American Pale Ale all grain recipe - WANTED

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Apr 22, 2015
Messages
20
Reaction score
1
Location
Brighton, UK
Hi all

I'm just getting into my first few batches of all grain brewing and what I'm looking for is a fairly simple APA recipe that I can try. An example beer which I like is Beaver Town Gamma Ray but I'm not sure how to replicate this at home. :D

FYI - the reason for my particular requirement is that I've finally gotten the Mrs into ale after 11 years of trying :mug: and APA is her tipple so I want to continue her 'education' at home.

Thanks all
 
I highly recommend Jamil's Brewing Classic Beers book and the APA recipe it contains. It is truly a classic APA, well behaved, with caramel notes on the backside that are subtle enough to make it a real quaffer but present enough to keep you coming back for that next sip.

You might find the recipe on one of Jamil's podcasts too.
 
A quick easy APA recipe that I enjoy.

5 gallon batch.

8lbs 2-row malt
4oz Crystal 80L malt
8oz Victory malt
1oz Cascade 7% AA at 60 minutes
.5oz Centenial 12% AA at 10 minutes
.5oz Centenial 12% at flame out
S05 yeast
 
One question though, it doesn't mention which yeast to use. Any ideas?

I haven't had Gamma Ray, so there may be an English yeast character to that beer that you might be expecting in your brew. Generally speaking though, it's hard to argue against US-05/WLP-001/Wyeast 1056 for an American Pale Ale.
 
I've made this a few times. Its a similar recipe to FFF Gumballhead. I've tweaked it each time using different hops and grains a bit, but it always came out very refreshing and great hop flavors. Definitely one of my better earlier brews

I'd recommend doing a Gumball-head clone/inspired beer. Its got a very simple grain bill and a simple hop schedule. (If I remember correctly)
5.0 lb 2 row
5.0 lb red wheat (white is ok too, but color will be a bit off if you wanted a true clone)
1.0 lb caravienna

@60min: 1 oz Amarillo
@15 min: 0.5 oz Amarillo
@5min: 1.0 oz Amarillo
@0min: 2.0 oz Amarillo
@dry: 1.0 oz Amarillo

You can use US-05 dry yeast if you want, but supposedly FFF uses something more akin to Wyeast 1968
 
I haven't had Gamma Ray, so there may be an English yeast character to that beer that you might be expecting in your brew. Generally speaking though, it's hard to argue against US-05/WLP-001/Wyeast 1056 for an American Pale Ale.

I would second this. the american ale yeasts are a great place to start with an APA, nice and clean, very forgiving. If you want a particular flavor from the yeast, then I'd build from there.
 
I've made this a few times. Its a similar recipe to FFF Gumballhead. I've tweaked it each time using different hops and grains a bit, but it always came out very refreshing and great hop flavors. Definitely one of my better earlier brews

I'd recommend doing a Gumball-head clone/inspired beer. Its got a very simple grain bill and a simple hop schedule. (If I remember correctly)
5.0 lb 2 row
5.0 lb red wheat (white is ok too, but color will be a bit off if you wanted a true clone)
1.0 lb caravienna

@60min: 1 oz Amarillo
@15 min: 0.5 oz Amarillo
@5min: 1.0 oz Amarillo
@0min: 2.0 oz Amarillo
@dry: 1.0 oz Amarillo

You can use US-05 dry yeast if you want, but supposedly FFF uses something more akin to Wyeast 1968

:off: I'm sure your recipe turns out great beer but I just want to let you know, for the record, there very little to no color difference between white wheat and red wheat. For example: http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Products/Wheat.htm

These are only the briess products but, as you can see the red wheat is 2.3L and the white wheat is 2.5L. Despite the fact it seems counter intuitive that the white be darker than the red, I doubt that small of a difference makes a noticeable difference in the end product.

So what is the difference between red wheat and white wheat? They are different cultivars. Kind of like Golden Promise and Maris Otter. As far as I can tell, the red wheat has slightly more diastatic power and slightly higher protein levels. There are likely slight taste and aroma differences between the two cultivars (Briess lists a few descriptors if you click the pdf files, their descriptions seem mostly similar but there are slight differences. Full disclosure, I've never conducted any experiments on any taste or aroma differences)

What does that mean? In practice, Beyond what might be some slight taste and aroma differences, I imagine not much. In theory, you could potentially mash more adjuncts in the presences of red wheat versus white wheat. You might more heavily consider a protein rest with the red wheat.
 
I highly recommend Jamil's Brewing Classic Beers book and the APA recipe it contains. It is truly a classic APA, well behaved, with caramel notes on the backside that are subtle enough to make it a real quaffer but present enough to keep you coming back for that next sip.

You might find the recipe on one of Jamil's podcasts too.

Here is one of the 2 APA recipes from the book:

As with all the Brewing Classic Styles recipes, 70% efficiency, Rager for IBUs, 5 gallons finished beer.

Malts
11.3lbs American 2-row
.75lbs Munich
.75lbs Victory
.5lbs Wheat malt

Hops
60 min .66oz Horizon 13%AA (34.2IBU)
10 min .5oz Cascade 6%AA (2.4IBU)
10 min .5oz Centennial 9%AA (3.6IBU)
0 min .5oz Cascade 6%AA
0 min .5oz Centennial 9%AA

Mash at 152. 001, 1056, or US-05 for yeast. Ferment at 67.

The other recipe uses caramel malt and a little less hops. I can post it if you can't find it anywhere.
 
:off: I'm sure your recipe turns out great beer but I just want to let you know, for the record, there very little to no color difference between white wheat and red wheat. For example: http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Products/Wheat.htm

These are only the briess products but, as you can see the red wheat is 2.3L and the white wheat is 2.5L. Despite the fact it seems counter intuitive that the white be darker than the red, I doubt that small of a difference makes a noticeable difference in the end product.

So what is the difference between red wheat and white wheat? They are different cultivars. Kind of like Golden Promise and Maris Otter. As far as I can tell, the red wheat has slightly more diastatic power and slightly higher protein levels. There are likely slight taste and aroma differences between the two cultivars (Briess lists a few descriptors if you click the pdf files, their descriptions seem mostly similar but there are slight differences. Full disclosure, I've never conducted any experiments on any taste or aroma differences)

What does that mean? In practice, Beyond what might be some slight taste and aroma differences, I imagine not much. In theory, you could potentially mash more adjuncts in the presences of red wheat versus white wheat. You might more heavily consider a protein rest with the red wheat.

With lots of baking experience, red wheat results in a browner bread than white wheat, which is why wheat wheat, despite slightly lower yields, is becoming so popular.

For beer, yes, white is actually slightly darker then red, but it at least seems to me that red wheat does impart a redder character to the final beer than white wheat does, even if it doesn't actually darken as much (if you can tell a .2 lavibond difference, more power too you). I haven't done identical recipes with just swapping between different wheat varieties, but I have used both wheats in at least a couple of dozen recipes at this point.
 
With lots of baking experience, red wheat results in a browner bread than white wheat, which is why wheat wheat, despite slightly lower yields, is becoming so popular.

For beer, yes, white is actually slightly darker then red, but it at least seems to me that red wheat does impart a redder character to the final beer than white wheat does, even if it doesn't actually darken as much (if you can tell a .2 lavibond difference, more power too you). I haven't done identical recipes with just swapping between different wheat varieties, but I have used both wheats in at least a couple of dozen recipes at this point.

I just wanted to point out that the two are more similar than what some people might think. I figured that I would have to give supporting evidence to that instead of just making a statement. I think we both agree on that.
 
I deffinitely agree with you there. In baking I feel there is a pretty large difference. In brewing I would say that my experience is that the differences are relatively minor all around. Protein content, color imparted, lavibond, potential gravity and diastatic power are all pretty close.

Buying from my LHBS I tend to go for white wheat unless I want the slight diaststic power increase or the slight reddening from red wheat. When buying in bulk, I pretty much just buy red wheat because from my sources, red wheat tends to be about 10-15% cheaper (my LHBS they are 5c a pount difference by the pound, but in bulk it is about 10c a pound difference) and then I just don't care about the slight color differences.
 
Hi all

I'm just getting into my first few batches of all grain brewing and what I'm looking for is a fairly simple APA recipe that I can try. An example beer which I like is Beaver Town Gamma Ray but I'm not sure how to replicate this at home. :D

FYI - the reason for my particular requirement is that I've finally gotten the Mrs into ale after 11 years of trying :mug: and APA is her tipple so I want to continue her 'education' at home.

Thanks all

Beavertown have most of the ingredients listed on their site here http://www.beavertownbrewery.co.uk/Gamma-Ray

I don't believe there is no wheat in it though. Unless they've changed the recipe it always seemed like there was a bit of wheat in there to me. I'd say keep it low on the crystal malts and use any good British base malt for 90% of the grist and you'd be fine.

If you want to keep it simple got 100% Maris Otter, all Amarillo or Cascade hops and US-05 yeast.
 
Back
Top