American Pale Ale

Hey guys im gonna be doing an american pale ale this weekend. The abv should be about 4.8% im also gonna dry hop it with one ounce of citria hops. Question is how much dme is needed to bump the abv up to about 6.5% and what kind of flavor should i expect from the citria hops if i decide to increase the abv. This is my first time dry hopping and deviating from the kit reciepe. Thanks in advance

the first thing i would do if moving from kits is to invest in a brewers software( ie beersmith) it will answer so many questions you will have and give you exact amounts to lock in the abv your looking for

If you bump up the gravity without bumping up the hops, your beer will most likely be too sweet.

Add a few more bittering hops or an extra ounce to dry hop with?

I've found this website helpful for adding ingredients when trying to up the ABV: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/increase-alcohol-in-beer.html

Also, IMO, dry hopping doesn't really add 'flavor' to beer, but enhances the aroma.

Thanks guys

Sounds like your coincidentally going to make an ipa. Careful on the hops

No worries i like ipa haha

Bumping up an extract batch from 4.8% to 6.5%. I'd recommend adding both DME and sugar, and increasing the hops (maybe doubling them). Adding more DME will add malt flavor, but will also make it sweeter. Adding simple sugar will help dry it out off-setting the sweetness.

1.7% abv is roughly 13 gravity points (0.013). For 5 gallons that would be 13x5=65. 1.5 lbs of DME is 69 points. If I were to do it (for 5 gallons), I think I would add 1 lb of DME, and 0.5 lbs of plain table sugar ........... and more hops!

Assuming you are moving more towards an IPA now, a good rule of thumb for the bitterness ratio is around one (basically starting gravity points and IBUs should be roughly equal). So if you bump to 6.5%, a 13 point increase, you should look at adding another 12 to 13 IBUs of hops to maintain the same balance between sweetness and bitterness.

I agree with RayZab, you should increase the size of whatever your 60-minute bittering hop addition is a bit to compensate for the bigger malt bill.

Use an IBU calculator:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/ibu-calculator/

Alternatively, BeerSmith has a free trial and is super useful for these types of calculations, but will take a little longer to get comfortable using.

Enter the quantity, AA%, and boil time of all your boil hops. Increase the amount of your 60-minute hop addition until you get 10 or so more IBUs as RayZab recommends. You could increase your late hop additions as well, but that would probably result in buying another ounce of those hops and using only a quarter of it or less. If you do that, you might as well toss the extra in at dry hop time.

I'd be hesitant to get complicated and add table sugar in addition to DME unless I was making a Double or Imperial IPA. But, DME comes in 1LB bags, so I guess it would be convenient to get some extra boost from table sugar rather than have leftover DME. You probably already have half a pound of table sugar in the house anyway.

Has anyone made an APA with Safale 04 as opposed to 05 or WYeast 1056? If so, how did an 04 APA turn out?

Safale 04 will generally make a sweeter, less attenuated beer with more fruity english yeast esters. 05 will make a crisper, drier, better attenuated beer with fewer esters.

Compare a bottle of Fullers ESB (similar yeast to 04) with a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (same yeast as 05).