Summer APA

[Brian Parfitt]

Afternoon all..

I'm looking for some feedback on a recipe I'm putting together for a July 4th party in a few weeks. I have a surplus of El Dorado and Amarillo hops along with Maris Otter that I am looking to use up, thus the reason for the recipe.

Fermentables

• 9 lbs Maris Otter
• 1 lb Vienna
• 8 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt

Hops

• .5 oz El Dorado @ 60 min
• 1 oz Amarillo @ 5 min
• 2 oz Amarillo for 15 mins @ flameout (Hopstand)
• 1 oz El Dorado for 15 mins @ flameout (Hopstand)

Yeast
US-05 American

Target Water Profile
Ca 110; Mg 18; NA 17; Cl 50; SO4 100

I had a suggestion to dry hop with both hops, but that feels like overkill for what I am trying to achieve here. Also trying to avoid any hop burn or becoming overly bitter.

Any suggestions or insight from you more seasoned brewers would be appreciated.

Cheers!
Brian

 

[redrocker652002]

Looks good to me. I have never use that much Vienna, or any at all that I can think of, but I am interested in how this turns out. I nice summer ale would be a good addition to my list.

 

[Miraculix]

I'd go with 100% mo and ditch the other two malts. It has plenty of character on it's own and as it's supposed to be a summer ale, this is just perfect on it's own.

If you insist on one more malt, use only one of the others, either Vienna or crystal.

The amount of hops cannot be judged as we don't have the ibus they contribute.

If you're not after huge bitterness, I'd aim for 35 ibus and an OG of 1.05.

Split the dry hop 50/50 between those hops and go for about 2g/l.

Try to get 20 ibus from a 60 minute bittering addition and the rest from a 80c flame out/whirlpool.

 

[redrocker652002]

I just put this into my Grainfather app and I get almost 42 IBU's. Seems pretty bitter for an APA, but it does fall on the higher side of acceptable for the style. But I was using the default BU's. I dropped the El Dorado and Amarillo to half and I got down to about 38, which seems a bit better for a summer style apa, but I am certainly no pro.

 

[Brian Parfitt]

I'd go with 100% mo and ditch the other two malts. It has plenty of character on it's own and as it's supposed to be a summer ale, this is just perfect on it's own.

If you insist on one more malt, use only one of the others, either Vienna or crystal.

The amount of hops cannot be judged as we don't have the ibus they contribute.

If you're not after huge bitterness, I'd aim for 35 ibus and an OG of 1.05.

Split the dry hop 50/50 between those hops and go for about 2g/l.

Try to get 20 ibus from a 60 minute bittering addition and the rest from a 80c flame out/whirlpool.

Sorry for the omission of AA on hops. El Dorado I have is 14% and Amarillo is 6.9%. Curious to see how that effects previous feedback.

Thanks for the earlier replies.

Fermentables

• 9 lbs Maris Otter
• 1 lb Vienna
• 8 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt

Hops

• .5 oz El Dorado 14% AA @ 60 min
• 1 oz Amarillo 6.9% @ 5 min
• 2 oz Amarillo 6.9% for 15 mins @ flameout (Hopstand)
• 1 oz El Dorado 14% for 15 mins @ flameout (Hopstand)

Yeast
US-05 American

 

[redrocker652002]

OK, so I updated the recipe in Grainfather. Using the hop amounts you have on your recipe and updating the AA I still get about 41 IBU. If I cut the hops in half other than keeping the 60 minute hop the same I get about 33. With that said, I am not 100% sure my efficiency is right on my recipe. This is a new machine for me, so I am going with what they are telling me for that. Again, not sure if this helps, but it's what I get when I put in the recipe. I am going to give it a go though, why not, right?

Edit to add that I ditched everything but the MO and upped it to about 10 pounds. Got an OG of about 1.041 and an FG of 1.009.

 

[worlddivides]

One of my favorite APAs I've ever made was around 50 IBUs. In fact, 41-42 IBUs is a pretty typical bitterness for an APA. While APAs do tend to be less "bitter" than IPAs, that doesn't mean they have lower IBUs. It just means that they taste less bitter in balance. If I were to imagine a typical West Coast IPA with the same IBUs as an APA, I'd imagine both of them being clean, but I'd expect the APA to be maltier and more balanced while the IPA would be drier and more focused on the bitterness and hops. Just for reference, the BJCP has the IBU range for APA as 30-50 and American IPA as 40-70, so just looking at that, it's a 10 IBU overlap, but session IPAs can be as low as 20 IBUs. And I've had sour IPAs or New England IPAs where the IBUs are in the teens.

And looking at my records, I made a Citra SMaSH APA about 10 years ago that was 65 IBUs. Yes, that's straight up American IPA territory, but it didn't taste anywhere near as bitter as the IPAs I was making at the time. I guess it's kind of like how Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was an IPA when it came out but is now considered a quintessential APA (and it's right around 40 IBUs for reference).

For the OP, though, I think that looks like a great recipe. I personally don't have any issues at all with using Maris Otter, Vienna, and Caramel malt, but depending on what you're going for, just doing, say, 95% Maris Otter and 5% Caramel/Crystal malt could be a good approach.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Great timing, I'm brewing a SMaSH pale ale tomorrow. I have 8oz of Krush hops, and since I've never used them before I put together a recipe to try them in.

100% Golden Promise
Krush hops - 37 ibu's
Est. OG - 1.051
Est. FG - 1.010
Est. abv ~ 5.4%

 

[Miraculix]

Great timing, I'm brewing a SMaSH pale ale tomorrow. I have 8oz of Krush hops, and since I've never used them before I put together a recipe to try them in.

100% Golden Promise
Krush hops - 37 ibu's
Est. OG - 1.051
Est. FG - 1.010
Est. abv ~ 5.4%

Sounds like a great beer to me!

Don't know this hop though....

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Don't know this hop though....

Krush is the name of the hop formerly known as HBC586, from the same stable as Citra and others. Very mango, with some orange and peach in support - and much better agronomically than Citra.

As far as OP goes - yeah +1 to KISS and just use Otter, it's all you need.

APA's are typically around 0.9-1.0 BU:GU so you seem in the ballpark there.

All I'd say is don't over carbonate it.

 

[Miraculix]

Krush is the name of the hop formerly known as HBC586, from the same stable as Citra and others. Very mango, with some orange and peach in support - and much better agronomically than Citra.

As far as OP goes - yeah +1 to KISS and just use Otter, it's all you need.

APA's are typically around 0.9-1.0 BU:GU so you seem in the ballpark there.

All I'd say is don't over carbonate it.

Sounds like I should give this hop a try!

 

[BongoYodeler]

Sounds like I should give this hop a try!

Judging from the smells coming from my fermenter I would agree.

 

[AlexKay]

Krush plays beautifully with Strata.

And Vienna plays beautifully with everything. Or nothing: a Vienna SMaSH is a great thing, too.

 

[Miraculix]

Judging from the smells coming from my fermenter I would agree.

A bit hard to get in Germany atm.... My main supplier doesn't carry it.

 

[An Ankoù]

A bit hard to get in Germany atm.... My main supplier doesn't carry it.

You can get Krush here https://brouwland.com/en/hops/21031-yakima-chief-hopsR-krush-t90-hop-pellets-50-g.html

 

[Northern_Brewer]

A bit hard to get in Germany atm.... My main supplier doesn't carry it.

Since it was only named last year, anything from the 2023 vintage or before is probably under the old name of HBC586, but it's popular and as a new hop they're still growing up acreage, so the supply/demand is not in your favour.