Playing with a NB Irish Red - Thoughts?

Beer Recipe Design
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First, let me say, getting on here and going through a myriad of threads on Hop additions, I’ve now thoroughly confused myself I think; will definitely be getting a book on building recipes and LEARNING about building recipes, but…

In the meantime… If folks would be so kind as to share their opinions…

I have brewed the NB Irish Red recipe several times now with consistent, very good results, and LOVE it. But… I’m itching to bump up the hoppiness just a touch - for flavor, not bitterness.

I have an extra ounce of Cascade hops I could use. At first I was thinking about adding some to the first wort, but after reading here, I’m thinking I need to add it toward/at the end of the boil. …and then the question - at whatever time I add it - how MUCH do I add?

Thoughts? This is totally a “play with” batch, so - I’m open to a variety of ideas.

Thanks everyone!

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I’d add them with 5 min in boil. Or you could dry hop for a week in primary or secondary.

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Add to the fermenter AFTER the the fermenting is complete… AROMATIC! Sneezles61

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Flavoring vs. Bittering is all a mater of time… the longer the hops are in the boil the more it’s bittering and not flavoring. So depends on how much hop you want.

A good start is to drop in the extra hops at the 15 min to go mark. Then you can always change it up to the 10 min mark, etc. Of course you could dry hop it in the secondary as well. All up to you, but the later in the game the more the hop flavor and aroma will come out.

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I’d dry hop it. It would turn out like a milder version of Denny’s Waldo Lake Amber, which by the way, is a GREAT brew. Like a hoppy Irish Red.

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Thanks everybody!

I ended up adding to the last five minutes of the boil; if that ends up being too much, then I’ll step it back to 10 minutes or 15 minutes the next time. …or scale back the hops - I added the full oz.

The only reason I didn’t go the “dry hopping in the secondary” route is that I really like doing two full weeks in the primary, and then going straight to a CO2 purged keg for the “secondary” conditioning. …I don’t think I want to add all those hops and then try to clean out the outflow tube! …I don’t have a hop bag as of yet. I may try dry hopping in the primary next go round if the 5 min add isn’t “enough” of whatever “it” is that I’m looking for. I’ll have to wait and consult my taste-buds on that one.

We’ll see how it goes - I ended up at 1.053 for O.G. (as opposed to 1.044) so it might work out perfectly. Or terribly. LOL! Time will tell! And if it DOES turn out like I hope, I may play around with different hops in future batches.

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You can try, and IFN you want to add some hop aroma, get one little 3" tea infusion ball put in an ounce and drop it in the keg… Wont add any bitter, just a bouquet! Sneezles61

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That’s a GREAT idea!!! Thanks!