← All brews

18B American Pale Ale

APA — Greenbacker Variant

Brewed 2024-10-31 Batch · 24 L Owen Paterson

Grain bill

Gladfield American Ale Malt 4 kg 62.5%
Gladfield Vienna Malt 0.85 kg 13.3%
Gladfield Wheat Malt 0.85 kg 13.3%
Gladfield Supernova Malt 0.5 kg 7.8%
Gladfield Sour Grapes Malt 0.2 kg 3.1%

Adjuncts

Yeast nutrient half tsp @ 10 min
Whirlfloc half tablet @ 10 min

Hop schedule

Hop 60 minWPDH#1
Mosaic 10g·90g
Nelson Sauvin ·150g·

Yeast

Mangrove Jacks M54 California Lager2 packets

Water additions

Calcium Sulphate 1 tsp in mash
Magnesium Sulphate half tsp in mash
Calcium Chloride 1 tsp in mash
Lactic acid (88%) 4 drops in sparge

Tasting notes

Crisp and clear with hop-forward flavours and moderate bitterness. Mosaic and Nelson Sauvin late additions shine through. M54 gives clean lager-like character at ale fermentation temperatures.

About This Beer

Owen brewed this APA as a riff on the Greenbacker kit from League of Brewers in Nelson — a kit he’d made three years earlier that produced a smooth, citrusy pale ale around 5.4% ABV. This time he scaled up the American Ale Malt from 3 kg to 4 kg and added Supernova and Sour Grapes malts to the grain bill. The total grain weight increased from 5.4 kg to 6.4 kg, targeting OG 1.052 (up from the kit’s 1.048).

Mosaic handles both the 60-minute bittering and a 90g dry hop addition on Day 3. Nelson Sauvin takes the star role as a massive 150g late whirlpool addition at 75°C for 20 minutes — its distinctive white wine and tropical notes prominent in the finished beer. Mangrove Jacks M54 California Lager yeast, fermented under pressure at ale temperatures, delivers a clean profile that lets the hops speak.

OG 1.052, FG 1.011, ABV 5.4%. Final keg pressure was 6.3 psi at 9°C (1.6 vol CO2); topped up with external CO2. 24 litres into keg and bottles on 15 November 2024.