What this is
A clone of Panhead Supercharger, the Upper Hutt APA, brewed seven times between December 2020 and August 2024. Gladfield Ale with two crystal malts, a Simcoe / Centennial / Cascade hop bill, and US-05.
Around 5.5%, a 90°C whirlpool, and a day-five dry hop that carries 160 g of the 300 g total.
How it settled
The first two brews used a light touch of crystal — 0.2 kg Light plus 0.25 kg Toffee — and a hop trio of Simcoe, Centennial and Citra. The third swapped Citra for Cascade and tried a pair of Briess caramel malts in place of the Gladfield ones.
The fourth brew, in February 2022, is where it landed. Light Crystal tripled to 0.6 kg, Medium Crystal came in at 0.4 kg, and the Briess malts went. That grain bill then ran unchanged through the two Panhead APA brews of late 2022 and April 2023, which is the canonical version above.
The hops wobbled once more in that fourth brew — Pacific Jade and Mosaic instead of Simcoe and Centennial — before reverting. Everything since has been the Simcoe / Centennial / Cascade schedule above.
The V2 departure
APA — Panhead Clone V2, in August 2024, is in the lineage but is not really this recipe any more. It abandoned Gladfield Ale for American Ale and Vienna, dropped one of the crystal malts, and replaced the entire US hop bill with New Zealand varieties — Nectaron, Kohatu and Superdelic at 100 g each.
It is kept here rather than split off because US-05 and the general shape survive, and because seeing the departure against six consistent brews is more useful than hiding it on a separate page. But if it gets brewed again and holds, it has earned its own recipe.
Brewing it
Mash low, at 65°C, and let the crystal malts supply the body. The beer is 17% crystal by weight, which is a lot — mashing high on top of that would make it heavy.
Whirlpool at 90°C rather than the more usual 75–80°C. That is hot enough to keep extracting bitterness, and it suits a clone of a beer that reads firm rather than juicy.