Style: American Pale Ale
All StylesStyle Profile based on 13,368 recipes
BU:GU
0.74
Hops
6.6 g/L
Mash pH
5.56
Dry Hop
0.5 g/L
Description
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. History: A modern American craft beer era adaptation of English pale ale, reflecting indigenous ingredients (hops, malt, yeast, and water). Prior to the explosion in popularity of IPAs, was traditionally the most well-known and popular of American craft beers. Style Comparison: Typically lighter in color, cleaner in fermentation by-products, and having less caramel flavors than English counterparts. There can be some overlap in color between American pale ale and American amber ale. The American pale ale will generally be cleaner, have a less caramelly malt profile, less body, and often more finishing hops. Less bitterness in the balance and alcohol strength than an American IPA. More balanced and drinkable, and less intensely hop-focused and bitter than session-strength American IPAs (aka Session IPAs).
Examples: Ballast Point Grunion Pale Ale, Firestone Walker Pale 31, Great Lakes Burning River, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Stone Pale Ale, Tröegs Pale Ale
- 88% Pale (86%)
- 65% Crystal (8%)
- 35% Toast (11%)
- 21% Wheat (8%)
% of American Pale Ale recipes using each malt category (addition % in brackets)
g/L · median with IQR range
- 33% Cascade
- 25% Citra
- 14% Centennial
- 12% Amarillo
- 11% Simcoe
- 10% Magnum (GR)
- 9% Columbus
- 8% Mosaic
- 8% Chinook
- 6% Galaxy
% of American Pale Ale recipes using each hop
g/L · median with IQR range
dated American Pale Ale recipes with at least one dry-hop addition
- 14% Pale Malt (2 Row) US
- 7% American - Pale 2-Row
- 7% Cara-Pils/Dextrine
- 6% Pale Malt, Maris Otter
- 5% American - Pale Ale
- 5% United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale
- 5% Munich Malt
- 4% American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt)
- 4% Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
- 4% Flaked Oats
Colour = malt category · bar = % of recipes
- 37% Safale American (US-05) Fermentis
- 8% California Ale Yeast (WLP001) White Labs
- 6% American Ale (1056) Wyeast Labs
- 4% SafAle English Ale (S-04) Fermentis
- 2% LalBrew Nottingham Lallemand
- 2% American Ale II (1272) Wyeast Labs
- 1% US West Coast Yeast (M44) Mangrove Jack's
- 1% London Ale III (1318) Wyeast Labs
- 1% American West Coast Ale (BRY-97) Lallemand
- 1% English Ale Yeast (WLP002) White Labs
% of American Pale Ale recipes using each strain
- 79% Single Infusion
- 16% Step Mash
- 4% Decoction
2,163 recipes with mash data
- 75 ppm Ca²⁺
- 5 ppm Mg²⁺
- 10 ppm Na⁺
- 50 ppm Cl⁻
- 143 ppm SO₄²⁻
- 100 ppm HCO₃⁻
median across recipes with a declared water profile
Similar Styles
Ranked by similarity across OG, IBU, ABV, hop rate, and grist composition.