American ale

American Pale Ale

BJCP 18B

The style that started American craft brewing: a clean pale malt base built as a stage for citrus, pine and stone-fruit American hops, with enough bitterness to keep it dry.

Vital statistics

Each bar is drawn against the full range of all 98 styles

Original gravity

1.045 - 1.060

Final gravity

1.010 - 1.015

Bitterness

30 IBU - 50 IBU

Colour

5 SRM - 10 SRM

Alcohol

4.5% - 6.2%

Colour also 10-20 EBC

What goes wrong

Old hops. Every interesting thing in this beer is volatile, and hops stored warm for a year will make it taste like a bitter.

Commercial examples

Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale AleHalf Acre Daisy Cutter Pale AleGreat Lakes Burning RiverSierra Nevada Pale AleStone Pale Ale 2.0

Reference examples of the style, as listed in the BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines. Availability varies by market and year.

Vital statistics as published in the BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines. Checked against the published guidelines.

Brew it

A recipe on this site brewed to this style

Every figure below is computed from the ingredients and checked against the ranges above before the page is built.

First batch

House Pale Ale

OG 1.055 · 5.5% · 33 IBU

The rest of the american ale family

18A

Blonde Ale

3.8-5.5% · 15-28 IBU

19A

American Amber Ale

4.5-6.2% · 25-40 IBU

19B

California Common

4.5-5.5% · 30-45 IBU

19C

American Brown Ale

4.3-6.2% · 20-30 IBU

Plan a batch to these numbers.

Bitterness Colour Alcohol