APA from Brew Better Beer (Emma Christensen)

[DownstairsBrewing]

I just tried the APA recipe from Brew Better Beer, and came way, way below target OG. I had some concerns as I read the recipe, but figured for a 2 gallon trial batch, I would follow it - first time I have tried a recipe from this book. I followed the 1 gallon recipe, not the 5 gallon recipe, which is where some of my questions begin, because the scaling math is nowhere close to a simple multiplication.

Target OG is 1.052. I got 1.034.

1.5 lbs of Pale Ale Malt
8 oz of Crystal 20

Recipe calls for 1 gallon mash, then sparge with 1 gallon, to end up with 1.5 gallons of wort. That is where I started to have questions - that seems like a lot of water to be soaked up by the grain. I didn't do the calculations up front, but I don't think much more than two quarts (double batch, so 1 quart at 1 gallon size) was soaked up, if that. In hindsight, I wish I had taken some measurements here, but I definitely had more than 3 gallons in the pot. The 5 gallon numbers are 3.5 gallon mash, 3 gallon sparge, to produce 5.5 gallons of wort.

The second question I have is the estimated boil-off. I note the recipe calls for 'boiling vigorously', I had a slow rolling boil, so maybe somewhat below spec. But the 1 gallon recipe calls for going from 1.5 gallons to nominal 1 gallon, while the 5 gallon recipe calls from going to 5.5 gallons to nominal 5 gallon. Boil time is 1 hour for each.

When I was done, I discarded some wort at the bottom of the kettle, and still had 2.5 gallons into the fermenter, for what is clearly going to be a 'Session' APA. Allowing for mediocre sparge efficiency (pouring over a strainer into the pot) and how hard the boil was, I still have some concerns about the basic math of the recipe. I just don't see getting to a 33% loss in a hour-long boil, and the sparge volumes seem way off. The 1-5 should not be a strict multiplication, but it should not be that far off.

Most of the other recipes have similar ratios, so I am wondering if anyone has had similar results? I will probably try this one again, and there are some other interesting recipes (notwithstanding the really high specialty/base ratios in most of them). But it looks like the recipes need some fine-tuning.

 

[Steveruch]

I got this book into the local library and had some issues with it.
Like always racking to secondary, throwing hops away once they're over six months old, boils must be 60 minutes or longer, vienna and munich malts should not be used over 50% of the grain bill, always pitch yeast 10 degrees over the fermentation temperature.
I really have a problem with the author's saying it's okay to use city water straight from the tap with no treatment and the extremely large amount of crystal malt (40%) in some recipes.
Be very cautious using any of the recipes in this book.
I have it two stars in an Amazon review.

 

[IslandLizard]

From what I saw, when it was released, the book has some issues with the recipes, such as using 30+% of crystal in an ESB, IIRC. Haven't looked closely at process guidelines.

Now boil off does not scale linearly very well, either up or down. It depends a lot on pot and heat source, what is considered a vigorous or gentle boil, etc.
Half a gallon boil off per hour for a 1 gallon batch on the stove is a good, average target. If a wide kettle is used or a large heat source, it may well be a lot higher.

I don't know how much experience you have with brewing and how many batches you've done before. May I recommend John Palmer's How to Brew, 4th Ed.?

I recommend a finer crush, thorough lautering, and good sparges to up efficiency. Keep an eye on how much wort/beer is left behind in kettle and fermenter. Especially with smaller batches they may not look like much but can be substantial. A quart difference here and there is lot in a 1 or 2 gallon batch but not so much in a 5 gallon batch.

 

[DownstairsBrewing]

I got this book into the local library and had some issues with it.
Like always racking to secondary, throwing hops away once they're over six months old, boils must be 60 minutes or longer, vienna and munich malts should not be used over 50% of the grain bill, always pitch yeast 10 degrees over the fermentation temperature.
I really have a problem with the author's saying it's okay to use city water straight from the tap with no treatment and the extremely large amount of crystal malt (40%) in some recipes.
Be very cautious using any of the recipes in this book.
I have it two stars in an Amazon review.

Yes, I am not sure I would have bought this book, strong production values notwithstanding. I have simply disregarded the racking to secondary, questionable for a 5 gallon batch, pointless for a 1 gallon. The grain bills are definitely odd, generally low base malt percentages.

The comment about city water is just odd - not sure where the author lives, but there is a huge variety. I am fortunate that tap water actually is quite good, all I really need is a chunk of Campden tablet to clear out chloramines and I have good brewing water. Not the case for the last city I lived in.

 

[DownstairsBrewing]

From what I saw, when it was released, the book has some issues with the recipes, such as using 30+% of crystal in an ESB, IIRC. Haven't looked closely at process guidelines.

Now boil off does not scale linearly very well, either up or down. It depends a lot on pot and heat source, what is considered a vigorous or gentle boil, etc.
Half a gallon boil off per hour for a 1 gallon batch on the stove is a good, average target. If a wide kettle is used or a large heat source, it may well be a lot higher.

I don't know how much experience you have with brewing and how many batches you've done before. May I recommend John Palmer's How to Brew, 4th Ed.?

I recommend a finer crush, thorough lautering, and good sparges to up efficiency. Keep an eye on how much wort/beer is left behind in kettle and fermenter. Especially with smaller batches they may not look like much but can be substantial. A quart difference here and there is lot in a 1 or 2 gallon batch but not so much in a 5 gallon batch.

Started with Palmer's book, just exploring new recipes now and doing smaller batches before doing a 5 gallon batch of them. This book was a gift. Right out of the gate there were some oddities in the recipes. I may try to fine tune them, but for an APA, probably not worth the hassle - lots of other good recipes out there. Maybe if the 'session APA' is tasty, I will try to improve the process. But this was the first time doing a batch according to a recipe where the OG was so dramatically off.

 

[Steveruch]

The comment about city water is just odd - not sure where the author lives, but there is a huge variety. I am fortunate that tap water actually is quite good, all I really need is a chunk of Campden tablet to clear out chloramines and I have good brewing water. Not the case for the last city I lived in.

Lots of places have good water for brewing, after dealing with the chlorine/chlorimines. If you use it straight you'll probably get bandaid beer.