BCS American Pale Ale but Single Hop? (+ water questions)

[spiderwrangler]

I don't know about the water (the answer is in here somewhere http://ajdel.wetnewf.org:81/), but do like the idea of single hopping, it's been something I've been kicking around for a while, but haven't gotten around to brewing. Usually something else ends up taking brewing priority...

[scotchpine]

I did a similar thing last Feb. when I brewed an APA with all Chinook hops. It was the first and only time I used lactic acid to control mash ph (this was only my 2nd all grain batch). I was also following Palmers EZ spread sheet at the time and had just recieved my water report from Ward Labs. It ended up having a bad soured off flavor that my pea brain attributed to the lactic acid. Maybe I added to much. Maybe it was an infection, don't really know, but it got worse as it aged in the bottle. I'd really like to know how yours turned out cause if I go back to this, I'm leaning towards using phosphoric acid instead.

[mabrungard]

The water stuff should be fine. The sulfate is very moderate for an APA, but it will do. I'm glad to see that you backed off of the chloride level from your original plan. Keep chlorides below 100 ppm when the sulfate level is over 100 ppm. Don't worry about the chloride/sulfate ratio too much. It looses meaning when chloride and sulfate levels either get high or low. The ratio is mostly useful when chloride levels are moderate (say 30 to 100 ppm).

Why did you add baking soda to the mash? That is an alkaline mineral that should not be added to the mash unless you really need it. Since you had to add acid, you really didn't need the baking soda. If you had deleted the baking soda, you would have needed less acid, maybe none. Its too bad the software let you hang yourself, but it appears that the beer should come out all right.

Enjoy!

[keelanfish]

Wow, I didn't even think about not adding the baking soda to the mash. When I read your post (mabrungard) the lightbulb went off and one more piece of water adjustment fell into place for me. Thanks for that! I'll definately not add anything to the mash next time that makes me fight the pH effects with acid.

For what it's worth, I tasted both the initial runnings and late sparge and the wort from both tasted great. I didn't detect any off flavors, so I'm optimistic!

[madchemist83]

Imo if you like the way water tastes then go for it. Just adjust pH. Without ICP and IC analysis I can't tell how accutate those values are

[keelanfish]

This beer has been in the keg for about a week now. Still a little under carbed and green, but tastes okay. I think I'm just being paranoid, but I have a perception that something tastes a little off. Also, I'm amazed at how little hop character is present in this beer. There was a fair amount centennial used, especialy late additions and dry hopping. I think I'm going to do an additional dry hop of centennial in the keg to see if I can up the hop profile.