American Pale Ale

[Mitcho]

Any suggestions on yeast and hops (weights and times for boiling hops) and any ideas on dry hopping?

Cheers all.

 

[bum]

For a dry yeast for this style it is hard to go past US-05. For liquid I'm really enjoying Wyeast 1272 right now. For typical APA hops it is hard to go past the so called C hops (primarily Cascade, Chinook and Centennial but there are others (even some good ones that don't start with C!)). Amounts and times are hard to say without knowing more about what you're trying to do - there isn't just one APA, yeah?

 

[Aus_Rider_22]

There's a few good APA style recipes in the recipeDB for kit and extract brews. Check out Dr. Smurto's Golden Ale and also a recent thread in here of Neil's Centarillo Ale. A good clean yeast for this style is the very popular US-05.

Generally a good schedule for hops is something like 15 @ 60, 20 @ 20, 20 @ 5 and 20 @ 0. Pick a hop type or 2 and follow that schedule with 3kgish of LME and US05 and you will be well on the way to making a tasty APA type beer!

 

[manticle]

Mate you've got to do a bit of reading and research for yourself. That kind of question is like how blue is the sky.

I realise you're probably new to the game and we all have questions (including me) some of which are very basic.

However you need to make an effort to inform yourself and there is a wealth of information on what constitutes an APA. If you have some more specific questions like (eg) 'how would this kit go with these hops', 'should I use a hop bag or just add hops straight in to dry hop', or 'does anyone have a good pale ale recipe that uses cascade and centennial together' then we might be able to help more.

Work on some ideas and ask some more specific questions about what you think you want to brew. Generally APAs will use american hops (no surprise) a fair wack of late hops (can be subtle, can be extreme) and a neutral yeast. Beyond that you'll need to develop some more ideas on what you want (even a commercial comparison is a start).

 

[Hatchy]

I've got an APA going at the moment that tasted pretty good the other day when I got a SG reading before I dry hopped. I'll stick the recipe on here when I get home & have my brew diary handy

 

[Mobbee007]

Hey mate I've done 2 APA's that turned out more amber than pale but they tasted bloody noice!
Hops were
35gms Cascade (6.3%) @ 60mins
15gms Cascade (6.3%) @ 15 mins
25gms Amarillo (8.5%) @ 5 mins
25gms Amarillo (8.5%) dry hopped after day 4
S-05 yeast
the 2nd was as above but change Amarillo for Nelson Sauvin (11.5%) and reused yeast from 1st batch
for dry hopping just chucked them straight into fermenter
right or wrong I was just playing about with recipes and what I had/was recommended by more knowledgeable mates
good luck & hope that helps

 

[Bizier]

Centennial!Centennial!Centennial!

 

[Mitcho]

Thanks for the info all, and yeah, point taken Manticle.

I have looked on this site for a few different APA recipes and have come across a lot of different variations on an APA, with most seeming to suggest using one of the "C" hops.

The reason I asked such a broad type of question, is that I have tried a few of the APA style craft brews on the commercial market at the moment (such as Bridge Road Brewers Pale Ale, Crackenback Pale Ale, and for anyone in Adelaide, the Lobethal Beirhaus Pale Ale) and they all have a really hoppy taste to them. With my limited experience in using hops, I was wondering if anyone had managed to replicate something similar to this if they've tried these beers.

 

[manticle]

There are various ways to get that. At the risk of telling you something you already know, hops boiled in a wort for anything more than 30 minutes will add mainly bittering. Hops added after will move into adding mainly flavour and hops added beyond 15 minutes and into end of boil and dry hopping will give aroma.

There is obviously crossover - 20* minute additions will be strong flavour additions but contribute to some bitterness for example.

Therefore to get strong hop flavour, you need to consider a boil with hops boiled for 15 -20 minutes. Aroma additions will only encourage this as aroma and flavour are inextricably linked.

You can add a big flavour addition and boil for 20 minutes, a big aroma addition either 5 minutes out or at the end of a boil and then add some more hops at the end of fermentation. This is one way.

You can also experiment with hop bursting which is essentially adding small amounts of hops at very regular and frequent intervals in the latter 30 minutes of a boil (could be every 5 minutes or if you are super keen - could be every 1 minute).

You'll need to look at the flavour profiles of the hops you are playing with to find balance. All hops have different flavours - centennial is very orange/grapefruit, cascade is very grapefruit, amarillo is vaguely reminiscent of mandarin, chinook is quite resinous and piney (as in pine tree to my palate rather than pineapple) etc. Some New zealand hops are also very strong and fruity (eg Nelson Sauvin - passionfruit).

Whatever you do - my personal recommendation is that a successful APA or AIPA balances the forward hopping with a malt backbone. The focus is on the hops and the malt is background but it is present - in the same way an english malty bitter should have a recognisable hop bitterness to balance the sweet.

Lots of people here are hopheads (me not so much) and APAs are very popular here so you will find a lot of people who have tried and exceeded their APA/AIPA expectations. While not my favourite beers I can tell you that amarillo is a superb hop in paler and darker beers and cascade and centennial work very well together for a refreshing pale summer beer.

*20 minute refers to 20 minutes from the end of the boil (so therefore that hop addition boiled in total for 20 mins). If you see a recipe that states 50g of x hop @30 minutes it means 30 minutes from the end is when that hop is added - boil is usually 60 but can sometimes be 75 or 90 or 120 or whatever the brewer wants.

 

[Mitcho]

Thanks for the advice manticle. I guess at the end of the day you just gotta try somethings. Cheers

 

[Dazza_devil]

I think that a good place to start when attempting to brew a particular style is the BJCP Style Guidelines, I don't have the link handy but you can download it.
I also have a copy of 'Brewing Classic Styles' by Jamil and Palmer which is handy.
The Craftbrewer website also has a lot of info on each particular grain, hop and yeast that is available.
There are also a lot of recipes and threads on here that will give you other's view on things.

Edited to add that IanH's spreadsheet is invaluable when it comes to what amounts of everything to use.

 

[Sydneybrewer]

here is an example of a really good recipe i made (well kind of half plagiarized off an american homebrew site) in a similar vein to sierra nevada pale ale, little creatures pale ale and matilda bay alpha pale ale when i was doing all extracts.

2x 1.5 tins pale lme
1kg amber dme
in approx 12 litres of water bring the 1kg dme to a rolling boil and add
15g magnum @ 60 mins
15g centennial @ 30 mins
30g centennial @ 10 mins
30g centennial @ dry hopped in fermenter at high krausen (approx 2-3 days into fermentation)
add cold water to top up to 23 litres in fermenter
ferment at 18-20 degrees
us-05 dry yeast

og: 1.056
fg: 1.014
ibu: 30.2
ebc: 9.2
abv: 5.6%

this is a very good example of the style imho, and drinks extremely well.

p.s. very important to get the temp down as i have found out the hard way, use ice blocks, leave overnight, anything, very easy if you have a temp fridge... if you do not get the temp down under at least 21 before pitching yeast it will have an unripened banana aftertaste, i speak from experience lol.

 

[Bizier]

Also a big point to take note of in brewing balanced hoppy beers is that you need to chill them quickly after the heat is switched off (0 minutes). If you take a long while to get the heat down, the hops lose their aroma and make a more firmly bitter beer, which is probably not desirable. I have tasted a few 'noob' beers that have been surprisingly bitter and un-aromatic.

This is largely due to the fact that some of the wonderful hops you can use for great APA aroma aroma (eg Centennial, Amarillo or whatever) have high alpha acids (bitterness) as well as being high in oils, which provide the aroma. You want to get the hops hot to release everything, and then cold pretty quickly so that the oils stick around, and the alpha acids are not isommerised more than desired. So, if you plan on a 5 minute aroma addition, you want it to get the boiled wort as cold as possible, as quick as possible after the 0 minute mark.

It is my opinion that if you can't organise to chill adequately, then you might be better erring on the side of caution. Add smaller 'flavour' late additions while hot, expecting them to over-isommerise. Leave the aroma side to heavier dry hopping, which is pretty hard to stuff up. I like a big aroma in my beers. Again, my opinion.

 

[Dazza_devil]

I've often wondered how long people leave their flameout additions sitting around before removing the hop sock or cooling.
I usually leave my hop sock in for a few minutes after flameout, jiggle jiggle then remove it and cool with some pre-boiled and chilled water from the fridge.

 

[Mitcho]

So just to clarify.

Do you guys leave the hops in the water and add the whole thing to the wort, or strain just the hopped water into the wort?

 

[Pete2501]

So just to clarify.

Do you guys leave the hops in the water and add the whole thing to the wort, or strain just the hopped water into the wort?

Wort = sugar + water.


For hop utilisation you're normally looking at a SG of 1.040. You add your hops to that while it's on the boil and bingo bango you start your timer.


I'm certain all the advice given so far regarding the amount of hops refers to a SG of 1.040. I'd be shocked otherwise.

 

[andrewl]

The easiest way is to put it in hop bags and remove at the end of the boil. You don't really want the hops that you've boiled up in the fermenter. When I first started brewing I did just that and basically put it all down the sink (the overall effect was an extremely harsh beer).
Dry hopping into secondary or whatever is all good though... Will give you nice aromatics.

 

[manticle]

So just to clarify.

Do you guys leave the hops in the water and add the whole thing to the wort, or strain just the hopped water into the wort?

Better to boil your hops in wort, not water. 1040 is often touted as the gravity that balances smoothness with optimum utilisation of bittering compounds. In extract terms, 100g dried malt extract equals approximately 1040 when added to 100mL water. If you have a recipe that calls for more extract than this, you can make the wort to 1040, boil and add hops, then add the remainder of the extract at the end of the boil.

@AndrewL - I think you'll find a lot of people add at least some hop trub to the fermenter without resulting harshness (including me).

 

[andrewl]

Your going to get some in there... But your not going to add all the hops that the recipe calls for to the fermenter once boiled... As I have done in the past and it tasted like horse shit

 

[manticle]

And I've done it before loads and had not a lick of horse arse in there. Maybe something else was responsible?

Nowadays I leave a good amount of trub behind in the kettle but I've added the lot in before without dramas (certainly no harshness). Are you boiling hops in wort or water?