Critique: APA Entry for May 1st

[mccumath]

Hey Guys,

I have been dabbling in creating recipes and am going to attempt to enter our local homebrew competition due May 1st. Was hoping that I could get a little feedback from you guys as to what you think. I am awaiting the "Designing Great Beers" from Ray Daniels, so bear with me if this recipe is a bit off.

A little background: I was looking for recipes, and came across a clone for 3 Floyds Zombie Dust here on HBT. Considering I have some Citra hops to play around with, I figured that I would convert the IPA recipe into an American Pale Ale. According to competition rules, has to be an APA to style. Here is what I have come up with in BrewPal.

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: US-04 or (possibly Pacman starter?)
Yeast Starter: No (Yes with Pacman yeast)
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity: 1.011
IBU: 38
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 7.2 L
BU:GU: 0.73
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 days at 66-68 degrees, Dry hop for 10 days with 2 oz Citra Hops, bottle condition 3 weeks.

Grain:

7 lbs Pilsner Malt
1.5 lbs Munich (light)
0.35 lbs Carafoam
0.35 lbs Crystal 60L
0.35 lbs Melanoidin Malt

Strike with 3.0 gals @ 167 degrees, mash at 153 degrees for 60 mins. Double batch sparge with 5.5 gallons of 175 degree water.

First wort hop:
0.30 oz Citra (13.4%) 13 IBU

Boil:
0.5 oz Citra (13.4%) 15 mins/11 IBU
0.5 oz Citra (13.4%) 10 mins/8 IBU
0.5 oz Citra (13.4%) 5 mins/5 IBU
0.70 oz Citra (13.4%) 1 min/1 IBU

Dry hop:
2 oz Citra (13.4%) 10 days

Ferment:
7 days at 66-68 degrees, Dry hop for 10 days with 2 oz Citra Hops, bottle condition 3 weeks.

Please let me know what you guys think. I have researched the style guidelines that BJCP states is style. The BU:GU ratio is pretty close to style, and I think that malt will be present due to the munich, but should allow the hops to shine through pretty well. I am starting to try to brew beers with one specific hop so that I can better understand each hop and what it brings to the party. I have put a bit of thought into the recipe, and would like to think it will turn out well.

Thanks guys, I always appreciate your feedback!

Ryan M.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Looks good to me. All of my friends that have tried my Zombie Dust attempt that you linked loved it. I will be brewing it again as soon as I empty some carboys. I liked the S-04 yeast better than the S-05 I tried, but both were really good. I imagine the Pacman would work fine. I am interested to see how this comes out, because I have been pondering a similar recipe, as well as doing an imperial version of it. :rockin:

 

[Daybis]

I think it looks pretty solid. I like your idea of using pilsner malt as your base malt. I've only done APAs with 2-row, pale malt, and maybe some marris otter. I think the cleanliness from the pilsner malt might go well with the hop selection. I really like pacman yeast. I use pacman in my IPAs and APAs and I've been very very happy with the results.

 

[mccumath]

Looks good to me. All of my friends that have tried my Zombie Dust attempt that you linked loved it. I will be brewing it again as soon as I empty some carboys.

Thanks! All of the inspiration comes from your thread. I would brew your recipe, but since its an APA competition, I have to play by the rules. Still undecided about the yeast. I have been on a dry yeast kick, but also have an in on some Pacman. Otherwise, unless somebody points out a substantial problem with the recipe, I think im gonna go for it. I appreciate the feedback, keep it coming please!

Thanks,
Ryan M.

 

[mccumath]

I think it looks pretty solid. I like your idea of using pilsner malt as your base malt. I've only done APAs with 2-row, pale malt, and maybe some marris otter. I think the cleanliness from the pilsner malt might go well with the hop selection. I really like pacman yeast. I use pacman in my IPAs and APAs and I've been very very happy with the results.

Have to thank skeezerpleezer for the pilsner idea. The recipe is quite similar to his, with some adjustments.

 

[KozHops]

I think it looks pretty good. I think you're going to have a lot of aroma/flavor with all the late additions and dry hop (which is not a bad thing if that's what you're going for).

I don't have Designing Great Beers in front of me right now but I think the APA suggestions are somewhere around 5-15% wheat, 5-8% crystal, <5% munich, vienna, victory or any other specialty grain. Your BU:GU should be between .7 and .9 so at .73 you fall into the lower end of the bitterness range.

Sounds like you'll have a fairly malty, citrusy pale ale on your hands which sounds great. Haven't had Zombie Dust but just got DGB and have a pale ale planned for this weekend using Ray's recommendations.