Single Hop APA

Hey guys,

I want to start making some single hop APAs to really be able to investigate certain hops, also they can be amazing in a simple flavor sort of way (have you ever tried Zombie Dust by 3 floyds?). I'm trying to line out a generic grain bill that I'll use for each and hop schedule and was wondering if anybody else had already done this.

Thanks.

Don't forget Bell's dude. That stuff is why I'm growing centennial hops.

What's your grain bill? I'm looking to do an APA as well. I've got some amber malt, and I think I'll add a bit of Victory, and pale the rest.

I might do an all chinook, with the chance of a slight different finishing hop combo, like crystal. (its what I got handy)

I keep it pretty simple and make it all about the hops. All pale with a couple pounds of vienna or a pound of munich, and about a pound of lightish crystal (10 to 40) for 5 gals.

I like to make 2.5 gal batches for my single hop APAs. Had good luck with Simcoe, Amarillo, and have some Summit in the primary now

bnilguy said:

I keep it pretty simple and make it all about the hops. All pale with a couple pounds of vienna or a pound of munich, and about a pound of lightish crystal (10 to 40) for 5 gals.

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Agree with your first statement (keep it simple), but not your second (a pound of crystal - too much, IMO).

Use a good base malt - Pale Ale, Maris Otter or even Munich. Maybe some amber malt if you like it malty. Use crystal sparingly, imo.

I made a SMaSh recently with Pale 2-row and 3oz of Willamette Hops recently, and it turned out much better than I expected. I forgot the 1oz I meant to dry hop with, so it had 1oz at 60, 1oz at 20, and 1oz at 10. It ended up with a really nice hop flavor, and had more aroma than a Cascade SMaSH I did 2 weeks prior that I remembered to dry hop.

My brew club is doing an APA single wort challenge; making 25 gallons of wort in single kettle, then draining 5 gallons to each brewers smaller kettle each brewer then chooses how to hop and what yeast to use. I am doing Simcoe and Crystal hops.

Grain Bill: we are not big crystal malt fans and have moved to mashing a bit higher to get the sweetness and mouthfeel from base malts. Here is the grain bill, it is a very solid APA bill. 8.5 SRM

50% Pale Ale malt
30% Vienna Malt
20% Munich malt

Mash at 155

TimBrewz said:

My brew club is doing an APA single wort challenge; making 25 gallons of wort in single kettle, then draining 5 gallons to each brewers smaller kettle each brewer then chooses how to hop and what yeast to use. I am doing Simcoe and Crystal hops.

Grain Bill: we are not big crystal malt fans and have moved to mashing a bit higher to get the sweetness and mouthfeel from base malts. Here is the grain bill, it is a very solid APA bill. 8.5 SRM

50% Pale Ale malt
30% Vienna Malt
20% Munich malt

Mash at 155

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Are you planning on First Wort Hopping the Crystal? Just wondering cause I'm using Crystal and Chinook

mbobhat said:

Are you planning on First Wort Hopping the Crystal? Just wondering cause I'm using Crystal and Chinook

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I might FWH with Crystal Hops. I love the results I get with FWH on my IPAs and hoppy Reds. I have never used them before, and just opened the package to give them the smell test....great aroma! I really think they are more like a Northwest hop than a Continental hop(Cascade/Hallertaur heritage). Seems like a lighter, brighter Cascade. Anyway, FWH is a good idea, and I might add a 1/2 oz at that stage.

mbobhat said:

What's your grain bill?

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The grain bill I'm planning on going with is:

85% US 2-row
6% Munich
6% Victory
3% Wheat

I, too, am not a huge fan of crystal.

As far as the hop bill, I've really wanted to do some brews with only late addition hops, like I hear Jamil talk about sometimes, link.

I was thinking additions at 20, 10, 0 to get about 40 IBUs.

TimBrewz said:

I might FWH with Crystal Hops. I love the results I get with FWH on my IPAs and hoppy Reds.

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I've never tried a FWH but I want to. What exactly are the advantages of a FWH over a 60 minute addition?

Looks good! Nice biscuit note with Victory.

First Wort Hopping, from what I have experienced is that the flavor and some aroma from the bittering hops get "locked in" at sub-boiling temps as the wort is collected and heated to boil. My reading indicates that the chemistry behind this is not fully understood. Some feel that the perceived IBU contribution of FWH actually decreases to similar to a 20 minute addition, while others report a slight increase in bitterness as compared to a standard 60 or 90 minute addition. In my experience, FWH-ing about a dozen times, is that I notice a small decrease in bittering, and a notable increase in the flavor of the hops used for FWH. I use a lot of Simcoe for bittering, which is a great flavor and aroma hop. When I FWH with Simcoe I get some of the flavor and aroma in the finished beer that would just boil off in a normal 60 minute addition. Many brewers use a portion of the late addition hops as a FWH, then bitter as normal with a high alpha bittering hop. So, with a single hop APA, you can multi-task your hops with FWH; bittering,flavor and aroma.

TimBrewz said:

Looks good! Nice biscuit note with Victory.
Many brewers use a portion of the late addition hops as a FWH, then bitter as normal with a high alpha bittering hop. So, with a single hop APA, you can multi-task your hops with FWH; bittering,flavor and aroma.

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I keep hearing that FWH makes for a smoother bittering and also increases hop flavor, so I'm pretty sure I'll go with it. Though I think I'll still stick with all late additions, so something like FWH, 15, 10, 5, 1. Much like this awesome zombie dust thread.

Did you think about hop bursting?

I've got a pale ale on tap that I hop burst with 4 oz. of Sorachi Ace. My wife thought I added some lemonade to the beer.

80% Pale
10% Rye
5% Wheat
5% Honey Malt

1 oz of Sorachi Ace @ 20, 10, 5, and 0

beerkrump said:

Did you think about hop bursting?

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but hop bursting is simply relying on late addition hops for all of the IBUs, right? If so, that's what I was already planning on doing (see a few posts ago), but everyone keeps talking about how good FWH is and it has made me change my mind, I think.

beerkrump said:

Did you think about hop bursting?

80% Pale
10% Rye
5% Wheat
5% Honey Malt

1 oz of Sorachi Ace @ 20, 10, 5, and 0

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I've never tried honey malt, but I've wanted to. What kind of flavor do you get from it specifically?

I got a ton of hop flavor from a Simcoe Blonde Ale by using a small (0.25 oz.) of FWH along with only hop burst additions (15, 10, 5, 0). It had better hop aroma and flavor than any of my previous APA or even IPAs!

I did an APA once with some biscuit and didn't really like the flavor it added. Could have been some other source of the flavor, but I think it was the biscuit. I'm not sure what kind of dimension the biscuit will add vs. Munich or maybe using half (or all) your base as Maris Otter, but I think I prefer to do the later.

Carter5112 said:

I did an APA once with some biscuit and didn't really like the flavor it added.

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The only reason I have the biscuit in there is because that's Jamil's grain bill for his drier APA recipe in Classic Styles. I'm mainly just looking for a good grain bill without crystal. I may make a separate post asking about just that...