My first APA - comments welcome

[staplefordbill]

Going to have a go at my first APA next weekend. It's also the first time I've developed a recipe (using Beer Engine) so what do you think? I'm aiming for a very pale beer with lots of grapefruity bitterness and bags of aroma. Similar to Castle Rock's Harvest Pale or Brewdog's Punk IPA. It's got to have one or more of Challenger, Amarillo and Cascade as I have 100 grams of each but no other hops in at the mo. Would the amarillo overwhelm the cascade or do they complement each other? I'm thinking of dry hopping too but I'd have to buy a tea ball. With my last brew I had a nightmare with whole hops clogging up the syphon.

Yeast will be Safale US-05. Not used it before but I'm hoping it will have a neutral taste so the hops dominate.

Pale Malt 6120 grams
Torrefied Wheat 125 grams

Challenger Whole 7.6 % 90 mins 57 grams
Amarillo Whole 9.5 % 10 mins 23 grams
Cascade Whole 5.7 % 10 mins 23 grams

Final Volume: 25 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.060
Final Gravity: 1.014
Alcohol Content: 6% ABV
Total Liquor: 36.7 Litres
Mash Liquor: 15.6 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 80 %
Bitterness: 50 EBU
Colour: 10 EBC

[pas8280]

Nothing wrong with your recipe all three hops blend nicely together but with 100g of each you could reduce the first wort hops and have more additions 15 an 5 min ones to get the ibu's back up and do a 80c steep addition. That's only my tuppence worth but you can't beat a big hop blast

[yogester]

Looks good. I would just go all pale - i don't like torry though... your mileage may vary. don't worry about not getting a head with all pale.

I would also add a combination of 1 min, 85ºC steep and dry hopping or all of the above for a true APA experience.

[WishboneBrewery]

yeah, what they said
Malts:
You could give it a touch of Munich malt and a couple of different Crystal malts if you fancied to give it a nice malty background (to totally not essential)
Hops:
I'd just give it another addition, similar or bigger than the 10min additions at Flame-out or an 80c Steep for 20-30mins.

[yogester]

Munich is always great. My IPA go-to malt bill is 85% Pale, 10% Munich, 5% CaraGold.

No need for tea ball. Pantyhose with a weight inside works well too as does cheese-cloth (again weighted - I use a heavy bottomed shot glass).

[staplefordbill]

Wow, loads of great suggestions there. Thanks guys! I might give the torrefied wheat a miss then, and I'll definitely add more late hops as the bigger the aroma the better. I probably won't be able to get hold of the malts in time for the weekend so I'll try them next time round.

I realised I can't use a tea ball as it won't fit into the neck of my secondary fermenter (a Better Bottle) so I'm going to use a weighted muslin bag instead.

[yogester]

Wow, loads of great suggestions there. Thanks guys! I might give the torrefied wheat a miss then, and I'll definitely add more late hops as the bigger the aroma the better. I probably won't be able to get hold of the malts in time for the weekend so I'll try them next time round.

I realised I can't use a tea ball as it won't fit into the neck of my secondary fermenter (a Better Bottle) so I'm going to use a weighted muslin bag instead.

An all pale bill works very well esp since is a good way to nail the hop bill for your first APA. Play around with malts next time. Best of luck!

[Alex NG]

I've just started a summer beer using lots of cascade & amarillo late on (centennial for bittering)

Had additions of Cascade & Amarillo at 20 mins, 5 mins, and flame-out.

I was also worried amarillo would over-power the cascade so used about 50% more cascade.

As I said in my other thread, I had a quick sip of it after 2 days in the primary and it tastes very nice indeed.

I was also aiming for something similar to Harvest Pale (which I drink a lot of) but with a slightly stronger and more fruity taste

[Kev888]

Looks very tasty to me too!

Of course, I'm no expert with recipies but the later hop additions sound good to me as well - i like to add an 80c steep and/or dry hops with my IPAs (I'm not so clued up on APAs but would assume its similar).

Cheers
kev

[Barley Water]

I think your formulatin looks good. If you want just a smidgen of malt completxity, try taking 1/2 a pound or so of your base malt and toasting it in the oven for a bit. That should give you a tad of toast keeping the beer pretty dry. There are a couple of ways to formulate an APA if you really want to brew like a "Yankee". One way is to use some crystal malt in the beer and the other us to keep the malt bill simple and go for a dry interpretation. Both are to style however I prefer the latter in an APA, but that's just me. Crystal malts will start giving you the residual sweetness and caramel like flavors and will start to cover up the hop bitterness. I personally think you British have the nutty/caramel/butterscotch flavors in beer covered and I don't think, generally speaking, that American beers do those flavors nearly as well. The other thing British beers feature is yeast character, we just don't do that over here either. When I think of American APA's and IPA's for that matter, I think in terms of hop delivery vehicles. Both styles are great just in different ways. If you want "American" beer, feature hops, keep the yeast clean and minimize malt flavors (remember American 2 row malt is not nearly as complex tasting and British ale malt). On the other hand, this is homebrewing, you get to do as you wish. Make the beer as is then taste it, if you want something different then by all means start messing with the variables, that's when it really gets fun.

[InsideEdge]

Just started drinking a stone IPA clone which was my first dry hopped beer. The dry hopping gives it a fantastic hoppy aroma, I will definately do this again on my next American style beer.

[staplefordbill]

Thanks all. Barley Water - that's really raised my understanding so let me raise a glass to you! I'm hoping the Safale S-05 will be fairly neutral, leave a dry beer and let the hops shine.

I now know for sure what I'd suspected: that US and hoppy beers are really in vogue at the moment and there's loads of interest on this side of the pond. I'll take some photos on brewday and keep you all posted on how it turns out.

[far9410]

Hi, just bought a tea ball( 50 mm) not tried it yet but if you,re gonna get one I would suggest bigger than this, it looks about big enough for a cup of tea, which is funny cos that's what its designed for.

[staplefordbill]

far9410 - thanks for that. I've bought a couple of muslin bags so I'm going to weight one of them down and give it a try. Tea balls won't fit in the neck of my Better Bottle so bags it is.

[Barley Water]

I think that yeast will do a credible job for you. By the way, the "cutting edge" on this side of the pond is now sour ales as well as/or in combination with wood aging. My favorite American IPA is Dogfish Head 60 and I have a pretty good recipe for it I can make at home. I am seriously thinking of making a batch then oaking it. I really have no idea how it would come out but I think it's good to add a bit of mystery once in awhile. Oh well, so many beers, so little time.