American Pale recipie critique

Assuming a typical american two-row, you'll have more than enough diastatic power for this mini-mash.

 

I would bitter with something else if possible and use the amarillo at flameout. Amarillo is such a great aromatic hop it seems wasteful to use it for bittering.

 

If you really want a fairly neutral bittering hop, Magnum would be a good choice. But there's nothing wrong with bittering an APA with Amarillo if that's what you have.

 

I'd also bitter with something else and spread the Citra and Amarillo out over 15 minute to flameout additions.

 

I personally would use either Warrior, Columbus or Magnum if you have those one hand. I've been using hopshot extract from Northern Brewer recently in my pales & ipas and really enjoy the results.

However, if none of those are options to you, you could try Simcoe as fwh. Again Simcoe is another one of those hops that makes a great late addition because of it desired flavor and aromatic qualities, but I've used it before for fwh hopping in a pale with no 60 min addition and I enjoyed the results.

 

I'm unclear why you are mini mashing. If you're not just steeping the crystals and you want to add complexity, I'd steer clear of American 2 row. I'd go with munich, marris otter and/or Vienna. You can also add another crystal to the mix. Either way I wouldn't spend a whole hour mashing here. 30 min should do the job followed by a grain rinse.

That said, if you've already got your recipe set up it looks tasty. I'd just save half an hour and mix up the grainbill a bit if you can.

 

I'm not knocking minimashes by any means. I don't think I ever grasped how similar the process of steeping and mashing were until I went to AG. All you need to do is hold grain at a consistent temp until conversion is done. For crystals (and all grains a la extract brewing procedure) you're washing the sugar out. For mashing, you're working at the same temp range, and you're just waiting for conversion to finish up before the rinse. RDWHAHB

 

I'll agree with everyone dont bitter with Amarillo, its a waste, I'd use chinook warrior or magnum for bittering, save the other 2 for late boil/flameout. Grain Bill looks ok, not sure what the point of minimashing with 2 row is, I'd stick to specialty malts or grains with more flavor(like marris otter), might as well use extract instead of 2 row.

 

+1.

Use some Magnum or something. Amarillo is precious, don't waste it on bittering.

 

yet another voice to add to the din of don't use amarillo as a bittering addition...wouldn't use cascade or willamette either but would choose them over amarillo. Hope you have a lhbs to drop in & pick up something like a columbus/magnum/warrior etc... to add for bittering and toss the amarillo in late boil or dry hop. You'll be happy you did...there is a reason amarillo is such a hot commodity

 

Cascade works fine as a bittering hop, but it doesn't have super high Alpha Acid content, so you'd use more hops (compared to many varieties) to get the IBUs you want. I'm not sure why you would hesitate to use magnum for a 35-40 IBU beer though.

 

With munich, he should be minimashing.

 

I think 2# of crystal is excessive in an APA. It will be a really sweet beer, if that's what you want. I'd cut you off around 1#. You can back the IBUs down if you want. I usually shot for around 1.050-1.054 for gravity and usually around 40-45 IBU. That said, I've tried to make about 6 APAs before I was happy with the balance.