Feedback on APA recipe

[jwsg]

Hey all,

First post here.. I've read through a lot of the posts and info on AHB and they have all been really helpful, thanks .

I've done a few kit extract brews before and in my current brew I decided to move away from the kits so I could make a better and more custom beer. I would like to get some feedback on the method and ingredients used so I can make an improvement on my next brew which will be as soon as I bottle my current one. Any help would be appreciated!

Ingredients for 23L:
1.5kg LME
1kg LDME
300g Medium Crystal Malt (Steeped for 30 min in cheese cloth bag and then removed)
30g Amarillo @ 60 min
10g Amarillo @ 30 min
5g Amarillo @ 15 min
5g Amarillo @ 5 min
(all hop additions in cheese cloth bag)
15g Cascade Finishing Hops (Steeped 10 minutes, then put the liquid and whole tea bag in to the fermenter which was removed on day 6)
5 - 10g Amarillo Dry Hopped @ day 6 of fermentation (didn't have scales so somewhere between 5g and 10g)

Finings

Lallemand American West Coast Yeast

OG = 1.036

I created the wort last Thursday and had to wait over night for the temperature to drop before I pitched the yeast (at about 22 degrees). The fermenter has since been at a steady 18 degrees in the basement for 6 days of fermentation now.

It was the first time I used a hop tea bag and the instructions said to steep and throw the whole bag in at the beginning of fermentation, however today I removed the tea bag as I was worried that it might start to produce a grassy flavour if I leave it in there for too long. When I recovered the bag I threw in about 5 - 10g of Amarillo pellets as well to try and add a little more aroma, without over doing it.

I took a reading and the SG is now at 1.012 and I had a taste of the beer and it tasted great - by far the best prelim tasting I have done so far in my brews, and the head looked very thick and creamy .

I understand that this beer is going to be light for an APA - only about 4%... So that will be something I will improve next time by either adding more liquid or dry extract, not sure how much though - i'd like a beer about 5.5%.
Can anyone make any suggestions or recommendations on how I can improve on my next brew? Different hop selections, specialty grains, hopping technique, additions?

Also, i just threw the hop pellets in to the fermenter and I always bottle from the tap at the bottom of the carboy.. Will the hops be a problem when bottling? I was thinking of bottling in about a week with carbonation drops.

Cheers!!! :chug:

 

[Droopy Brew]

Mate for extract recipe design- this is your bible:
aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/29655-kit-and-extract-beer-spreadsheet/


The Excel spreadsheet is in the first post and there is a heap of discussion there if you need some pointers how to use it. You can play around with your malts and hops to hit desired ABV or IBU or EBC numbers.

You recipe looks pretty solid but I wouldn't bugger around with steeping hops etc. If you want to dry hop, throw in some loose pellets or in a sterilised stocking to keep hop matter out (good idea if you cant cold crash) after most of the fermentation is done- usually day 4 or 5.

What I have found lately is a good hop addition at flame out gives a longer lasting and IMO more pleasant aroma. I would add say 30g at 60min, drop the 30 min and 15min additions and add 30g at 10min and 20g at flameout. Of course adjust to your desired IBUs, AA% of hops etc.

 

[jwsg]

Thanks mate. Much appreciated... Will take the hop recommendations on board.

I've just been playing around with the spreadsheet and it is really useful.

One thing I am confused about though.. .I was reading a book about called 'The Complete Joy of Home Brewing' and their instructions say to boil all of the extracts in the wort for at least 60 min. The spreadsheet and other people on the forum suggest that you should only put in a fraction of the extracts to boil in the wort to bring the BG to 1.040, why is that?

Also, is there much difference in using dried and liquid extracts?
I'm going to either use 1.5kg liquid extract with 2kg dried extract or 3kg liquid extract with 0.5kg light extract... will this give any differences besides the SG?

Thanks

 

[Droopy Brew]

No need to boil the fermentables at all- both LME and DME should be sterile. The reason you put some of the malt in is to get the wort to 1.04 as that is approximately the optimal gravity for hop utilisation. Basically you will get more out of your hops if the gravity is around this. I also believe (my opinion) that you will get a smoother bitterness out of them as opposed to boiling in wort with little gravity (eg just some steeped grains).

I don't think it matters what form of malt you use- Liquid or dry, it will come down to cost or availability. Either would work fine. I have used all liquid before and all dry and haven't noticed a great deal of diff except you can usually get more malt variety in the liquid.

 

[jwsg]

Ok that's good to know. Cheers.

I came up with a recipe for the next brew... Going to add another can of LME for a high OG, and 0.5kg Wheat DME & 200g caramel wheat malt for a full body and better head retention.

I was thinking of using Simcoe for the bittering hop and switching the amarillo to be the flavour and aroma base of the brew.

Let me know what you guys think.

3kg Coopers Light LME
0.5kg Wheat DME
200g Medium Crystal Malt
200g Caramel Wheat Malt

15g Simcoe @ 60 min
5g Simcoe & 5g Amarillo @ 20 min
5g Simcoe & 5g Amarillo @ 10 min
10g Amarillo @ 5 min
10g Amarillo @ Flame-out
15g Amarillo Dry-Hop

 

[shacked]

Hey mate,

I'd suggest moving your 20 min addition to 10 min or 5 min. Other than that, I like a little cascade with Simcoe and Amarillo; not essential but it's worked well for me in the past.

 

[jwsg]

Cheers mate.

Yeah I might take out the 20 min addition and change the 10 min addition to 10 grams of each.

I only bought a packet of the 15g finishing hops of Cascade, only to find out it is a waste of money... Better off just buying a 100g bag of pellets. I might purchase a bag of them as well then and throw some Cascade late additions into the mix.

 

[shacked]

Sounds good mate.

Yeah those small bags are bit rough on the wallet. I've been buying hops in 250g lots from nick at barleyman. That way you don't have to feel bad about going heavy on hops. Yob from hop dealz also has good prices

 

[jwsg]

Yeah nice, cheers for the heads up. Investing in more hops definitely sounds like the way to go to save coin.

 

[shacked]

Let us know how this brew goes

 

[jwsg]

Will do.

I'll give an update on the beer that i will be bottling next week as well. Looking forward to tasting it.