How long should you ferment a American Pale Ale?

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Hey guys seems there is a bit of a debate going on here about the waiting for fermentation period of an APA. I believe it is 4 weeks then bottle for 2 to 3 weeks for carbonation and conditioning. What are your thoughts please??? The recipe I got from  Brewshop said 6 weeks from brewing to bottle ready.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Looks real healthy to me. Maybe do a cold crash I go to 2.5C for 24 hours then bring it back to 19C then dry hop for 2 days? at that temp (considering Centennial 25g) and then cold crash again for 4 days? Then I bring it back to 18C to bottle without having to compensate my priming sugar for a low temp.

[Sam DT]

That generally sounds good - if all your pellets end up stuck in the krausen they're not going to be imparting much flavour.

I'd give it at least four days warm with hops, two days would probably be enough to drop the hop sediment before bottling. 

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Did you see the photo? looks all good eh? I will tell you what i have in it in regards to hop additions, Simcoe 16 grams then a Simcoe 23 grams then a Amarillo 20 grams just after flame out (while cooling forgot to add straight away and temp was falling with wort chiller added at 50C) it is kinda made up, hopefully not screwed up I did work out the AA% on hop substituting but now I do like a hop flavour and aroma, but not sure what to add with this mix in the way of dry hops?? I have Citra,Centennial,Amarillo, cascade, Nelson sauvin, green bullet, Motueka thats it. and how much in grams? cheers mate. I'll start a cold crash tonight at 8pm and back in 24 hours to dry hop.

[Ryan Perkins]

It looks like quite a dense krausen which is fine as they are all different but it looks quite woven together and may be why it hasn't been able to drop out. Try giving it a gentle swirl to see if it breaks up and drops out.  If it does then you can put your dry hops in and cold crash after 5 days or however long you normally dry hop for.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

OK I'll go and have a swirl around, I have just started the cold crash temp so it's starting to fall now down to 3.0C with the 0.5C variance.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

OK it's pretty much now just a foam on top no crust at all.......stop cold crash and dry hop? and did you see the different hops I have what would you use...take a look at what i used and what I have....cheers.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

I'll stop the cold crash and set it at the normal 19C then dry hop which ones and how much? as it was made up of just good combos' so far, I like a little hop flavour not like an IPA

Mesh bag or no mesh bag?

[Ryan Perkins]

Yeah that sounds good.  As far as the hop combos go citra and nelson sauvin are both quite distinct on their own so if you mix them with other hops they are likely to stand out which is fine if that is what you are after.  I would personally try Centennial/Amarillo/Cascade that way it will be true to the APA style as well. 

I don't bother with mesh bags you don't get as much surface area contact that way in my opinion.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

Hi hey too late just done a 15gram of citra and a 15 gram of amarillo, I guess i could add more now if that is not enough? and I had to stir it in they did sit on the top, sannitized mixing spoon I hope that is ok?

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

could add another 15g of something?

[Ryan Perkins]

Nah all good, I'm sure it will turn out great.  Sometimes they sit on top but they will all eventually absorb the beer and submerge.  All good with the sanitised spoon but you'll want to try and limit the exposure to oxygen as much as possible at this late stage unless you like the taste of cardboard. 

I generally try to dry hop when there is still a small amount of fermentation to go that way any oxygen that entered the headspace will be purged by the subsequent CO2 production. Not sure if this makes any difference though.

[Darren Andrews (Daza)]

so 3 weeks in fermenter total!! and 3 weeks in bottle?