American Pale Ale - Recipe Help

[louiscowdroy]

Hi folks,

Thinking of doing an Amercan Pale Ale.

Does anyone have a good recipe for 19L i could try please?

Kindest regards

Louis ))

Oh and thank you in advance.......

[Barley Water]

Well, there are a couple of ways to play that game. One way has a fair amount of crystal malt in the grist, similar to what you guys do there across the pond. The other option (and the one I like just a bit better for this style) is to reduce or completely eliminate the crystal malts which is going to give you a dryer beer (which will also accentuate the hops more). Depending on your water and your taste in hops, there are several ways to go. I personally have medium hard water and I'm pretty picky about the hops I'll use; I favor low cohumolone hops and I'm a big fan of "bursting" (and I'll spare you my rant concerning Chinook hops). Anyhow you want a beer with an O.G. of roughly 1.050 and bitterness of about say 40 IBU's with agressive hop flavor and aroma and you want the classic "pine tree/grapefruit", think IPA Lite. Hopefully all that helps, just get on one of those online calculators and start fooling around with formulations, there are a million possible permutations. It's really fun to come up with your own creation.

[louiscowdroy]

Thank mate,

Well, our water is quite soft here, would you recommend a buffer in the mash??

I use Beer Engine on my PC, just wondered maybe Pale Malt (Maybe 6 Row), some Crystal for body, and Torrified Wheat for head and mouth feel.....but as a good friend Seymour said....its the Hops that complete the Beer......Cascade, Amerillo...etc.....

Could i ask your thoughts??

Kind regards

Louis ))

Well, there are a couple of ways to play that game. One way has a fair amount of crystal malt in the grist, similar to what you guys do there across the pond. The other option (and the one I like just a bit better for this style) is to reduce or completely eliminate the crystal malts which is going to give you a dryer beer (which will also accentuate the hops more). Depending on your water and your taste in hops, there are several ways to go. I personally have medium hard water and I'm pretty picky about the hops I'll use; I favor low cohumolone hops and I'm a big fan of "bursting" (and I'll spare you my rant concerning Chinook hops). Anyhow you want a beer with an O.G. of roughly 1.050 and bitterness of about say 40 IBU's with agressive hop flavor and aroma and you want the classic "pine tree/grapefruit", think IPA Lite. Hopefully all that helps, just get on one of those online calculators and start fooling around with formulations, there are a million possible permutations. It's really fun to come up with your own creation.

[Paddy Bubbles]

It's often recommended to reduce the amount of crystal malts in hoppy beers, but I find my palate likes a good caramel sweetness in hoppy beers. I do 19 litre batches too and use about 350-450g of crystal. I'd recommend you use a lighter crystal to begin with (<40L).

For hops, you can't go wrong with 3 additions (1oz/28g each) of Cascade, at 15, 5 and 0 minutes. Amarillo is great if you can get your hands on some of the new 2012 harvest, but they're disappearing fast. Adjust your IBU by varying your 60 minute addition. I love Columbus for both bittering and flavouring, but you could use a cleaner bittering hop like Magnum or Northern Brewer. Dry-hop with another oz of hops.

Some biscuit malt (say 100g) makes a lovely addition to an American pale ale. I often use CaraPils for head retention, even when I'm using a decent amount of crystal, as I find I get great results with it.

Hope this is helpful.

[louiscowdroy]

Thats brilliant,

I think i've only got normal crystal at the moment and i'm desperate to brew this weekend. I've got Nottingham, Windsor or Whitelabs Dry English Ale.....

Which one do you think would be best used for an American Pale Ale??

Kind regards Louis ))

[Paddy Bubbles]

My preference would be for Safale US-05 (or its liquid equivalent, Whitelabs WLP001/Wyeast 1056), but a lot of American craft pale ales are fermented with a dry English yeast. So, the "Whitelabs Dry English ale" would be most suitable. That's the WLP007 isn't it?

Are you doing extract/partial mash/all-grain?

[Barley Water]

Well first of all, if you have soft water you can add more hops than I can (having medium hard water myself) without them getting really harsh. Additionally, soft water is not as alkaline so the mash ph will tend to be lower which is a good thing. I use that 5.2 buffer stuff on all the beers I make because then I don't have to worry about the ph getting out of wack. If you wanted to sharpen up your beers you could add minerals but frankly I don't know that I would bother.

American pale ales don't have the really nice malt body that the good English stuff does because we use American 2 row which just does not have the depth of flavor. If I remember correctly, the last attempt I made at that style was American 2 row with about 6 ounces or so of Amber malt. Of course, you can add bisquet malt or small amounts of other specialty malts plus crystal if you want to go that direction. Bear in mind that at some point if you add too much crystal malt you'll end up with and American Amber ale, not that there is anything wrong with that by the way. As I said, I would hop it such that it has maybe 40 IBU's of bitterness then add the remaining hops very late in the boil and probably dry hop as well. I like to bitter with Warrior because it is a low cohumolone hop but is very high alpha acid thereby reducing the vegital matter in the copper. I'm personally very big on Simcoe and Amarillo for flavor and aroma and when I get a chance I want to mess with Citra as well (all are also low cohumolone). You can also use the other "C" hops as well, especially late in the boil since they wont add significantly to the bitterness of the beer. One other thing you can do is add some Chinook late in the process or even dry hop with it. Without getting on my soapbox as I personally wouldn't do this but that hop will add an extremely resion/grapefruit/pine flavor to the beer and it absolutely reeks to high heaven. It is extremely distinctive and many people just adore that flavor and aroma; I just don't happen to be one of them. In my opinion the difference between a good and a great APA (and IPA for that matter also) is how the hops come across, they can be very bitter but they should never be harsh.

As far a yeast goes, most would probably use the Chico strain and it comes both in dry and liquid form. Some brewers do use English yeast but just run it a little cold to avoid too much yeast expression, it's a way to make your beer just slightly unique. By the way, I almost always use liquid yeast however I tried the dry Chico strain on a hop bursted American wheat beer and was very happy with the results. If I want to use the Chico strain I believe I will now always go with the dried version, it's cheaper and much easier to use (ie; I don't need to worry about making a starter). Anyhow, let us know what you end up doing and how it come out and good luck.

[louiscowdroy]

All Grain buddy......

Regards

Louis

My preference would be for Safale US-05 (or its liquid equivalent, Whitelabs WLP001/Wyeast 1056), but a lot of American craft pale ales are fermented with a dry English yeast. So, the "Whitelabs Dry English ale" would be most suitable. That's the WLP007 isn't it?

Are you doing extract/partial mash/all-grain?

[louiscowdroy]

Wow,

Thats amazing, thank you so much for your insight and guidance.

Could i ask you what the Chico strain means please?.......Do you mean Safeale 04/05....???

I will take pics and post them on here if you like......

Louis )

Well first of all, if you have soft water you can add more hops than I can (having medium hard water myself) without them getting really harsh. Additionally, soft water is not as alkaline so the mash ph will tend to be lower which is a good thing. I use that 5.2 buffer stuff on all the beers I make because then I don't have to worry about the ph getting out of wack. If you wanted to sharpen up your beers you could add minerals but frankly I don't know that I would bother.

American pale ales don't have the really nice malt body that the good English stuff does because we use American 2 row which just does not have the depth of flavor. If I remember correctly, the last attempt I made at that style was American 2 row with about 6 ounces or so of Amber malt. Of course, you can add bisquet malt or small amounts of other specialty malts plus crystal if you want to go that direction. Bear in mind that at some point if you add too much crystal malt you'll end up with and American Amber ale, not that there is anything wrong with that by the way. As I said, I would hop it such that it has maybe 40 IBU's of bitterness then add the remaining hops very late in the boil and probably dry hop as well. I like to bitter with Warrior because it is a low cohumolone hop but is very high alpha acid thereby reducing the vegital matter in the copper. I'm personally very big on Simcoe and Amarillo for flavor and aroma and when I get a chance I want to mess with Citra as well (all are also low cohumolone). You can also use the other "C" hops as well, especially late in the boil since they wont add significantly to the bitterness of the beer. One other thing you can do is add some Chinook late in the process or even dry hop with it. Without getting on my soapbox as I personally wouldn't do this but that hop will add an extremely resion/grapefruit/pine flavor to the beer and it absolutely reeks to high heaven. It is extremely distinctive and many people just adore that flavor and aroma; I just don't happen to be one of them. In my opinion the difference between a good and a great APA (and IPA for that matter also) is how the hops come across, they can be very bitter but they should never be harsh.

As far a yeast goes, most would probably use the Chico strain and it comes both in dry and liquid form. Some brewers do use English yeast but just run it a little cold to avoid too much yeast expression, it's a way to make your beer just slightly unique. By the way, I almost always use liquid yeast however I tried the dry Chico strain on a hop bursted American wheat beer and was very happy with the results. If I want to use the Chico strain I believe I will now always go with the dried version, it's cheaper and much easier to use (ie; I don't need to worry about making a starter). Anyhow, let us know what you end up doing and how it come out and good luck.

[john_drummer]

here's one I did a couple of weeks ago. conditioning at the moment so I can't say what it tastes like, but I did get a hit when bottling. It was very nice even then...

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=55333

[Rookie]

S-05 is the chico strain. It's the main yeast used by Sierra Nevada which is located in Chico, California.

This one turned out pretty good: Three S pale, !.055, 30 IBUs
86% Rahr 2-row (or pale ale malt)
7% vienna malt
3 1/2% crystal 40
3 1/2% crystal 80
4/5 ounce saphir to FWH
1/5 ounce simcoe, 1/5 ounce summit, 2/5 ounce saphir for 45 minutes
pinch of irish moss for 15 minutes
1/5 ounce summit, 1/5 ounce sapir to steep for 20 minutes
S-05
mash at 153f for 45 minutes

[seymour]

S-05 is the chico strain. It's the main yeast used by Sierra Nevada which is located in Chico, California.

Right. It's the #1 yeast used by microbreweries throughout America, increasingly at some megabreweries, and now spreading like wildfire across the UK and Europe as well. It's clean and convenient, an unfailing workhorse but otherwise boring, yet (be that as it may) definitely more true-to-style than anything else for American Pale Ale. It was acquired by Sierra Nevada from the Siebel Institute yeast archive in Chicago, and went on to become the most influential beer/brewery in the Craft Beer Revolution of the 1980s-90s. The original strain was brought to the USA in the late 1800s by the British immigrant brewmaster of Ballantine in New Jersey, but over many generations of modern brewing, most of the English ale yeast characteristics have been bred-out, almost to the point of lager neutrality. Because of it's historical lineage, there are members here who stubbornly insist on calling it UK-05, and counting it among English ale yeasts, which is hilarious to me, because I wouldn't think you'd want to claim this bastard

It's available as Safale US-05, White Labs WLP001, Wyeast 1056, BSI-1/A-56/96, probably some other generic dry yeasts, Sierra Nevada bottle culture, and countless other ways. We just say "Chico", for short, to refer to any of the above.

[louiscowdroy]

Thanks buddy,

I think i'm going to probably go with 05.......but i've ordered 3 or 4 whitelabs just in case......

What do you think of that Bohimien Pilsner Malt......???

Kind regards

Louis ))

S-05 is the chico strain. It's the main yeast used by Sierra Nevada which is located in Chico, California.

Right. It's the #1 yeast used by microbreweries throughout America, increasingly at some megabreweries, and now spreading like wildfire across the UK and Europe as well. It's clean and convenient, an unfailing workhorse but otherwise boring, yet (be that as it may) definitely more true-to-style than anything else for American Pale Ale. It was acquired by Sierra Nevada from the Siebel Institute yeast archive in Chicago, and went on to become the most influential beer/brewery in the Craft Beer Revolution of the 1980s-90s. The original strain was brought to the USA in the late 1800s by the British immigrant brewmaster of Ballantine in New Jersey, but over many generations of modern brewing, most of the English ale yeast characteristics have been bred-out, almost to the point of lager neutrality. Because of it's historical lineage, there are members here who stubbornly insist on calling it UK-05, and counting it among English ale yeasts, which is hilarious to me, because I wouldn't think you'd want to claim this bastard

It's available as Safale US-05, White Labs WLP001, Wyeast 1056, BSI-1/A-56/96, probably some other generic dry yeasts, Sierra Nevada bottle culture, and countless other ways. We just say "Chico", for short, to refer to any of the above.

[seymour]

...What do you think of that Bohimien Pilsner Malt......???

I think it's great, but not for an American Pale Ale.

[louiscowdroy]

Why's that??....is it because its to much like Lager....or something??

Sorry for so many questions, still learning........steap learning curve....

Louis )

...What do you think of that Bohimien Pilsner Malt......???

I think it's great, but not for an American Pale Ale.