Slightly Smashed Apollo Pale Ale - Input?

[jamie3]

Looking for some input on this recipe. I haven't brewed with apollo yet and want to make a smash (well slightly smashed) for experimentation.
I want a pale ale that has a bit more characteristics of an IPA.

OG 1.056
FG 1.015
IBU ~ 46
efficiency 70%

Safale US-05

11.75# 2-row
1# crystal 60L
.5# carapils/dextrine

.25 oz 60min 19%
.5 oz 30 min 19%
.5 oz 15 min 19%
.5 oz 5 min 19%

Has anyone brewed with Apollo before? Thoughts?

 

[heywatchthis]

First... I would call it a SH'ed pale ale...second, I personally am not sure that you'll get enough information about apollo with the hop schedule you have. I personally would treat it more like a hop burst and get all of your IBUs from late hop additions. If you aren't willing to do that, or don't have enough hops, I would change it up and do something like:

.5 oz 60
.5 oz 15
.75 oz KO

or something like that. Its really hard to brew a well balanced, well bittered IPAish beer with ~2 oz hops. To really understand the contribution of a hop to flavor/aroma, you need to use several ounces (I use >8 oz/5 gallons).

All of this is my opinion, and there will be other people who puke on what I've said, but those are my 1.5 cents.

 

[jamie3]

First... I would call it a SH'ed pale ale...second, I personally am not sure that you'll get enough information about apollo with the hop schedule you have. I personally would treat it more like a hop burst and get all of your IBUs from late hop additions. If you aren't willing to do that, or don't have enough hops, I would change it up and do something like:

.5 oz 60
.5 oz 15
.75 oz KO

or something like that. Its really hard to brew a well balanced, well bittered IPAish beer with ~2 oz hops. To really understand the contribution of a hop to flavor/aroma, you need to use several ounces (I use >8 oz/5 gallons).

All of this is my opinion, and there will be other people who puke on what I've said, but those are my 1.5 cents.

thanks for the input.

i have a pound in total so i have lots i can use. however, i wanted to keep the IBU under 50 for a pale ale. and with these super high alpha hops its hard to do so.

i agree that maybe more late hop additions will give me a better understanding of the flavour.

maybe this schedule is better suited ~ 48 IBU
boil 60 mins 0.5 Apollo leaf 19.0
boil 15 mins 0.75 Apollo leaf 19.0
boil 5 mins 0.75 Apollo leaf 19.0
dry hop 3 days 0.5 Apollo leaf 19.0

maybe doing an IPA with higher IBU would be better with this hop?

 

[neckbeardbeer]

Did you ever try this one out? Just ordered some Apollo and want to SMaSH(ish) it. Get enough flavor / aroma to get a good feel for the hop?

 

[jamie3]

i did however i would only use apollo again for bittering only. i didnt really like it as a flavouring hop.

 

[annoyingrob]

What sort of flavours were you getting off of the apollo?

I have a pound of apollo sitting in my freezer, and pretty much an identical grain bill sitting in my basement ready for brewing this weekend.

 

[jamie3]

Actually, instead of a Pale Ale I made an Apollo IPA with about 1/2 pound of Apollo hops.

I don't have the recipe on hand but what I recall was the bittering was nice, not harsh. Flavouring was apples and pears and slight citrus from what I remember, and a bit too resiny as the Crystal 60L was a bit too much. Aroma was profound as well.

I recently did a DIPA with Apollo only as bittering and aroma but its not kegged yet.

If i were to do it over i would use a lighter crystal, or just go with about 6% non-crystal malt like special aromatic. Maybe use 2-3% crystal 15L for a bit of body. Now that i think of it i would use apollo again.

 

[annoyingrob]

I just want to let you know that I just finished kegging this a few days ago:

12# of 2-row
1# of crystal 60
1.5oz apollo @60
2.5oz apollo @flameout, left to sit in the hot wort for about 30 minutes before chilling
2oz cascade in secondary.

the 1.5oz created a super bitter beer, which is what I was hoping for. The 2.5oz at flameout did next to nothing for me though. After a week in the fermenter, the hop flavour and aroma was gone. I was quite surprised. So, I decided to dry hop 2oz of cascade in there for 5 days just before kegging, and was quite happy with the result.

My conclusion, I wouldn't use apollo as a flavour hop unless I were to use a lot of it.

 

[jamie3]

based on your hop schedule you arent going to get much flavour out of these hops. if u want flavour you need to add something between 20-10 min.

if you wanna get flavour i would recommend maybe .75 oz of apollo at 60 min. less upfront bitterness. then maybe a 20 min addition of 1 oz. then a 5 min addition of 1 oz.

once again i recall there was apple/pear flavour.

personally when i want to learn about the flavour profile of a new hop i blast the hops at the end of the boil. < 20 min

 

[annoyingrob]

Hey, an update on this, I brewed another batch a few weeks ago, just kegged it a few days ago.

For 10 gallons:
24lbs x 2-row
2lbs x Crystal 60
2oz apollo @ 60min
4oz apollo @ 20min
4oz cascase @ Dry hop 3 days before kegging


I'm getting a very distinct peach aroma off of the beer, almost smells like peach iced tea. There's a very nice peach / citrus flavour from the hops too. I really like the outcome. My first guess wouldn't have been apple/pear, but now that you mention it, I can absolutely see that. For such a strong bittering hop, these make for a very nice flavouring later in the boil too. I'm going to try these in my peach IPA recipe once peaches come back into season around here.