Feedback on APA recipe

Hey all,

I'm pretty new to making my own recipes. Was just hoping to get some feedback on this partial-mash APA recipe. The yeast is weird I know, but I'm fermenting a stout in Primary right now, so I wanted to try and reuse it and just rack the APA primary on top of the yeast after getting the stout out. Thanks for any feedback!

4 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
3 lbs Munich Malt
12 oz American Two-row Pale
8 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine

boil 60 mins 1.0 oz Amarillo
boil 20 mins 0.5 oz Willamette
boil 15 mins 0.5 oz Cascade
boil 5 mins 1.0 oz Willamette
boil 1 min 1.0 oz Amarillo
flameout 0.5 oz Cascade
dry hop 7 days 1.0 oz Amarillo
dry hop 7 days 1.0 oz Cascade
dry hop 7 days 1.0 oz Willamette

WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast

I would use a different yeast mainly because you wont get all the stout out. You want to rack a darker beer on top of the yeast cake from a lighter beer. I would expect a little darker color in your APA. I don't know if I would use quite that much Munich...I would cut it back to a pound or maybe two.

You may want to mix in some caramel malt and wash your yeast or at least remove your pitch amount, clean and sanitize you equipment and then re-pitch.

Also, you can cut your dry hop in half with good results.

Seems a little high on the 60 minute addition. Calculate it out in brewing software for around 40 total IBU's.
Good luck,
Bull

Thanks, guys. Maybe I'll just go ahead and use an American yeast...

I built the recipe in Hopville and it gives me an o.g. of 1.059, an f.g. of 1.016, SRM of 8 and an IBU of 43.2 with an abv of around 6%.

What if I cut the Munich back to 2 lbs and add 8 oz of 20L Crystal? Still keeps me at 8 SRM, 44 IBU and similar o.g and f.g. Thoughts?

Also, one other question... what would a 90 minute boil do to this recipe? Hop additions the same, just thinking boiling mash wort an extra 30 minutes prior to the start of hop additions at 60 min...

Thanks again!

I should clarify, I'd like for this APA to be a bit meatier... I'm thinking of the malt profile/body of Dogfish Head's 90 minute IPA... I like the graininess/earthiness of it... just not sure what my malts would do boiled for that long.

Thanks!

Sorry, but are you doing a parial boil?
Everything changes then.
Bull

Partial boil? I don't know what that is... is that partial mash? If so, yes I'm doing a partial mash... plan is still boiling for 60 minutes like normal, but just thought I'd ask what a 90 minute boil would do and how it would affect the malt profile with my recipe above.

Ooooh partial boil, of course. Sorry. My plan was to do a full boil... so 6.5 gallons or so to get me around a 5 gallon for the primary.

I hate to bump this, but Bull (or anyone) I would love to know if:

a) my recipe above will work with a full boil... I was under the assumption that full boil/partial boil affected hop utilization... thought I'd be okay with my hop additions with a full boil with the recipe above. Does the boil (full or partial) affect malt profile very differently too?

b) what a 90 minute boil vs. 60 minute boil will do to my recipe above... like I said, I would like to impart a stronger earthniess/grainy taste if I can... ala Dogfish Head's 90 minute IPA... just not sure if my malt bill works for this?

Thank you to all...

Estimating your hops;
Amarillo 10aa
Willamette 5aa
Cascade 6aa

This will give you about 62 IBU's with a full boil.
This would take you out of the APA style guidelines.
If you want an APA, you'll have to schedule your bittering addition to fall into the guidelines.
Also, using an Irish yeast strain won't accentuate the pile of hops your adding to this APA.

I'd either add some more fermentables, go with the hop schedule, change out the yeast and call it an IPA, or.....
Reduce the bittering hop, change the yeast and call it an APA, or...
Change the hops and retool it to be an EPA or,...
Just go with what you have and learn.

What ever you do will produce beer and you'll learn about what you did. So if your trying to learn and have fun with it, it's OK to experiment, but if you're trying to make a beer to a specific style, research it some more.

Either way, have fun and keep on brewing!

Bull

Just stick with the 60 minute boil for now.

Awesome. Thanks for the great reply, Bull... very helpful!