First All Grain and American Pale Ale

[Smiley Dan]

Hey Howdy Hey,

In a couple of weekends I am doing my first all grain batch. It is going to be an American Pale Ale. It will also be my first time brewing and American Pale Ale. So I am popping two cherries at one time. My idea is to keep the recipe on the low end of style guide so I can tweak it over future batches by changing one ingredient at a time. I am looking for feed back on the hop schedule. I am not exactly sure how it goes for an APA. But I will also appreciate any feedback about the recipe.

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG
Estimated Color: 6.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 33.5 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
9.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (4.0 SRM) Grain 87.80 %
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (1.5 SRM) Grain 9.76 %
0.25 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2.44 %
0.50 oz Centennial [6.00 %] (60 min) Hops 12.1 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo [6.00 %] (45 min) Hops 10.8 IBU
0.50 oz Centennial [6.00 %] (20 min) Hops 4.1 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo [6.00 %] (15 min) Hops 3.2 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.4 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
2 Pkgs Safeale (White Labs #US-05) Yeast-Ale

[Bugeater]

The basic recipe looks fine to me. I would simplify the hop schedule if it were me. I would combine the 60 and 45 minute additions as a single addition at 60 minutes. Same with combining the 20 and 15 minute additions at either 15 or 20 minutes. This way you don't have to watch the clock quite so close.

Actually, I would probably drop the 15-20 minute addition altogether and stick those hops in as first wort hops. This way, once the danger of boil over is past (right after the hot break drops) I'm free to clean the mash tun and do other brewing chores without interruption.

Wayne

[Smiley Dan]

Thanks Wayne. That makes perfect sense to me. Its almost like common sense. Who figured?

[BDawg]

Add a 1/2 lb of Crystal 40 to the grain bill. You are missing the caramel notes in that recipe.
Otherwise, what Bug said is great advice.


[edit]

6% Centennial looks REALLY low to me. Are you sure of those Alpha Acid values? If your centennial is up around 10% where it should be, use the Amarillo as an additional dry hop and only use the Centennial as FWH

[Smiley Dan]

The reason why the centennial is 6% is because that is the low range on the the web site I was getting it from. It gave a range of 6-10%. I was going to adjust the recipe when the hops arrived and I could see what it said on the package. I figured this way if it was 10% I could just cut back. But if I put 10% in the calculator and it showed up lower than I may not have enough.

Thanks for the advice on the crystal.

[Mylo]

I like to keep the Amarillo for the aroma (especially dry hop). Even better than Cascades. You might consider swapping those two.


Mylo

[huskerbrew]

Does anyone else think the 2 packages of US-05 is overkill? Mr Malty calculator suggests .9 pkgs for 1052 OG. My $0.02 anyway.

[BDawg]

yeah, 1 pkg is plenty