American Pale Ale

Classification: pale ale, American pale ale, all-grain

Source: Timothy P. Laatsch (LAATSCH@kbs.msu.edu), HBD Issue #1782, July 15, 1995

I recently purchased Terry Foster's style-series book on Pale Ale. I was quite disappointed that the American Pale Ale category was essentially ignored in this fine treatise on British Pales. Thank goodness for Norm Pyle's most recent article in Brewing Techniques regarding emulating and outbrewing your favorite micro, in which he outlines the classic American Pale style quite well. Because I am limited (financially/conveniently) to using American 2-row pale in my brews, I find myself using more crystal malt than recommended by Foster to bump the malty character up a bit, usually around a pound per 5-gallon batch (from various countries of origin and of various lovibond ratings).

Ingredients:

9.0 lbs US 2-row pale malt (Briess)
1.0 lbs crystal malt (combo of British 50L, US 40L, Special B)
0.5 lbs US dextrin malt
27-32 IBU from Goldings (bitterness)
0.5 oz Cascade or Goldings (flavor)
0.5-1.0 oz Cascade or Goldings (aroma)
0.5-1.0 oz Cascade or Goldings (dry-hop)
1 tsp rehydrated Irish moss
Wyeast Irish 1084 repitched
gelatin finings

Procedure:

Mash: 1.5 qts per pound total water 90 min @ 152 F.

Boil 90 minutes. 1 week primary, 2-week secondary, one of which is for dry-hopping. Add gelatin finings 2 days before kegging.