Hi, This beer is my second beer brew and the first using cascade and chinook hops that I grew this year. My beer is an IPA extract with specialty grains with the following hop additions:
1 oz CTZ pellet 60 min…a friend suggested I start with this first to ensure I have enough bittering.
1.5 oz chinook leaf 20 min
1.5 oz chinook leaf 10 min
1 oz cascade leaf 10 min
1 oz cascade leaf 0 min
1 oz amarillo pellet 0 min…looked like a nice hop for a last addition.
All the hop additions were added to a hop spider I made using a 5 gallon paint strainer. I removed the strainer from the primary fermenter and at 76F I pitched my yeast starter.Right now the primary fermenter is bubbling nicley at 66F. I have read that dry hopping will add flavor and aroma. I have some cascade and chinook leaf left, when will be my best time to dry hop? I have a glass secondary and two smaller hop bags. I also have a spare refrigerator in my cellar if it will help.
Dry hopping will add additional hop flavor, very appropriate to do this for an IPA. Best time to add dry hops is after the fermentation has finished, ie you’ve reached FG. If you don’t want to measure for whatever reason, this is usually when the airlock has stopped bubbling.
Don’t bother with a bag for the dry hops, just toss them in the beer. Leave them for 4-10 days, then put the beer in your fridge to cold crash, which will drop the hops to the bottom so you can syphon off the beer while leaving that hop material behind.
Hi Rebuilt,
I will do what you suggest. I am hoping for a somewhat hoppy IPA. Is chinook too strong of a hop to dry hop? Besides the leaf cascade, I have 4-5 different types of pellet hops I could add to my dry hop.
Thanks again…Bassin75
Good call on the pellets for bittering. I just did an all homegrown harvest ale, it’s not carbonated yet but tasting the flat beer it didn’t have enough bittering. Now I know why they made the American blonde category, that’s where this ones going.
It is all about what you like. Chinook has a strong distinctive flavor, which some people like and others don’t. I think it goes well in an IPA, unlike Amarillo, which I can’t stand - even though most hop heads seem to think it’s great. I’m much more of a fan of Cascade and Columbus. But I’m not really a hop head, and only rarely brew IPAs. Others might offer conflicting advice.
Brewcat’s comment points out the biggest problem with home-grown hops; first time you use them in a given year, you never know what to expect for AA.
