American Pale Ale, my first creation

[Frodo]

I use gallon water egoism I be adding minerals?

No need to add any minerals, but if you're using bottled water make sure it is NOT distilled water. Spring water is good. You can use your tap water if it tastes fine and doesn't have a chlorine taste.

 

[Frodo]

As far as your recipe. Looking much better than originally posted. With it as-is you're going to be looking at a pretty low original gravity if your efficiency isn't great; OG of 1.042 with 70% mash efficiency, which is probably reasonable to expect, if not lower (depends on how you do the partial mash and sparge). And with that low gravity, your 53 IBUs will definitely make the beer bitter.

That said, I'd suggest bumping the DME to 3 lbs. I'd also bump the Crystal 60L to 0.5 lbs to give it more body, and caramel sweetness to counter the hop bitterness. Assuming a mash efficiency of 70% that would give you an OG of 1.055 and 53 IBUs, for a BU:GU ratio of about 1. Decidedly bitter but not out of your mind mouth-puckering bitter.

I would also move the 30 minute hop addition to 20 minutes, for more taste and less bittering. Something to consider too is using only one variety for taste (your 30 minute hop addition) and one for aroma (your 5 minute hop addition). Oftentimes simpler is better.


EDIT: Have you done a partial mash before? If you want to skip that, get rid of the 3 lbs of 2-row and substitute 1 lb 12 oz more light DME for it. If you did that you could then just steep the Crystal 60L (it doesn't need to be mashed) to dissolve the sugars into your wort.

 

[gusty83]

Ok so I will bump the dme and the crystal thats a good idea. I do like the partial mash since it tastes fuller I guess. I cant describe it but it adds a little more to my beer. I also like my hop choice since my last ipa was a cascade amarillo and honestly, the amarillo was not bitter enough( at least not at 1oz addition for the same size) and the cascade was very prominent. The beer was good but it tasted more like a full cascade beer more than anything. I had 1/2 oz boil 1/2oz dry of both if that helps. I wanted to go with something more bitter and also wanted to add some earthiness to it in addition to just floral or fruity. Im thinking a combination of three might work. As for the crystal, there are no fermentable sugars anyways so there wouldnt be need to mash in the first place correct?

 

[gusty83]

and thank you for the water information

 

[gusty83]

3lbs american 2 row
3lb light dry extract
1/2lb crystal malt 60L
1tsp irish moss

60 mins
1/2oz nugget

20 mins
1/4oz nugget
1/4 ahtanum

5mins
1/4ahtanum
1/4sterling

dry
1/4oz nugget
1/2 oz ahtanum
1/4 oz sterling

Should I maybe increase the dry hop additions since it wont affect bitterness at all at this point and I really want to sqeeze the flavors out? Maybe just the ahtanum. Have any of you tried the latitude 48? its supposed to contain a prominent amount of ahtanum and I really liked this flavor so maybe up that in dry hop. I think im liking the rest of the recipe right now.

 

[Frodo]

Should I maybe increase the dry hop additions since it wont affect bitterness at all at this point and I really want to sqeeze the flavors out? Maybe just the ahtanum. Have any of you tried the latitude 48? its supposed to contain a prominent amount of ahtanum and I really liked this flavor so maybe up that in dry hop. I think im liking the rest of the recipe right now.

You could easily go to 2 oz on the dry hopping. FYI I have never even heard of ahtanum or lattitude 48 hops, so I have no idea about them. I've only dry hopped once and it was with a high AA% hop, Centennial.

 

[hereforbeer]

You could easily go to 2 oz on the dry hopping. FYI I have never even heard of ahtanum or lattitude 48 hops, so I have no idea about them. I've only dry hopped once and it was with a high AA% hop, Centennial.

2 oz is no problem.I believe Ahtanum is the signature hop in Stone Pale Ale.

 

[gusty83]

3lbs american 2 row
3lb light dry extract
1/2lb crystal malt 60L
1tsp irish moss

60 mins
1/2oz nugget

20 mins
1/4oz nugget
1/4 ahtanum

5mins
1/4ahtanum
1/4sterling

dry
1/2oz nugget
1 oz ahtanum
1/2 oz sterling


i love stone ipa btw. thats good news.

 

[gusty83]

6lbs american 2 row
3lb light dry extract
1/2lb crystal malt 60L
1/2lb honey malt
1tsp irish moss

60 mins
1oz nugget

20 mins
1/4oz nugget
1/4 ahtanum

5mins
1/4ahtanum
1/4citra

dry
1/2oz nugget
1/2 oz ahtanum
1 oz citra


made a some small changes. changed out sterling for citra. 5 gal batch. Im going to give honey malt a try with this and see if the slight sweetness works.

 

[gusty83]

6lbs american 2 row
3lb light dry extract
1/2lb crystal malt (low L)
1/2lb honey malt
1tsp irish moss

60 mins
1oz nugget

10mins
1/2ahtanum
1/2citra

flameout
1/4 ahtanum
1/4 citra

dry
1oz nugget
1 oz ahtanum
1 oz citra

 

[jonmohno]

why would there be a fake post?

 

[jonmohno]

do it and drink it good. drink it reallllll good!

 

[gusty83]

My review:

So this beer is complete. It came out phenomenal. I actually didnt have the last addition of ahtanum in dry hop so I used cascade instead, which is a fine substitution. I actually did a second dry hop to amplify the citra flavor by adding one more ounce of citra. The second dry hop was about a week after the first. Taken off about 5 days after the second dry hop for an overnight secondary then bottle. If you like sculpin then you will also like this one. It has a distinct bubblegum flavor aftertase so it was named bubblegum ipa. The last six bottled beers I added one cup of v8 splash(berry) on top of the priming sugar it already contained. These were appropriately named bubblegum extra ipa and taste significantly more like very hoppy fruit stripe gum. Its not a very heavy beer, extremyly drinkable and very refreshing. I would really enjoy one on a hot day for sure. Make sure if you try it to make the adjustments I made and to use the very last revision I posted here. I would love to hear some feedback!

 

[gusty83]

Also this was bottled for 6 weeks. Ive tried it throughout and its matured significantly.