APAs, like all other beers are about balance. With this style, the balance is definitely skewed towards hops and bitterness. The aroma should be alive with fresh hops, so the first bit of advice is to make sure your hops are fresh, and use a lot of them. Create a recipe with a ridiculous amount of late hops and then double it and you’ll be in the right ballpark. Dry hopping is another great way to get a fresh hoppy aroma, but it tends to also contribute a grassy and sometimes harsh aroma. I would suggest dry hopping, but don’t go overboard. Dry hop in your fermenter at the end of fermentation and continually sample the beer. Once the desired level of aroma and flavour is achieved, rack the beer off the hops. Leaving it on the dry hops can lead to a harsh hop aroma and some astringency. For bittering, use a hop you know will give smooth clean bitterness.

Although this beer is hop driven, it needs a firm malt backbone to balance those hops. After the initial aroma of hops you should detect some malt sweetness. Malt should also be up front when you taste the beer but will quickly give way to a nice clean lingering bitterness. I prefer English base malts for this style as I find they have a bit more body. I also like to use a significant portion of Vienna and Munich malts, which will add some mild sweetness, as well as a toasted or bready flavour and aroma. I would avoid any but the lightest crystal malts in this beer. I use a small amount of caramel malt to give a touch of sweetness.

The brewing process is pretty straightforward. A single infusion mash around 66-67°C should result in a nice clean malt backbone, with just enough sweetness to balance the bitterness. Use an American yeast strain. Make sure you pitch enough healthy yeast and ferment at the correct temperature for the yeast. A clean fermentation is the key to success for this style. After fermentation, let the beer mature for a couple of weeks before bottling or kegging.

By 2010 MB APA Champion

Kevin teWierik