First AG recipe.

So I'm preparing for my first AG recipe at the first of next month. I've come up with a recipe that is a modified version of my very first extract recipe. I want to do a APA, that borders on the lines of being an IPA so here's what I got, courtesy of tastybrew.com.

OG 1.065
FG 1.016
IBU 77
ABV 6.3
SRM 7

Boil Volume 6.5gal
Batch Size 5gal

10.5lbs American Two-row Pale 87.5%
.5lbs Crystal 20L 4.2%
.5lbs Crystal 40L 4.2%
.5lbs Dextrin 4.2%
Total 12lbs

1oz Centennial 10.5 AAU 25% 60mins
1oz Cascade 6.6 AAU 25% 30mins
1oz Cascade 6.6 AAU 25% 15mins
1oz Cascade 6.6 AAU 25% 5mins

White Labs California Ale V

Dry Hop 1oz Cascade leaf hops

Single infusion mash for 60mins at 154degrees

Any comments or suggestions would be awsome!!! Im really excited about doing my first AG. I'm a hop head, and I think this is a pretty straight foward recipe that will hopefully yield great results!!!!

This is just my opinion, so take it for what it's worth, but doing your first AG is going to be a learning curve, so it makes sense to go with a tried-and-true recipe the first time so if it doesn't come out as good as you hoped, you'll know it was your methods, not the recipe. EdWort's haus pale ale is a popular choice, and along the same lines as what you've got above, though not as aggressively hopped.

Also, it looks like you are using 75% efficiency to calculate your recipe. That's a pretty respectable efficiency, and it's likely that your efficiency might not be that good on your first batch, but then again if you're a total hop head it shouldn't matter too much if it comes out more bitter.

Well, if this is based on an existing recipe you did before, and you simply converted the Extract used into an equivalent amount of grain, then I think its a sound enough recipe.
But I do agree that you might be a little optimistic on your efficiency. its not that you couldn't hit 75% on your first go...its that you have no idea if you'll get close or not.

I'd probably bump up the 2-row a little so you've got enough to get the same target OG, but figuring 65% efficiency.

Also remember that if the hop timings/quantities were designed around a partial boil of ALL your malt extract, the full boil version will get better hop utilization, so it might be even hoppier than your extract version.

if you did do a partial boil before, like only 2 gallons, I'd plug that version into your recipe calculator and see what the IBU's came out to.

you may or may not need or want to make any adjustments...just something to consider.

This is a pretty straightforward recipe, it looks fine to me. This really is more of an IPA than an APA (77 IBUs is a lot), but that's just semantics.

My only suggestion would be to maybe cut out the 30 minute hop addition and add that back in later (at either 5 or 15 minutes). I don't get 30 minute additions; it's long enough where you lose almost all of the flavor of the hops, but not long enough to maximize your bittering. Either boil those hops for the full 60 minutes for bittering, or save them until later for more flavor and aroma.

But, I'm one who LOVES big late additions and all the flavor they bring.

Otherwise, though, this recipe is pretty straightforward. I'd run with it. You can play around with more specialty malts in the future.

Oh - and mashing at 154°, plus adding the dextrine malt, you might end up with a bit more body that you really want in an IPA (which I'll argue until the day I die should be pretty dry). I don't think you really NEED the dextrine malt, and I'd mash a few degrees lower.

That looks like a nice big beer (IPA) to me.

How long you planning on dry hopping?

Yea, Its an IPA. The original extract recipe is a pale ale. As far as dry hopping, the original recipe dry hopped the entire time in secondary. I don't see any reason to change that. Would there be any negatives in dry hopping for 2 weeks???

mikeyc said:

Yea, Its an IPA. The original extract recipe is a pale ale. As far as dry hopping, the original recipe dry hopped the entire time in secondary. I don't see any reason to change that. Would there be any negatives in dry hopping for 2 weeks???

Click to expand...

My max is 7 days for secondary dry hopping...but I also dry hop in the keg which is indefinite.

There shouldn’t be any issues with two weeks…but that is going to be one hoppy @ss beer.