What style do you think is the closest to this?
100% Pils Malt
Fermented cool with Mangrove Jack Workhorse (60f) then kept near freezing for a couple weeks.
½ oz/gallon of new German Hops (Mandarina Baviria & Hull Melon)
1 oz/gallon dry hopped with the same
ABV should come in in the low 4%, 18 IBUS
American Pale Ale I guess? Hoppy Kolsch?
Blonde ale? Cream Ale?
Sounds like a hoppy blonde ale. Sounds good, too.
Yeah, sounds like a blonde to me, too.
Hoppy xanthous ale.
2008 guidelines, it would have to be APA. 2015, you could try for Session IPA but I’d evaluate first to make sure it comes across as bitter enough.
At 18 IBUs its not bitter enough for either APA or IPA regardless of which guidelines you use.
I’d categorize it as a Blonde Ale (6B - 2008 or 18A 2015)
HTH-
Steve
Well, I agree that “hoppy blonde ale” is a good description, but the actual Blonde Ale subcategory doesn’t sound like a good fit:
[quote]Overall Impression: Easy-drinking, approachable, malt- oriented American craft beer, often with interesting fruit, hop, or character malt notes. Well-balanced and clean, is a refreshing pint without aggressive flavors.
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Judges don’t know IBU (for that matter, neither do brewers) and flavor/aroma-wise it’s going to fit much better in APA:
[quote]Overall Impression: A pale, refreshing and hoppy ale, yet with sufficient supporting malt to make the beer balanced and drinkable. The clean hop presence can reflect classic or modern American or New World hop varieties with a wide range of characteristics. An average-strength hop-forward pale American craft beer, generally balanced to be more accessible than modern American IPAs.
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Ultimately you just have to taste it against the guidelines and decide what it’s closest to. Or you can always enter it in specialty.
Judges don’t know IBU…
Exact count? No. But 18 IBU s going to be very mild on the bitterness, and judges will pick up on that. I just don’t see this as a good fit for an APA.
I agree with Sean - judges don’t know IBU. Regardless of calculated IBU, 1oz/gal dry in a pils-only grist is pretty aggressive. I said (based on the grist) “hoppy blonde” but in a comp, it would do best as an APA.
Kolsch??? All pils, very light, ale fermented at the cool end, lagered, dry, hoppy, German. Yeah, you’ve got some new hops, and kolsch’s aren’t usually dry hopped, but who says you can’t deviate a bit from the guidelines. Just sayin’.
18 is just over half the minimum ibus in a pale ale. It’s the level of IBUs you want in a Bavarian Hefe.
They’ll probably notice.
Agreed. Not bitter enough for an APA. It might have an awesome hop flavor, but it would get dinged for not enough bitterness to match the malt.
EDIT - Why not put it in blonde ale and APA categories and see where it scores better?
Appreciate the feedback everyone - I cold crashed and now have it kegged up. Flavor wise it’s definitely most like an APA at the moment even at the low IBUs from how aggressive dry hopping was. I would imagine after some lagering tho this may change.
Workhorse from Mangrove Jack seems to have worked surprisingly well for me despite some negative feedback I’ve heard about it. Reached 1.010 (70% attenuation) after 2 weeks and has a really clean taste.