18B American Pale Ale
Ekuanot APA
Grain bill
| Gladfield American Ale Malt | 5.7 kg | 90.5% |
| Gladfield Toffee Malt | 0.4 kg | 6.3% |
| Gladfield Sour Grapes Malt | 0.2 kg | 3.2% |
Adjuncts
| Whirlfloc | 1 g @ 10 min |
| Yeast Nutrient | 2 g @ 10 min |
Hop schedule
| Hop | 60 min | 10 min | 5 min | 0 min | WP 80°C | DH#1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ekuanot | 15g | 30g | 40g | 30g | 20g | 165g |
Yeast
| LalBrew BRY-97 | 1 packet |
Tasting notes
About This Beer
Ekuanot APA is a single-hop showcase built around Ekuanot — an American variety I hadn’t used before. The concept was simple: one hop, all additions, to get a clear read on what the variety does.
The result was a lesson in alpha acid intensity. Ekuanot is a high-alpha variety — 14–16% — and using it across every boil addition at the same rates used for lower-alpha hops produced a beer that was far too bitter. Everything else about the brew worked; the bitterness just overwhelmed the result.
Ingredients
The grain bill is a clean, hop-forward base: Gladfield American Ale Malt at 90.5%, Gladfield Toffee Malt for a trace of caramel warmth and colour, and a small Sour Grapes addition to assist mash acidification alongside the water chemistry additions.
All 300g of Ekuanot is split across the schedule — 135g through the boil and whirlpool (60-minute bittering, 10-minute flavour, 5-minute late, flameout, and whirlpool hold at 80°C), plus 165g dry hop at day 6.
Brew Day
Mashed in at 66°C with 16L for 60 minutes, mash out at 78°C. Sparged 16L at 78°C. Pre-boil volume 28L, post-boil 25L, 23L into the fermenter with an OG of 1.065 — volumes kept conservative after a run of batches with too much wort in the fermenter. Good oxygenation on transfer.
Fermentation
Fermented with a single packet of BRY-97 at 19°C. Fermentation was active within 24 hours. Day 2, gravity had dropped from 1.065 to 1.052. Day 4–5, krausen rose close to the top — pressure managed with the spunding valve at around 10psi to control it.
Day 6 at gravity 1.015–1.014 the dry hop went in and temperature was raised to 20°C. Day 7, raised to 21°C for the rest phase and the spunding valve was closed to capture carbonation at around 29–30psi. Days 13–15, temperature cooled steadily back to 19°C. Day 15, trub purged from the collection jar.
Day 16, transferred to an All Rounder acting as a keg at 15psi. The beer was fully carbonated. 20L final volume.
The Result
The tasting note is blunt: the bitterness was far too strong. Ekuanot’s high alpha acid content — combined with the hop rate used across every addition — produced a beer with an intensity closer to raw pellets than a balanced APA. Everything else about the beer showed potential: the tropical and citrus character of the variety was present, the base was clean. The lesson was clear — Ekuanot needs to be treated differently to lower-alpha varieties, particularly for bittering additions.