I often frequent the /r/HomeBrewing sub-reddit and over the last few weeks a member has been developing an APA recipe based on feedback from the sub-reddit subscribers. You can view the recipe here, it’s a pale ale using 2-row, Maris Otter, some oats, and hopped with Warrior, Amarillo, and Citra. As I mostly brew in isolation (apart from my lovely partner who is amusingly tolerant of my brewing fascination) I thought it would be fun to take part in the group-think and have a go at the recipe myself. However, I wanted to try a no-chill (which seemed to work really well last time) and a shorter boil. Aim was to be done with brew day in about 2 hours.

I had to scale down the recipe for my usual 12.5L size (the recipe calls for 5.5 gallons) and adjust the hop schedule to account for the no-chill approach. I’ve done quite a bit of reading in the last few weeks and the rule of thumb suggested is that flame-out additions for no chill should be counted as 10-15 minute additions. The recipe was constructed in the very handy BIAB Beer Designer spreadsheet.

Ale Barret Burston 2 Row 2.04kg

Ale Maris Otter 0.58kg

CaraPils 0.14kg

Caramalt Malt (50EBC) 0.14kg

Oats Flaked 0.14kg

Magnum 9g (12.7%AA) @ 30 minutes

Amarillo 5g (9.5% AA) @ 5 minutes

Citra 5g (13.2% AA) @ 5 minutes

Amarillo 13g @ Flameout

Citra 13g @ Flameout

Amarillo 35g Dry Hop 3 days

Citra 44g Dry Hop3 days

SAFALE US05 Yeast

Brew Type : 12.5L All Grain (BIAB)

OG: 1.052

FG: 1.014

ABV: 5.0%

IBU: 19.9

EBC: 11.4

You’ll note that the IBU’s are just under 20, but if you dial in the 5 minute and flameout additions as 10 minute additions you arrive at 42IBU which is right on what the original recipe calls for. The logic for this may be a little flawed as I suspect the 5 minute additions should really be considered as 15 minute additions but the proof will be in the tasting.

Brew Day (21 November 2015)

The evening before I filled my brew pot with 10L of water and my sparge pot with 7L of water and left them sitting to allow for any volatiles to evaporate overnight.

1. Brew day started at 6:40AM when I brought 10L of water to strike temperature of 71C with grain bag lining pot.

2. Added grain bill, stir to ensure no dough balls.

3. Took temperature of mash (69.0C) replaced lid on pot, and wrapped pot in doona/blanket for 60 minutes to mash.

4. Bring 7L of water to 75C in another pot.

5. At the end of 60 minutes unwrap pot, take temperature again (68.0C). I drained the bag on a wire rack suspended over the brew pot for several minutes.

6. Sparged the bag with the 75C water until there was a litre or two left and put the bag in the sparge pot and let it rinse out the last of the wort.

7. At this stage I had 13L of wort in the brew pot. I took a gravity reading (1.037 @ 61.5C), added a few drops of FERMCAPs to stop boil-overs and brought it all to the boil.

8. Hop additions were made when the boil started (Warrior), 25 minutes (5g of Citra and Amarillo) and at the end of the 30 minute boil (13g each of Citra and Amarillo). At this point I whirlpooled the wort for 10 minutes.

9. Once that time was up I put the pot into my pre-chilled fridge to bring the temperature down to pitching temp (19C). I expected that to take about 12 hours and aimed to pitch my yeast the next morning. At this point it was 9.20AM, 2 hours and 40 minutes since I’d started. In that time I’d brewed the beer, showered and breakfasted, and answered my morning work emails. Generally I was pretty happy with how short the whole exercise was.

10. (Morning of 22 November 2015). I drained the wort into my sterilised fermentation vessel trying to leave as much hop residue as possible in the brew pot. I had to top it off with about 2 liters of cooled boiled water to get my 12.5L volume. I took a gravity reading (1.053) and temperature reading (19C). Aerated thoroughly with a large (sterilised) plastic spoon and pitched my yeast. Filled the airlock with steriliser, put the lit on the FV and put it in my fridge with a set temperature of 19C.

Generally I was happy with the day, my mashing temperature was a little high but it doesn’t seem to have effected anything as I achieved my usual efficiency and just missed the target OG by one lousy point. The wort was a very pale green/gold, without doubt the palest wort I have made to date. Not sure if this was a product of the grain bill or the shorter boil. I certainly liked the shorter boil time, however the longest periods of inactivity (other than the mash) was spent waiting for the strike water to heat up and bringing the wort to the boil. That idle time is only going to be solved by getting a bigger gas burner which isn’t on the cards any time soon.

Mash Efficiency

I did my mash efficency calculations in Excel, and got my usual efficency of 70%.