Premium APA - 19/11/08 (photos added)

[fivetide]

Woohoo, mash on!

I'm knocking up a premium strength APA using Cascade. It's basically a stronger, more bitter, hoppier version of a Townes, and I've allowed plenty of headroom for inefficiencies resulting from a batch sparge. Big grain bill for me, and some stonking fresh 7.3%AA Cascade thanks to my friend Tom, who brews on an altogether higher plane than me with his own micro.

I'm a tad busy trying to ensure I don't mess anything up and have enough clean equipment to hand, but the thermobox is full and the recipe goes something like this:

Boxshed Premium APA
Date: 20/11/2008
Style: American Pale Ale
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Volume: 32.00 L
Boil Time: 90 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.0 %

Ingredients
6.5Kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) 96.3%
250g Wheat Malt (3.9 EBC) 3.7%
Protofloc Tablet (15 min)
1 Pkgs S-05

Batch Sparge
Mash Grain Weight: 6.75kg Mash PH: 5.4 PH
Grain Temperature: 13.0 C
Mash In Add 17.5L of water at 71.3C (65C) 90 min
Step Add 14.15L of water at 77.1 (70C) 10 min
Step Add 11L of water at 87.1C (75C) 10 min

Beer Profile
Estimated Original Gravity: 1.057 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.017
Estimated Color: 11.4 EBC
Bitterness: 47.8 IBU
Alpha Acid Units: 3.0 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 5.3%

[Whorst]

Sounds good. I have a feeling your final gravity will be much lower than 1.017.

[oblivious]

Whats is your hop profile going to be?

[fivetide]

Trust me to leave off the fun bit.

Hop profile
90min boil
Cascade, 7.3%AA, 45g at 90 min
Cascade, 7.3%AA, 25g at 15 min
Cascade, 60g at flame out
Bitterness: 47.8 IBUs

I'm expecting crisp, citrus, floral, powerful. I may also dry-hop - we'll see.

First hops in now, incidentally...

[The Mighty Badger]

Have a good brew - any plans for the odd piccy?

[fivetide]

Definitely. I'll stick a couple of photos up here and a dozen or more on my site this evening.

They'll be a bit similar to every other brewday though (unless of course something spectacular goes wrong), but my mashtun really came into its own with the bigger grain bill and large (for me) batches.

Just waiting out the rolling boil right now.

[The Mighty Badger]

The may all look the same but we all seem to like looking none the less. Perhaps its a trigger to switch off and daydream about beer for five minutes when you should be working...

[DarloDave]

I like the pictures, they are good for newbies like me in getting a wider picture of things to do, or ill notice someones done something a bit different and think "oh thats a good idea"

[fivetide]

Well the boil has been going an hour, the hops smell fantastic, and I've rigged up the hosepipes and tracked down the Protafloc. Lots of nice new Cascades going in shortly. And then lots more after that. The Beersmith batch sparge calculator clearly didn't work again, and I could drain the tun a little more if I needed too, but I adjusted as I went and all is well. I'm just using rehydrated sachet yeast this time round - must order some more from Paul at Barley Bottom when I get paid...

Better get back to it...

[adm]

That sounds great.

Not sure yet what I'm going to brew tomorrow - and yesterday I forgot to make a starter for either of the liquid yeasts I've got in....so it's S04 or US05.

Hmmm....maybe a porter......

[yashicamat]

This looks very similar to my "Harry's IPA" which I brewed a few weeks ago. That started at 1059 and finished at 1009! That's Nottingham for you . . .

[fivetide]

For anyone interested in my brew noodling, I've now added a couple of blurry videos and 20 pictures to my website detailing the APA brewday - I hope they are of use to somebody out there - please leave me some comments if you can be bothered

All the very best to any of you with brewdays planned today or over the weekend - hopefully I'll be out playing in the snow! Cheers all.

[Whorst]

That's going to be a good one. I may have to brew something along those lines for New Year's.

[fivetide]

This APA is now looking gold and happy in secondary and is down to the target 1.018 from 1.058. Smells fantastic, tastes promising! No photos, sorry.

[mysterio]

Looks great, i'd pretty much call that an IPA

I've still got some Cascade knocking about in the freezer from last year, wonder if they're still alright...