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American Pale Ale Recipe
I am brewing an all-grain APA this weekend. It will be my first all-grain attempt.
I found a recipe on John Palmer's "How to Brew" website for an American Pale Ale. However, his grain bill seems pretty light to me. He is only calling for 7 LBS of 2-row base malt, and 1/2 LB of Crystal 60. This is to yield about six pre-boil gallons.
Does this grain bill seem low to anyone else? I've looked around online, and see grain bills more in the 9-11 LBS range.
As a first time all-grainer, I am not expecting great efficiency. Should I bump up the grain bill? Any thoughts, or good APA recipes, are appreciated.
At 70% efficiency that would be just shy of 1040OG.
I would probably use another couple pounds of base malt just to be sure I hit something above 1040 OG.
But I think the recipe as is would be a fine beer.
Thanks Mike...I appreciate it! I am going to try your technique of 2 weeks in the primary, then direct to bottling. Your posts on great wort processing practices and yeast management have been very helpful! Looking forward to a clear beer, with no secondary!
Before I got my grain mill, I was more in the 60% efficiency range. I would definitely boost the grain bill. I'd personally rather end up with a higher OG than expected instead of a lower OG than expected. At the same time, if you measure your gravity when you start to boil, you could add DME to boost gravity if needed.
But of course, no matter what, you'll still make beer.
Way to go on the all-grain!
I have a question for all of you experienced all grain Brewers. About how long would you say i takes to make a batch start to finish. I've heard 8 hrs to all day long, but all day long might mean different things to different people..
It takes me 2 hrs to make an extract batch from start to finish. I'm married with a 2 year old, and I brew every other saturday at around 9 pm. I would find it hard to make the time if an allgrain is much longer than lets say 4 hrs.
your first couple times?? I'd say plan on 5-8 hours, most likely on the longer side till you get it down.
Now that I've been doing all grain for some time I can knock out a ten gallon batch from start to finish including clean up, sanitizing, putting away, and milling in 5-6 hours.
A 5 gallon batch would probably trim 45-60 minutes off that because of the increased milling time and time it takes to get a boil.
The keys that helped me trim time is to get sanitizing and prep done while the brew is mashing or boiling and remembering to heat up sparge water WAY ahead of time. I can;t tell you how many times my mash went an extra 30-40 mintutes because of underestimating the amount of time it takes to heat that much water or just forgetting to start it all together. A good chiller will cut time drastically as well, my immersion with prechiller can get my 10 gallons down to pitching temp in about 20 minutes in the winter and 30 in the summer because of the water temp change, but I am looking into getting a plate chiller within the next couple months.
My second burner really helped as well because I can get the wort directly from the mashtun onto a flame while the other one is heating sparge water.
Also if you would be milling your own grain, don;t underestimate the amount of time it takes. It takes me about 45 mintues to mill (including weighing out from a 50lb sack of base malt) enough grain for 10 gallons... it's by far my least favorite part, but could easily be done days ahead of time.
Don;t let family and time restrictions question the leap to AG. With prep work it really doesn't take that much longer than extract, you just need to use yout time wisely. And remember, during the mash and boil you have almost 2 hrs of deadtime. I brew in the garage and while mashing I just go inside and watch TV with an alarm set. Same thing for the boil, but I just go out and give it a stir every 10 minutes or so. The boil is vigorous enough that it keeps the wort moving and never scorches.
Thanks, I never really heard a straight answer on that before. I'll probably try an all grain in the summer, and get a burner to get a nice rolling boil. Right now I do it in the kitches on coils, it's gets to a rolling boil, but not the loop de loop boil that I see in some of the videos.
Plus i'm trying to get equipment a little bit at a time, so as to not aggravate the wife, ha ha ha .
To go AG a burner isn't really an optional piece of equipment. You need either that or more complex electical heating elements. I don't know if your average range, especially an electric one, could even get 6-7 gallons of wort to boil, but if it could it would take a rediculous amount of time.
Northern Ike wrote:
Thanks Mike...I appreciate it! I am going to try your technique of 2 weeks in the primary, then direct to bottling. Your posts on great wort processing practices and yeast management have been very helpful! Looking forward to a clear beer, with no secondary!
As long as you use a really healthy pitch of yeast you should get good results when forgoing the secondary step.
If you are not big on starters yet, then pitch two packages of yeast.
Be sure to get a really strong boil for 90minutes.
Get a great chill on the finished wort.
These things I find get you to great beer without a secondary and clear beer.
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