DFH Aprihop AG-Extract conversion

[BrewChemistinCO]

I just picked up a 4-pack of aprihop last week and I loved it!! Which of course as a new brewer, I am immediately setting my sights on brewing it. I found this recipe on the Beer Advocate forum and would like any suggestions to convert it over to extract.

All-Grain recipe:

9.5 lbs. 2-Row
1 lb. Munich
1 lb. CaraPils
.5 lb. Caramel 60

Mash for 1 hour at 155F

60 Min. additions:
.5 oz. Amarillo
.5 oz. Centinial
.25 oz. Simcoe

20 Min. additions:
.5 oz. Amarillo
.25 oz. Centinial

5 Min. Addtion:
1 oz. Glacier

Dry Hopped with .25 oz each of Amarillo and Glacier.

Ferment at 68F with Wyeast Ringwood

rehydrate 4-6 lbs. of Dehydrated unsulphored Apricots, added into secondary,


I'm trying to step this up a little bit since I will be doing my first dry hopping and was contemplating a mini-mash. Any suggestions would be awesome.

Thanks in advance!!

[Chupa LaHomebrew]

I would just remind you to check out the source of the recipe. Did it come from someone talking to Dogfish about their process?

The grainbill looks OK, maybe a little heavy on the carapils for a 155 mash temp though.
The hops look OK, but that's not a ton of hops for an IPA. Maybe that's close to the real recipe though. The yeast looks suspect. Does Dogfish really use ringwood yeast? I would think they would use an American ale yeast. The dried apricots might be interesting, but I think Dogfish would probably use fresh.

So...I'd recommend poking around a little more on the internet to find out more about what Dogfish does. The recipe you have looks interesting and should produce a good beer, but some of the ingredient choices seem a little odd to me.

[BrewChemistinCO]

I actually did poke around a little bit and found a few other recipes. Most of them actually mentioned the Ringwood yeast and in Sam C.'s book Extreme brewing he uses the 1187 Ringwood for the 60 min. Being still very new at this I don't exactly know the difference. Also in the book, for apricots it has a note of chopped and dried apricots in the explanation of the use of apricot.

I found a recipe that someone else used that is extract.

6lbs extra light DME
1lb Cara-pils
1/2lb Crystal 20L
1/2lb flaked Wheat

I think this is good and if I understand it right, the DME is my the bulk of my extract however the cara-pils, flaked wheat and crystal 20 are all mini-mash. If that's right thats excellent because I've been wanting to try minimash

Going through all the recipe I found the hop additions are as follows: (I upped the hops to adjust for my partial boil and lower hop utilization.


Magnum 0.5 oz 60 min
Columbus 0.5 oz 30 min
Amarillo 2 oz 15 min
Columbus 0.5 oz 10 minute
Columbus 1 oz DH


The main complaint I hear about Aprihop is that it is too sweet. So I figure with DFH listed IBU of 30 increasing it a little bit to about 37 (estimated with the above hop additions) should get me a better product. The estimated OG is 1.067.

This is my first non kit beer so obviously recipe formulation isn't my strong suit but from what I have read and online HB calcs everything should be good.

SO I'm thinking either 5 lbs of dried apricot or 3 lbs of apricot puree in the secondary. I'm still not sure of the yeast though. The ringwood yeast is what most people speculate is DFH's yeast of choice. I've also seen a few recipes that call for the British ale yeast and Chupa's suggestion of American ale sounds good to me. (I understand very little about yeast selection.)

I've been reading every book I can get my hands on to learn this stuff but I learn a lot by application and demonstration. Any advice would be helpful.

[Bugeater]

Be careful about the source of your dried apricots. Some producers, especially ones in Turkey, treat them with sulfur as a preservative. This will play havoc with trying to ferment your beer. Seek out your local hippie natural foods emporium for some preservative free apricots.

Wayne

[Chupa LaHomebrew]

Sounds good. I'm just usually a bit wary of any recipe I find on the internet! For good reason...
Good luck with your brew.

[Sent From My iPhone]

I've never tried DFH Aprihop, but my only comment is to be careful with hopping a fruit beer, especially a subtle, mild fruit like apricots. Late additions and dry hopping may mask the apricots completely.