Hop schedule for modern APA

[FranklinsBeerTower]

Hi all - curious what your current hopping schedules are for a basic APA. I've always brewed a classic (outdated?!) 60/20/10/0/DH schedule, but sometimes feel like distinct characteristics get "crowded" with such a skew towards hot side additions.

Thinking about doing a simple Pils/Vienna malt base with ~16 IBU at 60, 10 IBU at 15 and then moving everything else to whirlpool.

What are others doing for house pale ales? If your hop schedule has changed over time, how has it changed and why?

 

[VTMongoose]

I've brewed 5 American Pale Ales in the past year, I think 3/5 have medaled (BJCP - one got Gold!) and I keep it very simple. The malt bill is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. The ingredients are old school but the process is modern. I use all late addition hops and dry the snot out of the beer so it's absolutely crushable.

OG: 1.050 to 1.059
FG: 1.007 to 1.010
ABV: 5.6 to 6.4%
IBU: ~36

10# Pale Ale or base malt of your choice
1# Briess C60

Mash 149 for 75 min, then sparge or raise to mash out.

Boil 60+ minutes

Hops:
15 mins: 2-4 oz. "C" hop of your choice (eg 4 oz Cascade @ 5% AA, or 2 oz Chinook/Centennial/Cascade @ 10% AA)
Dry hop at yeast pitch: Same as above.

Yeast: US-05
Fermentation temperature: 68°F
Fermentation pressure: 25-30 psi

Water profile:
73 ppm Ca
8 ppm Mg
22 ppm Na
69 ppm Cl
158 ppm SO4

I manipulate the 15 minute addition very carefully to give me the exact IBU's I desire and then chill immediately upon cessation of the boil.

Color is right on if you get the ratio of crystal to pale just right (honestly I only got this close a couple of the times, usually it comes out paler than theirs).

 

[FranklinsBeerTower]

I've brewed 5 American Pale Ales in the past year, I think 3/5 have medaled (BJCP - one got Gold!) and I keep it very simple. The malt bill is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. The ingredients are old school but the process is modern. I use all late addition hops and dry the snot out of the beer so it's absolutely crushable.

OG: 1.050 to 1.059
FG: 1.007 to 1.010
ABV: 5.6 to 6.4%
IBU: ~36

10# Pale Ale or base malt of your choice
1# Briess C60

Mash 149 for 75 min, then sparge or raise to mash out.

Boil 60+ minutes

Hops:
15 mins: 2-4 oz. "C" hop of your choice (eg 4 oz Cascade @ 5% AA, or 2 oz Chinook/Centennial/Cascade @ 10% AA)
Dry hop at yeast pitch: Same as above.

Yeast: US-05
Fermentation temperature: 68°F
Fermentation pressure: 25-30 psi

Water profile:
73 ppm Ca
8 ppm Mg
22 ppm Na
69 ppm Cl
158 ppm SO4

I manipulate the 15 minute addition very carefully to give me the exact IBU's I desire and then chill immediately upon cessation of the boil.

Color is right on if you get the ratio of crystal to pale just right (honestly I only got this close a couple of the times, usually it comes out paler than theirs).

View attachment 878883

Bravo, looks spectacular!

Instead of my usual 60/20/10/DH schedule, I'm thinking about a 60 and a 15 followed by a big hopstand at 170. How does this look to you? Trying to experiment with pushing more of my hops away from the boil but I'm always a little uncertain as to how post-boil hops will impact perceived bitterness/flavor:

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.053
Final Gravity: 1.009
ABV (standard): 5.78%
IBU (tinseth): 39.43
SRM (morey): 5.21

FERMENTABLES:
9 lb - Pilsner Malt (83.1%)
1.5 lb - Vienna (13.9%)
0.33 lb - Caramel / Crystal 40L (3%)

HOPS:
0.4 oz - Magnum, Type: Pellet, AA: 13.2, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 19.94
1 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10.4, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 19.49

2 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10.4, Use: Hop Stand for 10 min
1 oz - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 11.3, Use: Hop Stand for 10 min

2 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10.4, Use: Dry Hop for 2-5 days
1 oz - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 10.4, Use: Dry Hop for 2-5 days

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05

 

[fluketamer]

i still like .5 to 1 oz of magnum or centeniial for bittering at 60 .

then i stick to 1-2 oz of a big citrusy aroma hop(s) at 10 and flame out .

then dry hop a lot! (3 to 6 ounces)

i havent got good consistent results with whirlpool so i dont do it.

depending on the hosp this usually packs a pretty hoppy punch.

good luck

i know its not a apa but i have a west coast pilsner on tap now with
90 /10 pilsner/vienna
1/2 oz magnum at 60
1 ounce citra and 1 ounce mosaic at 10
same at flameout

then i dry hopped with an ounce of galaxy,citra and mosaic.
fermetned with 34/70

its awesome

 

[VTMongoose]

Instead of my usual 60/20/10/DH schedule, I'm thinking about a 60 and a 15 followed by a big hopstand at 170. How does this look to you? Trying to experiment with pushing more of my hops away from the boil but I'm always a little uncertain as to how post-boil hops will impact perceived bitterness/flavor.

I don't see any reason this wouldn't produce an excellent beer, although it seems a bit heavy on the Vienna and I personally prefer Munich (bready rather than toasty). We know from "The New IPA" by Scott Janish that theoretically low temp hop stands should provide an extra layer of flavor relative to boil and dry hops alone.

I bet the Chinook/Centennial combo will be killer. I need to try that sometime. Chinook remains my favorite for a single hop version of this beer by the way, over cascade. Next time I wnat to try Centennial alone, although replicating the flavor Bell's gets from theirs in Two Hearted as of late seems like a tall task with off the shelf homebrew hops.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Next time I wnat to try Centennial alone, although replicating the flavor Bell's gets from theirs in Two Hearted as of late seems like a tall task with off the shelf homebrew hops.

In the later 2010s, Bell's General Store (RIP) offered "Bell's Select Hops" in their Two Hearted kit and individually - which they said were the same hops as they used for the production brews. I brewed with the hops a couple of times - and the hops were better than anything else I could buy at the time.

As for replicating 2H, the Bell's kit instructions from the later 2010s included a water profile for Kalamazoo, MI. It seems likely they make adjustments before brewing. FWIW, I started with that water profile, in combination with a BYO recipe for Bell's Best Brown and did a "SWAG" for my water profile (which is RO + minerals) - and got really really close on side-by-side tasting last winter. I've been out of Centennial hops for a while - so I likely won't attempt a 2H side-by-side until the 2025 crop arrives at YVH.

 

[FranklinsBeerTower]

I don't see any reason this wouldn't produce an excellent beer, although it seems a bit heavy on the Vienna and I personally prefer Munich (bready rather than toasty). We know from "The New IPA" by Scott Janish that theoretically low temp hop stands should provide an extra layer of flavor relative to boil and dry hops alone.

I bet the Chinook/Centennial combo will be killer. I need to try that sometime. Chinook remains my favorite for a single hop version of this beer by the way, over cascade. Next time I wnat to try Centennial alone, although replicating the flavor Bell's gets from theirs in Two Hearted as of late seems like a tall task with off the shelf homebrew hops.

I will forever be a sucker for a great C-hop combo. I peeled back the Vienna to 1 lb to be closer to a 90/10 split with the pilsner (the grain bill above was from a pale ale I brewed in the winter when I wanted a little more heft to the malt character).

 

[dmtaylor]

I like to add all the hops in one step about 10-15 minutes before end of boil. No fuss. Done. This is called hopbursting and it works great. This isn't IPA. This is APA.

 

[worlddivides]

I like to add all the hops in one step about 10-15 minutes before end of boil. No fuss. Done. This is called hopbursting and it works great. This isn't IPA. This is APA.

I think that's a good point. In a lot of IPAs I'll do only one or two boil additions (though admittedly I've done IPAs with like four or five boil hop additions), then tons of whirlpool additions and dry hop additions. But with an APA, I often will do a 60 minute, 15 minute, 10 minute, 5 minute, and 1 minute addition with either no whirlpooling or just a lot less. I usually dry hop for APAs too, but I tend to do smaller amounts than I do for IPAs. For example, when it comes to dry hopping, with a West Coast IPA I might do 4 to 6 grams per liter, for a New England IPA I might do 8 grams per liter, but for an APA, I might only do 2 or 3 grams per liter. There's obviously no set rules for this kind of thing, but that's the trend across a lot of my hoppy American beers.

 

[FranklinsBeerTower]

Thanks all - think I'll brew this in the next few weeks after some travel:

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Deck Sipper 2.0 (Centennial/Chinook APA)

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: American Pale Ale
Boil Time: 75 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Gravity: 1.040
Efficiency: 72% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.053
Final Gravity: 1.009
ABV (standard): 5.79%
IBU (tinseth): 41.36
SRM (morey): 5.82

FERMENTABLES:
9.5 lb - Barke Pilsner Malt (86.4%)
1 lb - Barke Vienna (9.1%)
0.5 lb - Caramel / Crystal 40L (4.5%)

HOPS:
0.5 oz - Magnum, Type: Pellet, AA: 13.2, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 24.91
1 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10.4, Use: Boil for 12 min, IBU: 16.45

1.5 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10.4, Use: Hop Stand for 10 min
1.5 oz - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 11.3, Use: Hop Stand for 10 min

1.5 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10.4, Use: Dry Hop for 2 days
1.5 oz - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 11.3, Use: Dry Hop for 2 days

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05

 

[tracer bullet]

I think that looks great, But as a data point / comparison, here was my last brew, with a combo of Centennial and Cascade:

1 oz @ 15min (about 15 IBU)
3 oz @ whirpool 170F 20 min (about another 15 IBU)
2 oz dry hop after fermentation

It's an odd feeling to not use any boil hops, but it works out great if enough hops are used late to still get those IBU's. Predictions for me were 30 total and with a ~ 5% beer I think that's fine.

All that said, it may not be to style exactly, but it's delicious and very much not an IPA nor a NEIPA.

 

[worlddivides]

The Magnum, Centennial, and Chinook combo is great.

I recently made an APA recipe that I plan to brew soon with Centennial, Simcoe, and Cascade (with all of the dry hopping Cascade).

 

[tracer bullet]

I dislike Chinook, personally. But the Centennial, Simcoe, Cascade combo is awesome. Any 2 of those 3, or even any one by itself are also all good in my book.

 

[fluketamer]

Thanks all - think I'll brew this in the next few weeks after some travel:

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Deck Sipper 2.0 (Centennial/Chinook APA)

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: American Pale Ale
Boil Time: 75 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Gravity: 1.040
Efficiency: 72% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.053
Final Gravity: 1.009
ABV (standard): 5.79%
IBU (tinseth): 41.36
SRM (morey): 5.82

FERMENTABLES:
9.5 lb - Barke Pilsner Malt (86.4%)
1 lb - Barke Vienna (9.1%)
0.5 lb - Caramel / Crystal 40L (4.5%)

HOPS:
0.5 oz - Magnum, Type: Pellet, AA: 13.2, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 24.91
1 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10.4, Use: Boil for 12 min, IBU: 16.45

1.5 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10.4, Use: Hop Stand for 10 min
1.5 oz - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 11.3, Use: Hop Stand for 10 min

1.5 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10.4, Use: Dry Hop for 2 days
1.5 oz - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 11.3, Use: Dry Hop for 2 days

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05

i really love this grist. most of my beers are 80-95 percent pilsner with the rest either vienna or munich light with a touch of caramel 20 - 60

sometimes ill replace the caramel with carapils.
i feel this grist is so versatile.
i use this grist for apas , ipas, lagers and pilsners.
its also cheap. and foolproof.
i dont find that much difference in subbing the pilsner for american 2 row in the apas or ipas. i do notice it in the lagers which are more malt forward.

i find that 100 percent pilsner lacks something that i can quite place my finger on. even just 5 percent of another grain gives it a lot more comlpexity IMO.

i know a lot fo brewers make great single malt beers but i cant.

in terms of your schedule i really like the small early bittering charge with mostly late flavor aroma additions past 20 min mark with big dry hopping. i even started making my lagers like this.

looks like a great beer.

 

[BongoYodeler]

I’m currently working my way through a keg of SMaSH pale ale.
100% Golden Promise with Krush hops.

Hopping schedule was:
.25oz @60m
.25oz @25m
.25oz @15m
.25oz @10m
2 oz wp @175f 20mins
5 oz dry hop

Mild bitterness, with a subdued tropical fruitiness. Seems just right for a 5.2% beer.

I have another pale in the planning stages that I’ll use Cascade, Simcoe, and Mosaic hops. I’m still working out the hopping schedule on that one.

 

[FranklinsBeerTower]

i really love this grist. most of my beers are 80-95 percent pilsner with the rest either vienna or munich light with a touch of caramel 20 - 60

sometimes ill replace the caramel with carapils.
i feel this grist is so versatile.
i use this grist for apas , ipas, lagers and pilsners.
its also cheap. and foolproof.
i dont find that much difference in subbing the pilsner for american 2 row in the apas or ipas. i do notice it in the lagers which are more malt forward.

i find that 100 percent pilsner lacks something that i can quite place my finger on. even just 5 percent of another grain gives it a lot more comlpexity IMO.

i know a lot fo brewers make great single malt beers but i cant.

in terms of your schedule i really like the small early bittering charge with mostly late flavor aroma additions past 20 min mark with big dry hopping. i even started making my lagers like this.

looks like a great beer.

Love this grist too, it's classic and plays well with just about any hop combo you can throw at it. Cheers.

 

[FranklinsBeerTower]

I’m currently working my way through a keg of SMaSH pale ale.
100% Golden Promise with Krush hops.

Hopping schedule was:
.25oz @60m
.25oz @25m
.25oz @15m
.25oz @10m
2 oz wp @175f 20mins
5 oz dry hop

Mild bitterness, with a subdued tropical fruitiness. Seems just right for a 5.2% beer.

I have another pale in the planning stages that I’ll use Cascade, Simcoe, and Mosaic hops. I’m still working out the hopping schedule on that one.

That sounds great, I love Krush hops. I actually just did a spin on a Pacific Ale (e.g. Stone & Wood), 60 Pilsner / 40 white wheat, all Nectaron hops at 20, 10 and Whirlpool. Fermented with BRY-97, about 5.1% ABV. Has been perfect for these hot, muggy summer days in the northeast. Highly recommend.

 

[fluketamer]

Love this grist too, it's classic and plays well with just about any hop combo you can throw at it. Cheers.

yes i did .25 magnum
1 oz citra at 10
2 at flame out
2 dry hop and it was great

i have also done magnum citra amarillo
magnum citra mosaic,
and magnum citra galaxy
and magnum citra strata
all came out really good

 

[Dgallo]

Hi all - curious what your current hopping schedules are for a basic APA. I've always brewed a classic (outdated?!) 60/20/10/0/DH schedule, but sometimes feel like distinct characteristics get "crowded" with such a skew towards hot side additions.

Thinking about doing a simple Pils/Vienna malt base with ~16 IBU at 60, 10 IBU at 15 and then moving everything else to whirlpool.

What are others doing for house pale ales? If your hop schedule has changed over time, how has it changed and why?

I think your plan is sound, maybe slight adjustments but you’re there.

If I were brewing a pale I’d target a .75-.8 BU/GU (closer to 1.0 if you’re going for a Sierra Nevada type).

For hotside I’d target 20% of your planned ibus at 60minutes. Another 40-50% at 10 minutes. Then pick up the rest in whirlpooling.

For dryhoping, I’d use about an oz per gallon for a standard pale. Something like this