OK, I just brewed up this recipe Saturday night. The idea was to come up with something light and hoppy for the warmer weather. I am also hoping hop flavor and aroma will at least balance bitterness, if not take a front seat. Thoughts?
Grain Bill
82% 2-row (10 lbs)
8% Munich (1 lb)
8% Wheat (1 lb)
2% C-60 (1/4 lb)
12.25 lbs total
Hops Schedule
first wort 0.8 oz Cascade (pellet)
60 mins 0.6 oz Columbus (pellet)
30 mins 0.4 oz Cascade (pellet)
30 mins 0.3 oz Centennial (leaf)
10 mins 0.25 oz Cascade (pellet)
5 mins 0.25 oz Cascade (pellet)
dry hop 10 days 2.0 oz Cascade (pellet)
Yeast
Wyeast 1450, 3rd generation
Measurements
SRM: 5
OG: 1.058
IBU: 57.2
BU|GU: 0.99
Batch size: 5.6 gallons
Looks like something I would drink! :cheers:
Awesome! I’m excited to try it. Really curious how the hop schedule will translate to flavor vs. bitterness.
If you find that the flavor is lacking, you could move the 30-min additions to later in the boil.
Gotcha. I put the centennial in the middle to try to get both flavor/aroma and a final bit of bitterness, and the cascades to kind of provide a hook to carry through the flavor from start to finish.
This IPA is kind of an ongoing experiment to familiarize myself with various ingredients and to fine-tune my mashing process. Assuming I like the malt profile of this one, I will experiment with hops next. Am I correct that the hop profile will be kind of fruity/flowery? If so, what hops are good for a more piney/earthy flavor and aroma?
I have a very similar recipe that I would like to try called the C-4 Hop Explosive. Pretty much the same thing except I think I tossed in either some Crystal or Chinook Hops as well in order to get up to the C-4 explosive theme.
Interesting. I did really like the Chinook IPA extract, although it was a little one-dimensional (which makes sense). It would be interesting to use it in combo with other hops, and kind of see if I can distinguish it from the others.
As I think through this more, it might be fun to try to emulate the smells one experiences in the backcountry of the cascades or the sierras. Something that’s dominated by piney/earthy flavors, but with a hint of flowery tucked underneath a la the incredible wildflowers you find in those mountains. I think that’s where I’m gonna take this.
[quote=“ickyfoot”]Am I correct that the hop profile will be kind of fruity/flowery? If so, what hops are good for a more piney/earthy flavor and aroma?[/quote]Fruity as in grapefruit, yeah. Columbus and Chinook are both piney, so is Simcoe but it has some “tropical” fruit tones too. If you want to bring a little pine to this beer, be sure to dryhop with Columbus (which is awesome as a DH).
Hrm. Maybe I can take it there now. I have about an ounce of Columbus left in the freezer, but would like to use 2 oz. Any reason Columbus + Cascade is a bad DH combo?
Are there any aroma hops that are notably piney?
For earthy, I just found a post on Home Brew Forums where someone said that Northern Brewer is “earthy”. Maybe I’ll add that next time unless anyone thinks that’s way off.
As for the Chinook IPA, I found it to be rather grapefruity…maybe that was the US-05 working at around 70*?
I dry hopped an imperial black IPA with 2 oz. each of Columbus and Citra leaf hops and it came out tasting nice and spicey with a decent piney undertone.
[quote=“ickyfoot”]Any reason Columbus + Cascade is a bad DH combo?[/quote]An oz of each would make a great DH - you would reinforce the grapefruit and the pine.
Cool. I also have a bunch of Centennial leaf in the freezer. I was trying to avoid DHing with leaf, but I’ve read that it’s less citrusy/more floral than Cascade. Maybe I’ll toss it in a bag and go with Columbus/Centennial?
Decisions decisions!
For the next IPA, I’m thinking of some combo of the following:
FW: Fuggle (woody, earthy), Golding (herbal)
Bittering: Simcoe (floral, spicy), Northern Brewer(woody, earthy)
Flavor/Aroma: Chinook (piney), Fuggle, Golding
Dry Hop: Northern Brewer, Simcoe, Chinook
Is it reasonable to use all of those varieties in one beer, or will it just be too overwhelming?
OK, how about the same grain bill as above, but with this hop schedule:
first wort 0.5 Fuggles leaf
first wort 0.5 Goldings leaf
60 mins 0.4 NBrewer leaf
60 mins 0.4 Simcoe leaf
30 mins 0.3 Chinook leaf
15 mins 0.25 Chinook leaf
15 mins 0.5 Fuggles leaf
15 mins 0.5 Goldings leaf
10 mins 0.25 Fuggles leaf
10 mins 0.25 Goldings leaf
5 mins 0.25 Fuggles leaf
5 mins 0.25 Goldings leaf
dry hop 1.0 Chinook pellet
dry hop 1.0 NBrewer pellet
dry hop 0.5 Simcoe pellet
The idea is to get a lot of smooth woody/earthy/herbal flavor from the English hops, but retain an American character via bittering, dry hops, and the mid - late boil Chinook additions.
OK, so I just bottled the recipe in the original post in this thread, except I ended up dry hopping with .85 oz Columbus (everything I had left) and 1.15 oz Cascade.
Post-dry hop, there is a fruity aroma to it that reminds me of canned peaches + maybe grapefruit. It’s prominent, but not over powering. Is it possible that came from the dry hop with those two hops varieties? I didn’t notice it at all when racking to secondary, so I don’t think it’s esters.
There seems to be a slight astringency, but I think that, too, is from the hops, as it kind of emerges when the final bitter bite takes over. If so, will it fade with age?
The color is amazing, and the flavor profile is complex. Can’t wait to see what it’s like in a few weeks…
