4% ABV Simcoe / Amarillo APA

I am looking for any issues with my recipe below (I apologise for the metric units). I'm looking for a 4% APA. Goal when making the recipe was to balance the 30IBU (Tinseth) with flavoursome malts in a lower alcohol beer. If this ends up being a good beer I'll try to cut it back down to 3.5%.

The Gladfield malts are made in New Zealand. The Ale malt is closer to english style malts and the Gladiator Malt is Carapils. I considered just Munich and specialty malts but decided to cut it back with the Ale Malt 50/50.

I have a bunch of Amarillo and Simcoe hops left over from Yooper's DFH 60 minute clone and I like the flavors so want to use them again.

Thanks

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 30.76 l
Post Boil Volume: 24.96 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 15.00 l
Bottling Volume: 13.30 l
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 14.7 EBC
Estimated IBU: 30.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 64.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 81.1 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1.30 kg Gladfield Ale Malt (6.0 EBC) Grain 1 42.6 %
1.30 kg Gladfield Munich Malt (15.5 EBC) Grain 2 42.6 %
0.15 kg Gladfield Gladiator Malt (10.0 EBC) Grain 3 4.9 %
0.15 kg Gladfield Medium Crystal Malt (111.0 EBC Grain 4 4.9 %
0.15 kg Gladfield Wheat Malt (4.2 EBC) Grain 5 4.9 %
7.00 g Amarillo Gold [7.80 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 4.5 IBUs
7.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 7.5 IBUs
7.00 g Amarillo Gold [7.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 3.3 IBUs
7.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9 5.5 IBUs
7.00 g Amarillo Gold [7.80 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 1.8 IBUs
7.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 11 3.0 IBUs
7.00 g Amarillo Gold [7.80 %] - Steep/Whirlpool Hop 12 4.6 IBUs
7.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0.0 Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 14 -
10.00 g Amarillo Gold [7.80 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Day Hop 15 0.0 IBUs
10.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: BIAB, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 3.05 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification Add 32.62 l of water at 69.3 C 66.7 C 75 min
Mash Out Heat to 75.6 C over 7 min 75.6 C 10 min

Reduce the munich to 10% or less -- flavor too strong, malty, rich... detracts from the hops and the drinkability.

Up the carapils to 7-8% for more body -- You may or may not have issues with a watery beer at 4% abv, using slightly more dextrine malt and mashing around 153-154F can help this.

Remove the wheat -- at such a low amount, it is unnecessary for flavor and head retention purposes. The carapils will take care of head retention.

I'm not about to do all of these metric conversions, but an APA should be dryhopped at roughly 0.33-0.40 oz. dryhops per US gallon of beer. If I were you, I would rely on a simple 60/10/0/Dryhop schedule. Target 20 IBUs at boil start and then pepper in some more hops at 10 minutes for additional bitterness. Turn off the heat, cool to 180F, and add 0.25-0.33 oz hops per gallon of wort. Wait 30 minutes. Cool to the low 60s(F), aerate, pitch yeast. Wait 1.5 to 2 weeks, then add your dryhops. Wait 5 days, then bottle.

I also think your Amarillo will be lost with all that Simcoe in there. Adjust your ratio to 2:1 Amarillo to Simcoe if you want to be able to pick out the subtle floral and tropical fruit notes Amarillo brings to the mix. Otherwise all that resinous pine and cat piss that Simcoe brings will drown it out.

Actually, I was going to suggest a higher amount of Simcoe. I don't get resinous pine and cat piss from it. Rather, I get tropical fruit, pleasant pine, and a little bit of marijuana dankness, as we see in Heady and Pliny. Amarillo however is a straight up fruit-bomb when used in high amounts. In low amounts, it's pleasantly grapefruity and floral.

You have a post boil volume of 25 l, and a batch size of 15, how is that?

The grains seem low to me, but if you really get 81.1% efficiency . . .

Looks like it's worth a brew, anyway--let us know how it turns out.

Thanks for the replies.

-before making the recipe I read a few posts on here about posters using munich as all base malt in apa or ipa and having success. Due to the low abv I thought it would be a good way to get character. I will scale down to 10% as suggested. The ale malt has more flavour than US 2 row so that should counter it.

-will remove wheat and up carapils

-dfh clone used equal parts amarillo and simcoe and I found the flavours nicely balanced. I will adjust on 2nd brew if it's too much.

-yep volumes not looking right. I'll fix that in beersmith.

-i BIAB so 80% mash efficiency is standard. Efficiency into fermentor is 64%

-hopping. I was planning on hop-bursting but if you think a standard APA hop profile is better I will use that. Ignoring the metrics the IBU-OG ratio is 0.7 which is what I was aiming for.

Thanks again.

I'd use more hops. Double the dryhop and the whirlpool, IMO.

Well I brewed this and it's my favourite beer I've made in three years. I adjusted the recipe as per below. Dry hopped directly in keg. Perfectly balanced beer. I missed my numbers so ended up with 3.4% which is even better. Great tasting pint drinking goodness! Might not suit the 6%+ crowd but is session perfection.


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 23.48 l
Post Boil Volume: 17.68 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 14.00 l
Bottling Volume: 12.30 l
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 12.7 EBC
Estimated IBU: 29.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 64.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 77.7 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2.20 kg Gladfield American Ale Malt (5.0 EBC) Grain 1 78.6 %
0.30 kg Gladfield Munich Malt (15.5 EBC) Grain 2 10.7 %
0.15 kg Gladfield Gladiator Malt (10.0 EBC) Grain 3 5.4 %
0.15 kg Gladfield Medium Crystal Malt (111.0 EBC Grain 4 5.4 %
8.00 g Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 21.6 IBUs
8.00 g Amarillo Gold [7.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 6 4.1 IBUs
4.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 3.4 IBUs
12.00 g Amarillo Gold [7.80 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 8 0.0 IBUs
6.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
0.9 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 10 -
12.00 g Amarillo Gold [7.80 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Day Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
6.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: BIAB, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 2.80 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification Add 25.19 l of water at 71.0 C 68.0 C 60 min
Mash Out Heat to 75.6 C over 7 min 75.6 C 10 min

Sounds great. Glad it worked out well for you.

Let's see a picture!

I'll get a photo later in the week.

What did you end up finishing at? My low % beers I tend to mash the Gladfield pale around 70, and try and get a finish around 1010 or so.