I'm planing on making a 5 gallon APA. I want to make a nice hoppy APA with a nice creamy body. I need help with the grain bill. this is what I have so far 5# 2row 5# marris otter 8oz of carapils 8oz of crystal 40 what should I add to give it a creamy body? And what type of yeast?
The carapils 'dextrine' malt will add a nice mouthfeel without adding much, if any, color or flavor - I'd up that if you want it to be super noticeable. Mashing at a lower temp. - say 150F should help with the mouthfeel as well and I'd use 1968 for a yeast strain as it doesn't seem to attenuate out as much as other ale yeasts.
Grain billl looks pretty good. Higher mash temps give beer more body not lower? I would mash at 152 or so. The higher the mash temp the more unfermentable sugars are extracted from the grain.
Maybe try 1/2 or 1 lb of flaked oats for protein contribution to the body. I've never seen an APA with oats so me thinks I have a recipe in mind for the long weekend.
An APA bill can always look good until you add your hops. Under hop it and it's too sweet and too one-dimensional. Over hopped and it's perceivably too dry too thin and not malty enough. Do you have a hop schedule yet? I've found that more oz of low AA hops can really give you a creamy head. Just make sure you add in a high AA hop for a FWH or bittering addition. I think you'll get a lot out of your MO and you can just mash high (156F). I like to add a second variety of crystal to the bill, but lots of people think that's overkill. If you do that, back down the 40 by about half and think about adding some 60. I'd hold off on adding flaked grain to the grist until next time. See how this goes for you and adjust accordingly.
How much maltodextrin should I add? I can't remember what hops I have in the freezer. I think oz of cennential, simcoe, and one another hop maybe Amarillo and .25 of sorachi ace and citra.
I would keep the recipe "as is" and mash at 152° (looks like a very good APA to me). Personally, I think it looks like what your going for and I wouldn't mess around with it too much. This recipe has 9% crystal so I wouldn't add any more to it. Also, I wouldn't play with maltodextrine or oats until you understand your own tastes and recipe formulation.
I think a 4-5% flaked oats would get the creamy body you desire ,besides it won´t be noticeable in beer flavor. You can combine a 50% Total IBUS from the early hops addition and the 50% leftover from late hops addition to achieve a creamy-hoppy-aromatic beer.As others said above i would mash at 152-154 F.
I'm just going with my original recipe. Now I'm trying to figure out the hop schedule. I have 2oz of Amarillo, 1 citra, 1 centennial, and 1 simcoe. I was thinking Centennial @ 60 simcoe @5 Amarillo and citra @ flameout Amarillo dry hop maybe get another citra too
