🍺 Top-down Brew: American Pale Ale

Recipe Variables

Enter the parameters

Variations

For steeped grains plus malt extract:

Delete the American two-row malt line.
For liquid malt extract, add sugar: Liquid light malt extract, 91, 5, 76
For dry malt extract, add sugar: Dry light malt extract, 91, 3.5, 96
Set the mash efficiency variable to 55% (eff: 55) for steeping.

Explore other malts, sugars, and hops

Results

Notes

2021 BJCP 18B - American pale ale style: "Characteristic Ingredients: Neutral pale malt. American or New World hops. Neutral to lightly fruity American or English ale yeast. Small amounts of various specialty malts."

Vital Statistics: OG: 1.045 – 1.060, IBUs: 30 – 50 FG: 1.010 – 1.015, SRM: 5 – 10 ABV: 4.5 – 6.2%

American pale ales typically have an American two-row base malt paired with 5 to 10% of a light or medium crystal malt. Small amounts of wheat malt or carapils are optional for increasing foam. Small amounts of high kilned malts like Vienna, Munich, Biscuit, or Victory are possibilities, but use restaint.

The classic American pale ale hops are the C-hops: Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, and Columbus. There are numerous other American-type hop possibilities like Citra, Galaxy, Amarillo, Simcoe, and Mosaic. Hop combinations sometimes use a higher alpha acid hop for bittering and a lower alpha acid hop for flavor and aroma. Dry hopping is an option for enhancing hop aroma. The BU/GU ratio should be about .75.

The yeast should be a standard, neutral American ale-type, such as White Labs 0001 or Fermentis US-05.

Sources

Beer-analytics.com American pale ale

Colby, C. (2006, March-April). Oh, say can you "C"? A guide to brewing American Pale Ales. BYO, 32-39.

Strong, G. (2009, January-February). American pale ale: The test of a brewer's skill. BYO, 19-23.

Zainasheff, J. (2013, January-Feburary). American pale ale: Crisp and hoppy. BYO, 19-23.