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My best APA yet

Posted: Monday Nov 16, 2009 3:58 pm
by matr
Hey guys. I just kegged this and it's a ripper so I thought I would share.

1.00 kg Light Dry Extract (15.8 EBC) Dry Extract 32.79 %
1.70 kg Pale Liquid Extract (15.8 EBC) Extract 55.74 %
0.20 kg Caramalt (Joe White) (49.3 EBC) Grain 6.56 %
0.15 kg Caramel Wheat Malt (90.6 EBC) Grain 4.92 %
20.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [11.50 %] (20 min) Hops 23.9 IBU
10.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [11.50 %] (5 min) Hops 3.9 IBU
10.00 gm Cascade [7.80 %] (5 min) Hops 2.7 IBU
10.00 gm Cascade [7.80 %] (0 min) Hops -
1 Pkgs SafBrew Specialty Ale (DCL Yeast #S-05) Yeast-Ale

Hops boiled in the steeped grain liquor (3L)

It's really tasty... :D

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Tuesday Nov 17, 2009 11:54 am
by Lachy
I like the look of that one. I've been looking at combining NS with either cascade or amarillo... I guess it works well, huh? What sort of flavour does the mix give?

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Tuesday Nov 17, 2009 2:51 pm
by matr
Worked very well.

I'm no expert in beer tasting and picking out the exact flavours.. But I know what I like!!

You can smell and taste the grapefruity cascade (as you would expect) but with a subtle amount of passionfruit on the nose & at first taste from the NS. - Good combo.. I rekon Amarillo would be just as good as the cascade though..

I forgot to add in the recipe that it was a 20L brew.

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Tuesday Nov 17, 2009 3:45 pm
by warra48
The recipes looks good to me.

However, I'm a bit of a heretic when it comes to Amarillo, and I personally would have used just Cascade and perhaps some Chinook.
I just do not like the fruit salad flavours Amarillo gives.

Slightly off topic, I tasted an all grain APA last week, made by another brewer with loads of Nelson Sauvin flowers. I quite liked it at first, but then it got too overpowering for me, just too fruity and flowery.

However, both those hops seem very very popular with many brewers, and I guess it's great when we can have some divergence in personal tastes.

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Tuesday Nov 17, 2009 7:38 pm
by Bum
warra48 wrote: I just do not like the fruit salad flavours Amarillo gives.
So you're not after the recipe for the Amarillo, Simcoe, Galaxy and Columbus APA I have conditioning at the moment?

(Nor should you be, really. Kinda cocked it up - but it smells fantastic)

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Wednesday Nov 18, 2009 7:16 am
by warra48
Bum wrote:
warra48 wrote: I just do not like the fruit salad flavours Amarillo gives.
So you're not after the recipe for the Amarillo, Simcoe, Galaxy and Columbus APA I have conditioning at the moment?

(Nor should you be, really. Kinda cocked it up - but it smells fantastic)
Good guess, Bum !!

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Thursday Nov 19, 2009 12:41 pm
by lethaldog
matr wrote:Worked very well.

I'm no expert in beer tasting and picking out the exact flavours.. But I know what I like!!

You can smell and taste the grapefruity cascade (as you would expect) but with a subtle amount of passionfruit on the nose & at first taste from the NS. - Good combo.. I rekon Amarillo would be just as good as the cascade though..

I forgot to add in the recipe that it was a 20L brew.
Ive done a couple of AG APA's lately as i do and with one of them i ran out of cascade half way through and had to use amarillo for the last edition and dry hopping, IMHO was nice but no where as good as cascade but thats just me, still a very yummy beer though!!

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Thursday Nov 19, 2009 12:43 pm
by lethaldog
warra48 wrote:The recipes looks good to me.

However, I'm a bit of a heretic when it comes to Amarillo, and I personally would have used just Cascade and perhaps some Chinook.
I just do not like the fruit salad flavours Amarillo gives.

Slightly off topic, I tasted an all grain APA last week, made by another brewer with loads of Nelson Sauvin flowers. I quite liked it at first, but then it got too overpowering for me, just too fruity and flowery.

However, both those hops seem very very popular with many brewers, and I guess it's great when we can have some divergence in personal tastes.
I agree amarillo for me for lack of a better term is very green or grassy if that makes any sence!!

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Thursday Nov 26, 2009 10:37 pm
by tazman67
Just done a APA with Simcoe, Amarillo and Cascade....Smells fantastic..

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Friday Nov 27, 2009 9:52 am
by drsmurto
As a proud defender of the amarillo hop can i suggest to the nay sayers you try using it in small amounts.

In a big ballsy APA i agree, its very fruity although the particular fruit it resembles seems to change each year. Subtle additions in balance with the malt bill and its a completely different picture. The best version of my golden ale i have made was when i wound back the late additions. The malt came through with a slight fruitiness, much the same way that Fat Yak isn't a big in your face APA but more subtle (even though that is cascade and nelson sauvin)

That said, i don't like cascade by itself but will happily blend it with other hops. Perhaps that's what needed for the amarillo heretics? Cascade and amarillo blend well, in fact one of the best versions of my golden ale i have tasted was that combo.

I use amarillo in combo with nelson sauvin in a Rogers type mid strength.

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Tuesday Dec 01, 2009 11:39 pm
by matr
Took a bottle down to my LHBS and got a great review.. :D :D :D

I asked how I could improve it.... He said do it all grain :roll:

The keg only lasted 6 days and the 2 bottles I extracted from it is on it's way to the Manjumup Cherry festival homebrew comp..

but then there is always "next brew" 8)

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Friday Dec 04, 2009 9:12 am
by WSC
I like the combo of NS and cascade.

Got the idea from Macs Hop Rocker.

My latest brew is:
Morgans Canadian Light (good base with not much bitterness or colour)
1kg of LDME
200g of Pale Crystal Malt Steeped
10gm Cascade at 20mins
20gm of NS at 10mins
10gm Cascade at 5mins
Yeast 1272 (first liquid yeast!!!)
Brew at 20 degrees (first brew in my temp controlled fridge!)

It should be a good summer brew. I think next time I will use a darker kit or up the crystal as the colour in the fermenter at the moment is a bit light.(might mean though that I need to add more hops to balance the extra crystal?)

I am liking the taste as the hops are there but not over powering and no really late hop additions means that it doesn't have the grassy taste I have had from dry hopping and hops at flame out in the past.

I am really trying for subtle hop flavours rather than the big hit which has it place but just not in a summer quaffer..in my opinion anyway.

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Monday Dec 14, 2009 10:11 pm
by matr
Absolutely stoked!!! :D

This picked up 3rd in the Manjimup Cherry Festival Homebrew Comp. (Category 3 Pale Ale, Bitter & IPA) Score of 34.5 points.

I wasn't expecting it as they were bottle conditioned and still fairly "green". I wish I sent some straight from the keg (would have been heaps better)...

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Tuesday Dec 15, 2009 6:54 pm
by jello
Congratulations.

How do you find when and where there are competitions on?

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Tuesday Dec 22, 2009 9:38 am
by WSC
Well done on the comp!

I am very happy with my APA, still green but tasty.

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Tuesday Dec 22, 2009 9:03 pm
by tazman67
I have a packet of the new Americain hop Citra..
I hope to do a Sierra Nevada Torpedo Clone...courtesy of BYO magazine.
I will also Combine it with Simcoe and Cascade for a real fruity APA. OR, just do a single hop APA.
Cheers

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Thursday Mar 04, 2010 2:25 pm
by WSC
WSC wrote:I like the combo of NS and cascade.

Got the idea from Macs Hop Rocker.

My latest brew is:
Morgans Canadian Light (good base with not much bitterness or colour)
1kg of LDME
200g of Pale Crystal Malt Steeped
10gm Cascade at 20mins
20gm of NS at 10mins
10gm Cascade at 5mins
Yeast 1272 (first liquid yeast!!!)
Brew at 20 degrees (first brew in my temp controlled fridge!)

It should be a good summer brew. I think next time I will use a darker kit or up the crystal as the colour in the fermenter at the moment is a bit light.(might mean though that I need to add more hops to balance the extra crystal?)

I am liking the taste as the hops are there but not over powering and no really late hop additions means that it doesn't have the grassy taste I have had from dry hopping and hops at flame out in the past.

I am really trying for subtle hop flavours rather than the big hit which has it place but just not in a summer quaffer..in my opinion anyway.
I tried this after 2.5 months in the bottle and all the hops had smoothed right out, the malt balance was very nice and the yeast gave it a different flavour to what I have had with US-05. 1272 is now my yeats of choice for APA's. I am very happy with this now, it is smooth not aggressive in the hop department which is what I was after.

Personally I have gotten bored with heaps of grassy hops, and looking more for complexity and balance.

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Saturday Mar 06, 2010 3:59 pm
by Trough Lolly
WSC wrote:Personally I have gotten bored with heaps of grassy hops, and looking more for complexity and balance.
...then with all due respect, I recommend you consider doing a partial or full mash next time. It was for this very reason that I switched to all grain brewing.

Cheers,
TL

Re: My best APA yet

Posted: Monday Mar 08, 2010 9:07 am
by WSC
......baby steps Yoda.....I'm on my way...time, cash and organisation are coming together.....