Critiques please - hoppy/Chinook APA

[staggerlee]

Long story short: Had to build a recipe on the fly in the LHBS (well, I didn't have to, but I did anyway). Wound up bringing home

10 lbs 2-row malt
1 lb Crystal 40
0.5 lbs Cara-pils

Wyeast 1272 American Ale II (will probably ferment toward the lower end of the temp range, with a 2L starter to kick it off)

Mash at 151º for 60 mins, batch sparge to make 27L boil
60 minute boil, 23L final volume

O.G. likely 1.053 or thereabouts, F.G. who knows, as dry as the yeast will take it, maybe 1.014.

1oz Chinook 12%AAU @ 60 minutes
0.5 oz. Chinook 12%AAU @ 10 minutes
0.5 oz Amarillo 9.4%AAU @10 minutes
dry hop with 1 more ounce each of Chinook and Amarillo

I'm looking for a recipe that blurs the line between an APA and an IPA, something like Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale. I'm loving the Chinook right now, but don't want drinkers to feel like they've been smacked in the mouth with a wet pine plank. It'll be on the lower end of gravity for an IPA, so I scaled back the hops to compensate, but took the idea of balancing Chinook and Amarillo from Ohiobrewtus's Chinook IPA.

This is only going to be my second all-grain batch (the first turned out on the flat end of so-so but at least I got my feet wet) so I want to keep the recipe pretty simple, particularly in the hopping department; part of my process as I progress is going to be KISS so I can monitor what effect simple changes to recipes have on my beers.

My LHBS (bless their cotton socks) ground the three grains into the same bag, so I can ADD to the grain bill if needed (suggestions gladly welcome) but can't subtract.

I'll have Willamette, Northern Brewer, Mt. Ranier & Fuggles at my disposal if there's a good reason to add them to the hop bill.

OK, gurus: what say ye?

 

[Poobah58]

Looks good to me. Only thing I would do is replace the carapils with wheat or flaked barley. Don't need it with a lb of C-40 IMO. Chinook + Amarillo = YUMMY!

 

[Strngcheez]

Chinook + Amarillo = YUMMY!

Agreed! I just did an IPA using Chinook as a FWH & 60 min addition, along with Amarillo for a 20 & dry hop (along with some Cascade as well). I just kegged it the other night and it is delicious.

 

[northernlad]

I made this:

3lb Light DME
3lb Light LME late addition
1lb Crystal 60L
.5 lb Carafa II

.75oz @ 15AA Nugget 60min
.5oz @ 13AA Chinook 30min
.5oz @ 5.5AA Cascade 15min
.5oz @5.5AA Cascade 2min

With pretty much the same intent as you and it is not too hoppy. I should have dry hopped as ther is virtually no aroma, but after a few weeks in the bottle it has settled into a pretty drinkable beer.

 

[LexusChris]

Looks damn tasty! I'll want to give it a try too!
--lexuschris

 

[staggerlee]

Looks good to me. Only thing I would do is replace the carapils with wheat or flaked barley. Don't need it with a lb of C-40 IMO. Chinook + Amarillo = YUMMY!

Yeah, can't swap out the carapils - it's ground in with the rest of the grains. I could ADD some wheat for head retention - half a pound? - or is that overkill?

 

[boo boo]

Crystal and carapils should take care of the head retention. You shouldn't need to add anything else.

 

[darknova306]

Chinook + Amarillo = win!
Personally, I like putting a pound or two of Vienna into my IPAs, but your recipe is solid and looks pretty tasty. I really don't think you need to change anything. Go for it, and happy brewing!

 

[staggerlee]

It's in primary now, fermenting happily away at 62º. This was my first solo flight - I've only ever brewed with a buddy before. I did make some mistakes.

When I first hit the grain with the strike water, the temperature was a few degrees higher than I wanted - I was aiming for 152º but I was gertting a reading of 158º. Instead of taking a few breaths and waiting 10 minutes for the temperature to equalize (which it would have, probably right at 152 because my math was good, I think), I overreacted - "the hot water's gonna denature the low-temp enzymes! WAAH!" - and dumped some cold water into the mash. Way too much, too - a whole liter. Which brought my temperature down to 140º. So I spent the next hour and a half drawing off a liter or two at a time, heating it, and adding it back to the mash to bring it up to a reasonable temperature. Ended up at 158º at 90 minutes, by which time I'm beginning to worry about tannin extraction.

Next time, moron, wait for the heat to distribute itself through the grain - it's not an instant process.

Boil went well.

Chill, not so much. I had access to my buddy's tried-and-true counterflow chiller, but I wanted to see if my 5-channel cold plate would work. I had rigged it up so the 5 channels were running in series. It worked like a dream, chilling the hot wort down to lager-drinking temps, BUT was waaaay too slow; the chill took over 2 hours! I got a mammoth amount of cold break out of it, so the beer should be really clear (hot break was good, too), but I'm trying to RDWHAHB about the possibility of infection by wild beasties and - most of all - about DMS formation during the long chill.

Between now and next time I'm going to figure that one out. Cutting a channel or two out of the series (by the end of the third channel there was as much cold break material as there was going to be) will undoubtedly help... but maybe I'm trying to use a toothbrush to do a paintbrush's job.

I pitched a 1.5L yeast starter that was very active, so I'm hoping that a healthy fermentation will help militate against any potential problems.

O.G. was 1.066 (!) so it's been upgraded to an IPA. New hopping schedule:
1oz Chinook 12%AAU @ 60 minutes
0.5 oz. Chinook 12%AAU @ 15 minutes
1 oz Amarillo 9.4%AAU @15 minutes
0.5 oz. Chinook 12%AAU @ 0 minutes
dry hop with 1 more ounce each of Chinook and Amarillo

 

[kanzimonson]

I think you made good choices changing the hop schedule.

For the original recipe I feel like you had the dry hopping of an IPA, but the late additions of a pretty lightly hopped APA. I would have recommended something more along the lines of what you actually did to make it a midpoint between the two styles. But with that higher OG, you're definitely justified in calling it an IPA.

I'd like to hear more about your yeast's performance. I feel like not enough people use this yeast, and I'm considering switching to it because I've really come to love the flocculant English strains, but would like to try 1272 for a more American flavor.

 

[Aubie Stout]

I really like the darker crystals with Chinook for some reason (Crystal 80-120). Chinook is one of my favorites!