4-Cs APA Review

The blast of hops continues. I've brewed a whole lot of hoppy beers recently, partly just because I wanted to do so and partly because the last two club-only competitions involved hoppy beers. Let's see how this one turned out:

Appearance: Pretty clear orange with slight chill-haze. Fluffy white head supported by lots of little bubbles coming up through the beer.

Aroma: Hoppy but not overpowering. Fruity notes mostly peach, pear, citrus. A little bit of pine. The hop aroma was stronger on the first bottle I opened a couple of weeks ago. Not much malty aroma.

Taste: Moderately bitter, with good toasty and malty backbone. Well balanced between the malt and bitterness, but skews a little too much towards the bitter. Moderate to dry sweetness. Aftertaste is bitter. I don't get any caramel tastes - I didn't use caramel malts, but again I think the British Maris Otter gives it a more interesting malt taste than US 2-Row.

Mouthfeel: Good. Moderately carbed and light to moderate body. Refreshing.

Overall: A hoppy American pale ale. Refreshing but to me a little bit too bitter.

I don't think I would change anything except for next time either up the 0 minute hop additions and / or dry hop.

My hoppy beers definitely fade pretty quickly. The seem to peak 3-4 weeks after brewing. Maybe if I had a kegging system with a fridge they would be better preserved, since the cold of the fridge preserves the hop character better.