please critique my APA recipe

[erick0619]

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: El palido

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: American Pale Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 6.5 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.048
Efficiency: 65% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.057
Final Gravity: 1.016
ABV (standard): 5.34%
IBU (tinseth): 42.05
SRM (morey): 6.1

FERMENTABLES:
12 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (92.9%)
0.5 lb - American - White Wheat (3.9%)
0.3 lb - American - Munich - 60L (2.3%)
0.12 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 15L (0.9%)

HOPS:
0.5 oz - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 14.3, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 25.2
0.5 oz - Nelson Sauvin, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.5, Use: Boil for 20 min, IBU: 13.34
0.5 oz - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 3.51
0.5 oz - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 7, Use: Boil for 0 min

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 154 F, Time: 60 min, Amount: 16.3 qt
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.25 qt/lb

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 72%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Temp: 59 - 75 F
Fermentation Temp: 65 F
Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / deg P)

 

[RandallFlag]

Nelson Sauvin = very cool

 

[erick0619]

Nelson Sauvin = very cool

Thank you but do you have any pointers? Im just woriking with what i have at my disposal and my limited knowledge in recipe making.

 

[chickypad]

You're pretty low on the character malts, which is fine if that's what you want. It's going to be quite pale with almost all 2 row + a little wheat. Personally I'd go more like 5-7% crystal and 10-12% munich for a little flavor and malt backbone, but again depends on what you want. Hops look pretty good to me, I think you could stand to up the late additions a bit and/or add some dry hop.


Edit: also, are you sure about the L on that munich? Munich is usually 7-10L, or dark munich is about 20L

 

[Happywanderer]

I too would add some more Crystal. You can also throw some carapils/carafoam in there for head retention if you wish.

Dry hop is always good for pale ales. Firestone Pale Ale dryhops with Chinook, Cascade, and Centennial I think. I dry hop my Sierra Nevada clone with Cascade.

 

[solbes]

Looks pretty solid to me. If your Munich is really 60L, I'm guessing its Caramunich. If thats the case then your 2 oz of C15 would be fine. If its regular or dark Munich (8-20L), then 2 oz of C15 will not do much in the way of adding any sweetness. In that case I would up the C15 to 8 oz.

Agree on adding 1-2 oz of dry hops for 5-7 days at the end of primary. You choose the variety

 

[Herky21]

I would probably quadruple the late addition hops, at least - not the 20 minute though. I think expanding on the malts isn't a bad idea either. I make my apas without any caramel though so I can't speak to that. I think it interferes with the hops. I like to go with more munich or sweeter base malts instead of regular 2-row.

I don't think that you need carapils as Happywanderer suggested since you have whitewheat, which should serve the exact same purpose without lightening the beer anymore than it already is.

If you bump up the malt, but don't bump up the hops, you're going to have more of an english IPA with american hop flavors, and less of an APA.

And as everyone is saying, dry hopping is a good idea.

 

[erick0619]

You're pretty low on the character malts, which is fine if that's what you want. It's going to be quite pale with almost all 2 row + a little wheat. Personally I'd go more like 5-7% crystal and 10-12% munich for a little flavor and malt backbone, but again depends on what you want. Hops look pretty good to me, I think you could stand to up the late additions a bit and/or add some dry hop.


Edit: also, are you sure about the L on that munich? Munich is usually 7-10L, or dark munich is about 20L

Thank you for your response I appreciate it. yeah I was looking it on Brewers friend and it did look somewhat pale, I also called up my LHBS they only have Munich 10l. so would you recommend me to just drop the wheat and up the Munich and crystal? I had added the wheat for some head retention, And yeah I was kinda thinking of upping the late additions but I wanted to post on here for some feedback

 

[erick0619]

I too would add some more Crystal. You can also throw some carapils/carafoam in there for head retention if you wish.



Dry hop is always good for pale ales. Firestone Pale Ale dryhops with Chinook, Cascade, and Centennial I think. I dry hop my Sierra Nevada clone with Cascade.

Would the carapils or Carafoam perform better than the wheat? Info have those hops at my disposal I might just come up with a good ration and throw those in

 

[erick0619]

I would probably quadruple the late addition hops, at least - not the 20 minute though. I think expanding on the malts isn't a bad idea either. I make my apas without any caramel though so I can't speak to that. I think it interferes with the hops. I like to go with more munich or sweeter base malts instead of regular 2-row.



I don't think that you need carapils as Happywanderer suggested since you have whitewheat, which should serve the exact same purpose without lightening the beer anymore than it already is.



If you bump up the malt, but don't bump up the hops, you're going to have more of an english IPA with american hop flavors, and less of an APA.



And as everyone is saying, dry hopping is a good idea.

I would love to be able to use sweeter Malts but I have over 30 lbs of 2 row and want to use that up and just purchase some specialty grains since you don't use crystal in your apa what kind of grain bill would you use if you were to use 2 row as a base malt I'll up the late additions and play around on Brewers friend and see what I get thank you

 

[chickypad]

I think it's fine to leave the wheat, I often throw in a half lb or so for the same reasons. So I would replace some of the 2-row with the increased crystal and munich. I didn't mean to infer that I was worried so much about the color, domestic 2-row doesn't have much character on it's own is all. It's great for a cheap neutral base malt but I wouldn't want to do a SMaSH with it.

 

[erick0619]

I think it's fine to leave the wheat, I often throw in a half lb or so for the same reasons. So I would replace some of the 2-row with the increased crystal and munich. I didn't mean to infer that I was worried so much about the color, domestic 2-row doesn't have much character on it's own is all. It's great for a cheap neutral base malt but I wouldn't want to do a SMaSH with it.

Ooh ok yeah I get you man I agree. Should I bring it down to maybe 9 lbs and up the other malts?

 

[chickypad]

Something like this gets you about the same OG, and I think would make a nice APA:

10.25 lbs 2 Row 78.8 %
1.5 lbs Munich 10L 11.5 %
12.0 oz Crystal 15 5.8 %
8.0 oz White Wheat Malt 3.8 %

 

[erick0619]

Something like this gets you about the same OG, and I think would make a nice APA:

10.25 lbs 2 Row 78.8 %
1.5 lbs Munich 10L 11.5 %
12.0 oz Crystal 15 5.8 %
8.0 oz White Wheat Malt 3.8 %

im going to trust you on this ill brew this up and then see where i go from there im def upping the late additions on the hops thanks for the help chickypad

 

[jtratcliff]

Google for "Yooper's Haus Ale"... It's a nicely balanced apa that use vienna, Munich and victory if I recall correctly. I've made several batches that were variations on that theme and they've all come out very tasty.

I've done it with different hops but mostly the same grain bill, the same hops (all cascade, I believe) but slightly modified grain bill, different yeasts, different dry hops, etc. it's a very versatile recipe that takes mods easily.

Plus the recipe as written is pretty darned good without any mods.

 

[erick0619]

Google for "Yooper's Haus Ale"... It's a nicely balanced apa that use vienna, Munich and victory if I recall correctly. I've made several batches that were variations on that theme and they've all come out very tasty.

I've done it with different hops but mostly the same grain bill, the same hops (all cascade, I believe) but slightly modified grain bill, different yeasts, different dry hops, etc. it's a very versatile recipe that takes mods easily.

Plus the recipe as written is pretty darned good without any mods.

Thank you ill give it a look cheers!

 

[GRBC]

I prefer my APAs to have very little crystal malt. When I read your first post, I thought to myself, what a good looking grain bill. I also thought your hop schedule looks OK, but you may want to add some whirlpool hops and/or dry hops for a bigger hop character. Looking forward to hearing how it turns out.

You could take the 1/2 ounce of each hop that you are going to have left over & put half of that in at flameout for a 30 minute steep/whirlpool and use the other half as a 5 day dry hop addition that you add towards the end of the fermentation.

 

[erick0619]

I prefer my APAs to have very little crystal malt. When I read your first post, I thought to myself, what a good looking grain bill. I also thought your hop schedule looks OK, but you may want to add some whirlpool hops and/or dry hops for a bigger hop character. Looking forward to hearing how it turns out.

You could take the 1/2 ounce of each hop that you are going to have left over & put half of that in at flameout for a 30 minute steep/whirlpool and use the other half as a 5 day dry hop addition that you add towards the end of the fermentation.

I'll be honest I got the percentages off of a Google search that sent me to a hbt thread the hop schedule was all me though. I was planning on beefing up the late additions but I hadn't thought of hop stand I'll do that I'm going to have plenty of hops left over I have about 4 oz of each hop. I was just trying to be modest with the additions to stay within the ibu range for the style.

 

[erick0619]

I forgot to mention I'll be using San Diego super yeast instead of us05 u understand it tends to accentuate the malt character a bit so even more reason to up the late additions

 

[Maxkling]

I prefer my APAs to have very little crystal malt. When I read your first post, I thought to myself, what a good looking grain bill. fermentation.

I thought the opposite. I almost wondered why even use the crystal at such a small percentage....

Something like this gets you about the same OG, and I think would make a nice APA:

10.25 lbs 2 Row 78.8 %
1.5 lbs Munich 10L 11.5 %
12.0 oz Crystal 15 5.8 %
8.0 oz White Wheat Malt 3.8 %

Now that looks like a good grain bill.

 

[erick0619]

Just an update I boiled off more than I thought I would ended up with about 4.5 gallons of 1.063 down to 1.011 with San Diego super yeast bottled last night mmm so tasty View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1426784474.081275.jpg