Help me make this APA a session

[bannerj]

A whoops last night. I wasn't drunk. Promise. It was adding water in the late afternoon while watching a one and a three year old. I'm going to go with a sight glass soon!

My three gal BIAB ended up with FIVE GAL. Fortunately I mashed well (for me) at 75%. Good since it's my second all grain.

Here is the recipe below. Is there more I should do with dry hops to give this 3.7% some more flavor or is the maris otter, rye and aromatic going to do me proud?

The hops schedule was for 3 gal of course. I know I could up the dry hop, but how much especially for something this light?

5lb Marris Otter 67%
1lb 4.3oz Rye Malt 17%
11.9oz 40L 10%
4.8oz CaraPils 4%
2.4 aromatic 2%

Mashed at 155

.5oz Centennial 50min
.25 Centennial 35min
.25 Cascade 15min
.25 Cascade flameout

.25 Centennial dry hop 7days
.5 Cascade dry hop

7.3 SRM
31.2 IBU
3.7% abv

Safeale us-05 1packet at 67degrees

 

[Jayhem]

I would use a full ounce in dry hop.

My APA house recipe is only OG 1.049 and I dry hop it with 1.5 oz / 5 gal and aim for IBU's of 35

 

[bannerj]

I hit 1.040

At this point, what am I looking for in terms of which hop to go with? Higher AA?

I've been using beersmith for my last three recipes and trusting the simplicity of the ingredients against the style guide on beersmith. But now that I've "screwed" this up, I'm looking to learn something.......does a certain kind of hop work better on lower abv beers. Does it matter?

 

[Jayhem]

Cascade is a fail safe option for a dry hop. You don't really want a harsh hop for dry hop on a light gravity beer. Centennial is pretty much just a stronger version of Cascade "Super-Cascade" as it's sometimes called.

Most recipes for APA I have seen tend to use a lot of Cascade, Citra, Simcoe, Amarillo, Galaxy, the new Zealand hops and pretty much any fruity/piney/citrousy hop for dry hop. I personally love a combination of Citra and Cascade in dry hop....mango/grapefruit goodness!

 

[bannerj]

Anybody else have any tips/tricks for this kind of a situation?

 

[BeerGrylls]

What do you have for fermenter headspace? You could always make a small, strong wort and add it to your batch. And up the dry hop of course.

 

[GuldTuborg]

Wait, so you accidentally added too much water to the recipe, and the concern is it's too weak? Am I reading you right?

If that's the case, I wouldn't go massively dry hopping it, as there's not going to be enough malt to balance things out. It seems pretty balanced as is. Have you tried it? Maybe it's great. If not, you can blend it with another batch to get the strength you're after.

 

[bannerj]

Yes. Too much water 5gal instead of 3gal. A father desperate to begin making beer while watching his little boys makes mistakes.

Initially, before I pitched yeast, I was torn between leaving it as is or adding a smaller wort to the batch. My assumption is that its too late now that I'm day three into ferment.

 

[GuldTuborg]

You could boil up some extract in a small amount of water and add it, which would add the gravity points back, but would throw off the hop balance. That's how really big beers are made, by adding concentrated sugars partway through fermentation to avoid very high gravity worts. Anyway, dry hopping might help with that, but would not be ideal. I'd just leave it the way it is (I'd be surprised if it turns out bland - Maris Otter and rye malts have strong flavors), or blend it with a stronger batch, if you really want something stronger. Bombers of this would go down awful easy, I would guess.

 

[JoesInBoston]

So, a little while ago, I had a terrible efficiency on one of my brews and ended up with 2.5 gallons of 1.040 beer. I dry hopped it with a full 2 oz of hops (0.75 Simcoe, 0.75 Amarillo, 0.5 Citra) and it really helped make up for the lack of malt flavor. Tons of flavor and aroma without being bitter like an IPA. If it were me, I'd up that dryhop to something ridiculous like 3.5 to 4 oz total.....

 

[Broham1]

Wait, so you accidentally added too much water to the recipe, and the concern is it's too weak? Am I reading you right?

If that's the case, I wouldn't go massively dry hopping it, as there's not going to be enough malt to balance things out. It seems pretty balanced as is. Have you tried it? Maybe it's great. If not, you can blend it with another batch to get the strength you're after.

Balance comes into play between sweet and bitter, right? You're not getting noticeable bitterness through dry-hopping. You're getting aroma and some flavor. So, you're going to add extra dimension to a potentially flat beer. Go for the dry-hop.

 

[GuldTuborg]

Balance comes into play between sweet and bitter, right?

In part, yes, but it's far more complicated than that. The best example of this that I know of is Bell's Hopslam. It has an OG of 1.087 and roughly 60 IBUs. Must be a moderately bitter/hoppy beer, right? Well, no...they call it Hopslam for a reason; hops is pretty much all you taste. It's medium on the IBU scale, but over the top on the dry hops. There is not much "balance" in the beer to speak of, even if it is a great beer every now and again. It's nothing I'd sit down to drink a 4 pack of every weekend, and I do love me some hops.

Now I'm not saying the OP's beer shouldn't be dry hopped, but I am suggesting to bear in mind that it's a low gravity beer when the amount of dry hopping is decided upon. I'd show some restraint. After all, what evidence is there that this will be a "flat beer?"

 

[phenry]

I dry hop my session IPA (OG of 1.038 ) with 3 oz. I really like a mix of centennial, simcoe, and Columbus, but its really hard to go wrong with straight cascade.

With a base of MO and that much rye and crystal malt I don't think you should have a problem with a boring beer. I'd suggest starting with a 2 oz dry hop.