Monday, January 25, 2010

Hoppity Hoppity Hop

That was fairly emphatic wasn't it? Of the 14 votes cast, American Pale Ale got 50% of the vote, with 4 for IPA and 3 for English Pale Ale.

According to Ray Daniels' "Designing Great Beers" (a very useful resource which I recommend to every home brewer, whether all grain or otherwise), American Pale Ales have the following characteristics:

  • OG: 1.044 - 1.056
  • IBU: 20 - 40
  • Hop Flavour and Aroma: medium to high
  • Colour (SRM): 4 - 12
  • Apparent Extract: 70 - 80%
  • ABV: 4.5 - 5.5%
  • Esters: low
  • Diacetyl: low OK
Admittedly Daniels' takes this data from the American Homebrewers Association.

Before deciding what specialty grains will be used to augment the base malt, or malt extract, depending on your choice of all grain or extract with grains, we will decide on which hops will be going into the brew. In some ways I was glad that APA won the poll because we get to play with some high alpha acid hops like Chinook, not to mention hops like Amarillo and Cascade with their signature grapefruit aromas.

2 comments:

  1. I was looking for Centennial a month ago to make this year's barley wine, but couldn't get any over here. I've loads of Cascade though, a bit of Chinook, and some old Amarillo.

    So I don't know what to vote for. I like Centennial, but that's no good if my usual suppliers are out of it. I'll keep checking ;)

    Forget about the Simcoe and Yakima Magnum, unless I order from the US or Aus.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ever messed with using Boadicea?

    ReplyDelete

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