CS-11: Après XPA

[Richard Jack]

Hey, made this wanting a spritzy sort of quencher for after skiing that goes down easy and makes it hard to get up out of the seat. It's kinda an extra XPA. Or a hoppy pilsner fermented with ale yeast?

Whatever you call it, I may have been slightly too optimistic regarding the prospects for snowfall this year...

This was a big batch, brewed with Raffe who took home a fermenter, and one fermenter is being aged with Brett Trois, but for the swap you have the dry hopped S05 version.

I managed to forget the koppafloc (what a rookie mistake) so it hasn't brightened up quite as well as I wanted, but it was crash cooled and fined in the keg, so it's mostly ok. 

Bottled from the keg, so drink fresh - it's peaking now I reckon.

Batch Size (fermenter): 77.00 l
Boil Time: 90 min
Date: 6/8/2014
Brewhouse Efficiency: 85.00 %
Measured Original Gravity: 1.056 SG
Bitterness: 39.1 IBUs
Est Color: 10.7 EBC

Amt	Name	Type	#	%/IBU
9.00 kg	Gladfield Pilsner Malt (3.8 EBC)	Grain	1	55.7 %
5.30 kg	Pale Malt, Golden Promise (Thomas Fawcett) (5.9 EBC)	Grain	2	32.8 %
0.70 kg	Gladfield Light Crystal Malt (54.0 EBC)	Grain	3	4.3 %
0.40 kg	Munich II (Weyermann) (16.7 EBC)	Grain	4	2.5 %
0.30 kg	Caramalt (Thomas Fawcett) (29.6 EBC)	Grain	5	1.9 %
0.30 kg	Gladfield Wheat Malt (4.2 EBC)	Grain	6	1.9 %
0.15 kg	Acidulated (Weyermann) (3.5 EBC)	Grain	7	0.9 %
40.00 g	Summit [17.00 %] - Boil 65.0 min	Hop	8	22.3 IBUs
10.00 g	Cascade [6.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min	Hop	9	2.1 IBUs
50.00 g	Cascade [6.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min	Hop	10	8.1 IBUs
20.00 g	Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min	Hop	11	2.0 IBUs
20.00 g	Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min	Hop	12	3.0 IBUs
20.00 g	cascade [7.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min	Hop	13	1.6 IBUs
40.00 g	Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Aroma Steep 25.0 min	Hop	14	0.0 IBUs
40.00 g	Simcoe [13.00 %] - Aroma Steep 25.0 min	Hop	15	0.0 IBUs
20.00 g	Citra [12.00 %] - Aroma Steep 25.0 min	Hop	16	0.0 IBUs

It was a split ferment, so what you have was around 38l dry hopped with 40g Simcoe, 40g amarillo, 20g Citra.

Cheers fellas. Enjoy.

[Richard Jack]

oh- A-XPA is written on the neck.

[G S]

Beautiful colour, clear and bright, nice head, although dissipates after a minute or two.
Aroma not as much as I'd expected (hoped) for a kegged beer, but good.

I thought well balanced, hops not dominating for me, although I may be suffering a little from lupolin threshold shift these days. Some where between the hoppy pilsner and the xpa you mentioned. More than makes up for a lack of snow....

Very nice, thank you, and a cracking start to the case.

[Duncan Emo]

Hi Richard,

First beer of the case swap for me and a great start.

Pours - a light orange/burnt golden colour. Good head that dissapated fairly quickly. Aroma - great US hop fruity, floral smells - nothing overly overpowering

Flavour - Bitterness just as expected and a slight alcohol warmth at the end of the mouthful

Mouthfeel - Quite thin but guess thats what the style is based on - I loved the resiny feel all those hops give out!

Great beer and I'd love to brew one like that!

Cheers!

[Crusader-Rob]

Happy Homebrew wednesday everyone! finally received my beer in the mail after NZ Post lost it all...
Just been for a run and decided something refreshingly hoppy was in order, along with the weather here in christchurch starting to clear up (not that its any warmer yet) 

These bottle are deceptively large, i thought they were 500's for some reason... anyways.

Appearance: Poured into my good redwine/beer drinking glass, beautifully clear, commercial clear almost, Golden amber colour, very much what I'd expect from a Pale Ale/XPA, nice bubles, well carbed.

Aroma: Hops a Plenty here, backed up by what i think is a small amount of pilsner malt? its pretty subtle though.

Flavour: Very Very Good (I feel like I've let myself down with my tuatara beer, sorry.) Siht tonnes of hop flavour, and some crisp malt backup, which is nice. I think I detect something in the aftertaste, thats not quite right, not sure what it is, but i think I've narrowed it down to either Acetaldehyde, or grassy.

Mouthfeel: I see what people mean when they say a bit thin, but its more of a pilsner type mouthfeel, It could do with a little more maybe.

Overall: While the odd flavour is a little bit distracting, now I'm halfway through its a lovely beer the pilsner malt ads something slightly more crisp than a normal APA.

On a separate note, can anyone tell me the difference between an XPa and an APA?

[Crusader-Rob]

I think your right, its gotta be pretty pale, my impression in the past its always been an almost sessionable IPA? so the grist of a pale ale using only light crystals, and some extra hops.