What do you think about this late hopped APA recipe?

[stadelman]

I'm going to be coming into a lb of Amarillo hops, so I wanted to try a late hopped APA. What do you think about this?

6 gallons
15.6 lbs 2 row
.5 lbs UK Amber

Mash @ 153 for 60 min, 168 for 10 min

1.2 ou Amarillo @15 min
2.4 ou Amarillo @10 min
2.4 ou Amarillo @ 5 min

OG 1.073, FG 1.019, Est ABV 7.1%
Color 5.7 SRM (slightly low for the style)
Bitterness 41.9 IBU

[herbaljoe]

Looks tasty but 1.073 is way high for an APA. Either bring down the gravity or raise the IBUs and just call it an IPA.

[stadelman]

You're right.

I mis-communicated the style here. Up until just now I thought that an APA was the same thing as an American IPA. My goal here was an American IPA.

So the style guidelines say 1.056 to 1.075, so I should be good to go on gravity.
Bitterness should be between 40 and 70 IBUs.

40 is probably on the low side, so I guess I'll kick up the 10 minute addition to 3.4 ou, which would give me right under 50 IBUs.

So, that would make 7 ounces of hops. That's a crapload of hops! I hope this late hopping thing is worth it.

[NHBrewer]

I am totally in the late hopping camp. You need to consider your bitterness/gravity ratio. When nearing the top of the gravity range for the style one should also be near the top of the IBU range. For Pale Ale IPA etc I like to be over one to one IBU to GU. For example if your starting gravity is targeted at 1073 an anticipated IBU of 73 would be appropriate. Yes this means one must use copious amounts of hops when hopping with only late additions. This leads me to a few suggestions, 1 just go ahead and use the whole pound and suck it up, 2 use some sort of high alpha hop for a small early addition for maybe half of the IBU then you have to use less of the Amarillo for the late hopping and will still get a good beer, 3, and this would be my choice, lower the starting gravity to where you are comfortable with the hop load you will need to reach this IBU/GU ratio. You could also lower the mash temp to help it attenuate as much as possible so the hop flavors don't have as many malt flavors to compete with but leaving out the crystal malt, as you have already done, may take care of that for you. All this being said I like to push my pale ales far past the 1/1 ratio to more like 1.25/1 and will sacrifice gravity to do so. I think this is some of the idea behind the Tasty style APA.

Chris

BTW you will want some of those Amarillo for dry hopping this as well.

[stadelman]

Wow... those are some great suggestions.

How about this??

6 gallons
14.0 lbs 2 row
.5 lbs UK Amber

Mash @ 153 for 60 min, 168 for 10 min

3.2 ou Amarillo @15 min
2.4 ou Amarillo @10 min
2.4 ou Amarillo @ 5 min

OG 1.066, FG 1.017, Est ABV 6.37%
Color 5.4 SRM (slightly low for the style)
Bitterness 67.0 IBU

Some other notes-
1. I'm having a difficult time getting a bunch of hop aroma from dry hopping. With my last batch I did cold crash to remove the yeast, racked to a secondary and dry hopped for a week at 68 degrees. It had a good hop aroma for the first week. Two weeks later, it's all gone. That's one of the reasons I want to try late hopping.
2. Very anecdotally, I believe BeerSmith calculates IBUs on the low side. I know this is all in the formula that's used, but this is just my observation. So, I don't have a problem doing a recipe that calculates to 40 IBUs, because I feel like it's going to taste like 60 IBUs. Maybe this is part of the harsh bitterness caused by 60 minute additions. Because of this I'm taking your suggestion for a 1 to 1 ratio.

I am totally in the late hopping camp. You need to consider your bitterness/gravity ratio. When nearing the top of the gravity range for the style one should also be near the top of the IBU range. For Pale Ale IPA etc I like to be over one to one IBU to GU. For example if your starting gravity is targeted at 1073 an anticipated IBU of 73 would be appropriate. Yes this means one must use copious amounts of hops when hopping with only late additions. This leads me to a few suggestions, 1 just go ahead and use the whole pound and suck it up, 2 use some sort of high alpha hop for a small early addition for maybe half of the IBU then you have to use less of the Amarillo for the late hopping and will still get a good beer, 3, and this would be my choice, lower the starting gravity to where you are comfortable with the hop load you will need to reach this IBU/GU ratio. You could also lower the mash temp to help it attenuate as much as possible so the hop flavors don't have as many malt flavors to compete with but leaving out the crystal malt, as you have already done, may take care of that for you. All this being said I like to push my pale ales far past the 1/1 ratio to more like 1.25/1 and will sacrifice gravity to do so. I think this is some of the idea behind the Tasty style APA.

Chris

BTW you will want some of those Amarillo for dry hopping this as well.

[herbaljoe]

7 oz. is no big deal. My last IPA had 1 lb. of hops and it was great.

[Brandon]

No Dry hops?

[Nate Diggler]

You wouldn't want to have just a smidge of hops in there for 60 min so you get at least some isomerization?