Even my APA isn’t simple…

At least, not by simple “number of ingredients”, “different kinds of malts”, “number of hop additions”, or similar measure.

I was really trying to keep this one simple, straightforward, and good. The kind of beer you can sit down and have a couple and they aren’t palate busting (like a super hoppy IPA) or drunk making (like my 8.5% ABV monster conditioning in the corner).

The beer aims to hit all the high notes of the American Pale Ale style, including smooth hoppiness, nice malt notes, and a rich color. I think it will do that, but the recipe got a little out of hand. 5 kinds of malt, 2 kinds of hops, and 5 total hop additions. Oh well. I’m looking forward to cracking one of these open mid June.

The recipe:

This is an all-grain recipe I developed based on the style notes for an APA, notes from Gordon Strong’s books, and information from Designing Great Beers. It’s supposed to be relatively simple, with a hint of complexity in the malt. This is the first brew I am trying with all late hopping; all hops were added in the last 20 minutes of a 70 minute boil.

I wanted a beer with more color than my last two brews, both of which are extremely pale. To help this I added some crystal malts along with Munich malt. I added wheat for the hell of it, and used rice hulls for the first time to help with mash temperature evenness and easier lautering.

The brewing process went very well, and I actually got a higher starting gravity than planned, indicating good mash efficiency. This will be a simple one stage fermentation, 3–4 weeks and then bottled.

Malt

Hops

Yeast

Mash

Expected Characteristics

Style: APA Homebrew Reference
Calories (12 oz) 190 N/A
IBUs (bitterness) 40 30 – 45
Color (SRM) 9.7 (amber) 5 – 14
ABV 6.4% 4.5% – 6.2%
OG 1.061 1.045 – 1.060
FG 1.012 1.010 – 1.015

— Steve

Posted on 13 May 2013