How To Brew Beer » hops

Simcoe Pale Ale Brew Day

Justin — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 02:59:02 +0000

Mmmmmm….pale ale. It’s been a while since I’ve posted about a brew day, but I had to share my Simcoe Pale Ale brew day. I bought some Simcoe hops, a hop I have enjoyed from commercial beers but had not brewed with. So I crafted a super hoppy pale ale recipe, quite bitter, and extremely hoppy. I paired the Simcoe with a little bit of Amarillo.

The hop schedule looked this:

0.50 oz Galena 13.2% AA – 60 minutes

0.25 oz Simcoe 12.2% AA – 60 minutes

0.50 oz Simcoe 12.2% AA – 20 minutes

I blended 1.5 oz each of Simcoe 12.2% AA and Amarillo 7.5% AA, for a total of 3 oz or 84 grams. I added 7 grams of the hop blend every minute from the 12 minute mark to the end of the boil.

After the primary fermentation is drawing a close, I will dry hop with 0.5 oz each of Simcoe and Amarillo.

I’m thinking maybe the name of this recipe should be ‘Can You Handle It? Pale Ale’ because the hop flavor and aroma will be off the charts. A solid 61 IBUs will provide a firm bitterness in what will be a mid 5% ABV brew.

I’ve included a few pictures from today’s Simcoe Pale Ale brew day. I can’t wait for this one to finish up!

Carty Cascade Vintage 2009 Review

Justin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:46:20 +0000

I couldn’t be more happy with the way the Carty Cascade 2009 turned out! Recall I was shooting for a straightforward APA recipe that would showcase the hops we harvested in September. Here’s my writeup of a recent tasting and a picture. I really enjoy the hops and look forward to future harvests!

The beer pours a dark golden bordering on amber with a very clingy white head. The aroma is moderately hoppy, citrus and spicy with a noticeable sweet malt in the background. The flavor is moderately hoppy but there is also a noticeable and competing malty flavor, a bit sweet, slightly bready and something a bit different than any other beer I’ve made, perhaps the wheat malt shining through. (I’ve only used flaked wheat previously.) The bitterness is medium-low and provides a nice balance combined with a slightly dry finish. The carbonation is moderate and body is quite smooth. Overall I’m very happy and very impressed with this beer and the hops! I don’t know I’d change much with this recipe, it is quite tasty.

2009 Cascade Hop Harvest!

Justin — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 04:18:51 +0000

So a few weeks back I ventured into the hop garden at my friend’s house. We harvested the hop cones from the 2 year-old Cascade plants we have growing along a fence in their backyard. Last year we got very little hops, not even enough to really use, but good bine growth. This year the bines were longer on June 1 than they got the entire first year. As the summer continued the hop bines became littered with flowers and eventually plump hop cones.

Sunday, August 30 we harvested the Cascade hop cones. We harvested 15 5/8 oz wet (444g) of luscious hops! Below are some images of our hop harvest. After I got the hops home I set them out on some non-fiberglass furnace filters and bungee corded them to a box fan for drying. I can’t accept credit for this drying method, I got the idea from Alton Brown’s Beef Jerky Good Eats episode on the Food Network. Below are some pictures of my drying rig. I blasted them with the box fan for 4 days, I’m sure they were plenty dry after about 2 days, but wanted to be sure. After drying, the hop’s weight had decreased by nearly a factor of 5! The 15 5/8oz (444g) of wet hops now tipped the scale at 3 5/8 oz (106g). Finally I put all the dried hops into a vacuum seal bag and sealed them up for storage in the freezer until brew day. You can seem them sealed up in a bag not much longer than an average size banana.

Now the brainstorming begins for a recipe using these hops. Although it shouldn’t take too much brainstorming. We want to showcase our hops in an American Pale Ale, so the recipe will be rather simple with a clean yeast and we will use only these hops. Look for the recipe sometime soon! Until then, enjoy the hops pictures!

Cascade Hops Growing Nicely!

Justin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:30:56 +0000

So last April (2008) my buddy and I planted three Cascade hop rhizomes along a fence in his yard. Last year our harvest, as expected was quite minimal, but we got some good vine growth. By early April this year our hops were poking through the ground. By the end of May the hop vines had already matched last year’s entire growth. Over the weekend we went over to their place for a cookout and to enjoy the great weather. WOW! Look at those hops! The vine growth is tremendous and there lots of little hop buds all over the place. We’re hoping to have enough to completely hop a batch with our own hops, which by the looks of it should be very doable. I hope to take some pictures and share sometime soon. Do you grow your own hops? How is the growing season treating them where you live?

What’s next? An IPA!

Justin — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 02:08:34 +0000

So I’ve finally got the time to brew up my next batch. My next batch is going to be a celebratory brew, a rather strong, very hoppy IPA but with enough malt to keep it from being one dimensional. I’ll be brewing next Sunday. Here’s the recipe I’ve worked out so far.

Beer Name: 1120 IPA

OG: 1.061

FG: 1.012

ABV: 6.5%

IBU: 53

Grains:

10# Maris Otter

1 # Flaked Barley

0.5# Victory

0.5# Crystal 40L

Hops:

0.50 oz Amarillo – 60 min

1.25 oz Cascade – 60 min

0.5 0z Amarillo – 15 min

0.5 oz Cascade – 15 min

0.5 oz Amarillo – 2 min

0.5 oz Amarillo – 2 min

0.5 oz Amarillo – dry hop

0.5 oz Cascade – dry hop

So I wanted to have a subtle, yet noticeable nutty/toasted malt flavor hiding beneath the all those citrusy hops, so the addition Victory malt seems reasonable. To give the beer a silky mouthfeel I thought a pound of flaked barley would fit nicely, this is what they do in a beer like Guinness to give the creamy mouthfeel.

Now the yeast and here enters my problem. Our new basement is quite a bit colder than our old one, I have moved my thermometers around and the basement ranges from 50F to 58F. I wanted to use a British ale yeast, but most varieties recommend mid 60sF to low 70sF for fermentation temperatures, my basement is much too cold for that. I could use Nottingham dry ale yeast or a clean American ale yeast, but I’m hoping for something different. I’m thinking of going with an altbier yeast, it will be a bit different, still relatively clean and dry enough. Although a Scottish ale yeast sounds good too. I have a feeling this yeast selection will be a game time decision. So do you have any comments about the yeast or anything else on the recipe? If you brew it up, drop me a line.

Justin