our aussie brew forums, we've been working at trying to come close to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale which is a very good example of an excellent APA. If you're interested in having a look at the recipe and discussion: click here...

Cheers,
TL

[macleanb]

I am sure that US05 is the "right" yeast style wise, but I have to say I rue the day I used this for my ABA. I can fart 30 feet from a bottle, and the sediment will stir up (let alone opening one!) This may be down to my sloppy secondary, but there's very little sediment, just very easily stirred up! Beer tastes grand, but usually have to lose a 1/4 to stop too much yeast in the glass...

[steve_flack]

I've actually intentionally added us-05 as a bottling yeast on occassion and have not found it to be that bad - obviously it's not as good as s-04 but not awful. In any event, if your kegging it then isinglass works a treat.

Likewise the attenuation, it's higher than with some other yeasts but I've never seen the super high attenuations others report. High 70's at most... Maybe I'm just lucky?

[farmhousekeg]

Thanks for all the great input above. I'll be making my false bottom mash tun over the next couple of days and hopefully the boiler and malts will arrive from H&G sometime in the first week of the New Year. I'll post the final recipe when I get organised.

More opinions are still - of course -very welcome.

[hoppingMad]

I would advocate dropping your crystal by 50 % and lowering your 60 min hop addition by quite a lot, or cutting it out altogether. Then up the IBU's by inceasing your late hops 15, 5, 0 min additions until you have your desired bitterness, then dry hopping with Amarillo with between 20 and 40 gms pellets.
Hopp.

[Trough Lolly]

I've actually intentionally added us-05 as a bottling yeast on occassion and have not found it to be that bad - obviously it's not as good as s-04 but not awful. In any event, if your kegging it then isinglass works a treat.

Likewise the attenuation, it's higher than with some other yeasts but I've never seen the super high attenuations others report. High 70's at most... Maybe I'm just lucky?

Agreed - most of my OG 1.050 APA's finish up at around 1.012 when I use US-05 / Wyeast 1056. Not that I mind that one bit - you don't need any dextrin malt when you have a finish at 1.012...

Cheers,
TL

[farmhousekeg]

Thanks for all the great input above. I'll be making my false bottom mash tun over the next couple of days and hopefully the boiler and malts will arrive from H&G sometime in the first week of the New Year. I'll post the final recipe when I get organised.

More opinions are still - of course -very welcome.

My mash tun is now complete, along the lines of Daabs false bottom mash tun as featured here on JBK! Also insulated with an old camping mat as also seen somewhere on this forum - sorry can't remember who to give the credit for that idea. Tested with water at 66C and it seems to perform well. Temp drop was about 1 - 2C over an hour and the dead space in the false bottom was only about half a litre.

Unfortunately H&G have supply problems with the elements for their boilers so I am still waiting for mine to be delivered but can't wait to go ahead.

The final recipe is currently under refinement but the thinking is:
reduce the Crystal a little to about 300g,
skip the Fuggles altogether,
use 100% Cascade hops to get a feel for it in this first APA (and order some Amarillo for the next batch!!),
lower the earlier hop additions and pile in plenty Cascade at 15 minutes or less
maybe dry hop in the fermenter after the bubbling subsides (this batch will be bottled)

Thanks again for all the help. I'll keep this thread updated when I get going.

[flytact]

Just two quick comments: you may want to first wort hop the 20 minute addition as this does wonders for my house APA and consider Centennial if the Cascade is hard to find. I like it much better.

Have fun.

[farmhousekeg]

Just two quick comments: you may want to first wort hop the 20 minute addition as this does wonders for my house APA and consider Centennial if the Cascade is hard to find. I like it much better.

Have fun.

Cheers flytact - just for my understanding can you explain what you mean by "first wort hop"? Sorry for the dumb question but I am still learning!

[flytact]

Take your 20 minute addition and put it in the kettle and sparge on top of that. So in effect, the 20 minute hops are getting steeped in the pre-boiled wort adn then leave them in. I won't even pretend to know the details of how it works, but the result is a refined hoppiness. I like doing itn very much, when I remember of course.
For more info do a search either here or on google for FWH or "first wort hopping".

[farmhousekeg]

Take your 20 minute addition and put it in the kettle and sparge on top of that. So in effect, the 20 minute hops are getting steeped in the pre-boiled wort adn then leave them in.

Ahhhh I would never have guessed that! Thanks for the explanation!