Hoppy American Pale Ale - Hop Suggestions

[thisisdonovan]

Hi, I'm looking at making a fairly light yet very hoppy pale ale as my next brew.

I'd like mild to medium bitterness, but I want a strong pleasant hop flavour and aroma.

Can anyone suggest the type of hops that would potenially fit the bill?

Thanks in advance!

[CrookedFingers]

Hey mate,
in your other thread I remember you said you like american pales and IPA's ?
There are heaps of options to go for with hops for this style.
just a few;
simcoe, cascade, chinook, centennial, mosaic, citra, I could go on for a while. These are the ones I use regularly.

If you stick to the 3 kg of extract you used in your last brew, maybe even add some specialty grains, but as pogierob suggested get some brewing software to help plan your brew. It makes life easier, the beer better and you can calculate your IBU's and ABV.

ALso, make sure you use good yeast !!

Good luck man !
CF

[thisisdonovan]

Thanks! I downloaded brewmate last night and it looks pretty good. For my last brew the ibu was up there, I've just decided to call it an IPA, problem solved!

With the hops you mentioned, do they all work quite well together? If I decided to use three different hops for the bitterness, flavour and aroma, will it work? I think I'll add some grains as well, is crystal malt the simple type if grains to add as an added element. I don't really have the capability to do a proper mash at this point, I do have an extra pot though!

[CrookedFingers]

Haha, the old switcheroo from APA to IPA !
I have heard good things about brew mate.
Crystal grains are perfect to steep and add in.
I regularly mix up those hops, most of them are high in acids so they are good for bittering, all are good for flavour/aroma IMHO.

Sounds like you are going to have a lot of fun with your brewing !

Good stuff.
CF

[thisisdonovan]

Also, what's the most appropraite crystal for a pale ale recipe?

[CrookedFingers]

Which ever you prefer, as far as I know crystals add colour and all of them add some/little flavour and head retention.
When doing extracts I used light or medium crystals in pales depending on what colour I wanted in the brew.

I would advise not to use more than 300g of crystals in 23L. If you use too much your brew will be pretty sweet.

[thisisdonovan]

Alrighty, thanks crookedfingers for all your advice. I've just had a bit of a look at brewmate, punched in some numbers and came up with this recipe.....

Pale liquid malt extract 3kg
Crystal Grain - 250gm.

Amarillo hops 25g at 60min
Cascade 20g at 20min
Cascade 15g at 0min

US-05 yeast for a 22L batch.

I'm a bit hesitant to make the beer too sweet.....this recipe gets an IBU of 38, which seems about right according to brewmate. Any glaring mistakes there? Is 3kg of malt extract too much?

[CrookedFingers]

Dude, that looks pretty good to me.
What does it come to as a % ?

Nice hops too.
How are you cooling it down after the boil ? If you let it sit and not cool rapidly you may be getting additional bitterness.
Sitting the pot in an ice bath or laundry tub filled with water and changed couple of times can work. Maybe read up on no chilling and adjusting your hop schedule.
Should be a good one mate !

[thisisdonovan]

That makes it approx 4.32% alcohol.
I put some ice and water in the bath and let it cool over about an hour, maybe a bit longer. It takes longer than I thought!
I think I'll have to look into a copper coil system, they're the only two options right?

[CrookedFingers]

That should work mate, as long as the wort is covered so nothing can get in while cooling.
I used to use ice and water in the laundry sink. Changing the water a few times to keep it cold.
I now have a copper immersion chiller. There are also plate chillers or cubing/no chilling, but as I mentioned earlier you just have to change you timing when adding hops.

[barls]

If you want big hop flavour, reduce your 60 minute addition aka bittering and increase or add to the 20 minute addition aka flavour

[thisisdonovan]

I guess that would reduce the bitterness though, hmm I may reduce the bittering hops a smidge and increase the flavour hops. Thanks!

[CrookedFingers]

Thats a good suggestion barls.
You will actually get the same IBU's if you use enough hops at 20.
whack it through brew mate and see what you can do !

[drsmurto]

When creating recipes in your brewing software you should always start hop additions from late (ie. dry hop and/or flameout) to the bittering addition. That way you use the 60 minute addition to hit your total desired IBU.

No need to adjust hop additions for no chill. That's an AHB generated urban myth. On a homebrew scale the science is quite clear on this.

[CrookedFingers]

Wow. Dr Smurto , you may have just thrown a lot of brewers in to a tail spin !!!
I am a chiller my self, but all the reading I have done on no chill suggests to adjust the hop additions. (even though a fair bit of the reading has been done where you mentioned the 'myth' originated)
So I am now going to try cubing a brew and doing normal hop additions !
That should make brew days shorter and easier !

The idea of working backwards with the hops to get to target IBU is awesome !
Thanks !

CF

[Pogierob]

Looks like a brew day experiment to me. We could double batch, one no chill adjusted the other "as is". Then bottle a couple of samples of each and keg the rest as usual, this should balance the two together.

[CrookedFingers]

lets do that !

[gregb]

Looks like a brew day experiment to me. We could double batch, one no chill adjusted the other "as is". Then bottle a couple of samples of each and keg the rest as usual, this should balance the two together.

Do a blind taste test on someone to see if they can actually tell the difference.

[CrookedFingers]

How many taste tests would it take to get blind ?

[drsmurto]

Best practice would be to run a blind difference test.

Sets of 3 with one being different. Do that in triplicate.

Or believe the AHB mythology (or anything on that place of verbal diarrhoea).