APA came out all malt no hops...any thoughts?

[paulymd]

Brewed Jamil Zainasheffs APA from Brewing Classic Styles. Did screw up the all grain conversion and forgot the Victory and it was scaled down to a smaller batch using the Biabacus (from biabrewer.info).

Here's the recipe and water adjustments. Full volume BIAB mash at 152 for 60 minutes. Any thoughts why the malt would be very pronounced and almost no hop flavor or aroma?

 

[thehaze]

Mash pH, if it was 5.6, is way too high for an APA. You also only used 53 gr of hops, which is under 2 oz. I like hops and I like to smell hops in the beer and taste them in the beer. 2 oz, no matter how good your process is and how good well you can keep O2 away from the beer, will never get you an APA. Not if you want to smell and taste hops.

So the reason " ... why the malt would be very pronounced and almost no hop flavor or aroma? " is the lack of hops.

 

[Bruer]

^^What they said. The last APA I made would have had at least a 100g dry hop alone. Usually I start with a paltry bittering addition (something such as magnum) and add in about 50-100g at flameout. So we're taking around 200g all in at a minimum.

Also while you have 5:1 sulphate to chloride ratio (personally i think a bit high for an APA), a high mash pH will mute flavours and create a dull beer. A mash pH towards 5.2-5.4 will be a bit brighter and let more of the hops shine through.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I am not a huge fan of cascade. I think there is something about it that I just can’t sense very well. People call Centennial “super cascade”, so I can only assume that they are similar. I do however get more flavor/aroma from Centennial but not a big hop punch like I get from Citra or even Fuggles, which are both favorites of mine. Also, I can’t taste the hops as much in a green beer that hasn’t been carbonated and finshed, so if you haven’t finished it, give it a chance before making your final judgement. I really don’t think there’s anything wrong with a beer that has less hop aroma. It’s just a different beer, but if it’s not what you’re shooting for, it’s perfectly valid to try and figure out what happened. Of course more hops, more flavor, but IMO you have enough hops for an APA for a 3 gallon batch.

 

[paulymd]

Appreciate the input all. Should have maybe pointed out this is a 3 gallon batch so that may be why the hop weight seems so low.

I did wonder about the mash pH but didn’t have anything to acidulate it on hand so just went with it (didn’t actually test it but it seems Brun Water is pretty accurate).

It’s a fairly tasty beer, just all malt and not the APA I was going for and so as AZCoolerBrewer mentioned just trying to sort out what may have been the issue.