# POR with Galaxy?



## Chris7 (25/8/14)

Hi all, looking at putting down another BIAB this weekend. I was going to do a smash with just Galaxy, but it seems as though it is recommended to not use Galaxy for bittering. The only other hops I have access to at the moment are POR. Would it be horrible using POR to bitter and then use Galaxy for the rest of the additions?


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## Florian (25/8/14)

That's what's apparently in Crown Golden Ale so you should be alright... or not. 

I have actually something similar fermenting at the moment, but too early to comment on the outcome yet.


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## sp0rk (25/8/14)

I dry hop my house Lager with Galaxy
POR additions at 60 & 20, then around 20g of galaxy when I pour the cube into my fermenter
Went down great with my swill drinking mates and won a first place in one of the local shows


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## Chris7 (25/8/14)

Ah excellent news. Shall give it a go this weekend. Just from what I have read Galaxy is to be avoided for bittering. There is going to be a fair amount of galaxy in the brew so hopefully it will balance any otherwise flavours that the POR may throw.


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## Nath151 (25/8/14)

@@p pop


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## mosto (25/8/14)

My house ale is bittered with POR and cube hopped and dry hopped with Galaxy. I've tweaked it often to get the best balance between two, but when you get it right they're a great combo. I'd recommend re-culturing some Coopers yeast if you're able, goes nicely with the Galaxy.


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## Chris7 (25/8/14)

Nath151 said:


> @@p pop


What on earth does this mean?


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## Chris7 (25/8/14)

mosto said:


> My house ale is bittered with POR and cube hopped and dry hopped with Galaxy. I've tweaked it often to get the best balance between two, but when you get it right they're a great combo. I'd recommend re-culturing some Coopers yeast if you're able, goes nicely with the Galaxy.


Not possible this time round, but possibly in the future. I haven't tried harvesting yeast from coopers yet so I am keen to give it a go at some point.


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## Three Sheets (2/9/14)

I found Galaxy dominated with late addition so bittering with POR or anything else for that matter wont be an issue. I also used Galaxy early in the boil and learnt to go easy. I just used it for bittering 10 grams at 60, and then ran with Chinook and Columbus from 20 mins.


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## Chris7 (5/9/14)

I put the brew down last weekend used POR for bittering and will throw in the dry hops in the next few days and will see what the flavour is like when I check gravity. Everything I have read about galaxy says that it can be overpowering and to go easy, so will wait and see.


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## yum beer (5/9/14)

Florian said:


> That's what's apparently in Crown Golden Ale so you should be alright... or not.
> 
> I have actually something similar fermenting at the moment, but too early to comment on the outcome yet.


Would not have picked that.
Bloody terrible beer.

I do a lager with POR to 20-21 IBU @ 60 and Galaxy to 3-4 IBU @ 5 minutes, Danish Lager, 61c Mash, 9c Ferment, very nice
Also goes well with Mexican yeast and a few extra additions of Galaxy at flameout and dry hopped, swapping Pils malt for MO or GP


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## beercus (5/9/14)

I hear that galaxy dry hopped can get really grassy....

How many days do people dry hop it for?

beercus


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## yum beer (5/9/14)

I dry hop no more then 3 days to avoid any issues, and only dry hop smallish amounts, 1/2 gm a litre or there abouts.


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## menoetes (5/9/14)

Agreed, 3 - 5 days max IMHO. It's a quite potent hop though, I've done 20g in a 25lt batch and got plenty of aroma passion-fruit aroma from it.

This is a good thread, I've never used POR myself but I have bittered with galaxy more than once. It's true that it's not a _great _bittering hop but it's not a brew-wrecker either. It does take a little more maturing than others to get the rough edge off of the taste in my experience.

Just go easy with the 60 minute addition and don't expect a smooth bitterness after 2 weeks in the bottle. More suited to hop driven beers than malty ones and if you're going with strong hoppy flavours then you'll probably not even notice the coarser bitterness.


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## Chris7 (5/9/14)

menoetes said:


> Agreed, 3 - 5 days max IMHO. It's a quite potent hop though, I've done 20g in a 25lt batch and got plenty of aroma passion-fruit aroma from it.


When I dry hop, probably Monday, I will also start cold conditioning it so I would imagine this will probably mean that I won't get the full flavour from the hops. Could this also potentially prevent the grassy flavours? Did you cold condition while dry hopping? 

At this stage I am all about experimenting. This brew is my second BIAB and so I am not expecting it to be remarkable at all, just want to get a feel for the grain and hop profiles. My first AG was a golden promise/cascade smash (with 250g crystal) and it is wonderful. Very similar to Sierra Nevada pale ale.


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## menoetes (5/9/14)

Funny, I asked the very same question just last week.

The consensus seemed to be that the low temperatures of cold crashing will reduce (and possibly stop) the extraction of the oils in the hops... or something like that. Dress that up in fancy technical terms and you'll have it.

I dry hopped my last batch for 4 days before cold crashing for a week. A taste of the hydrometer sample didn't show any grassy notes so I am cautiously optimistic about the method but ultimately it is your beer and your choice.


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## Chris7 (5/9/14)

Yeh I think maybe I will chuck it in a day or two before turning the temps down. My fermentation fridge is a thermoelectric so doesn't get the temp down very quickly so the hops will have a decent amount of time and not too low temps.


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## FlatStrap (6/9/14)

why not try galaxy bittering at 30 minutes, upping the amount to get the required IBU for the recipe? Should give less harshness but also add some flavour, win win.


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## jkirky (7/9/14)

I have used Galaxy to great success for bittering- a great bittering hop IMO. Have not used as a flavour/aroma hop. 

2 observations,
1)It can be quite harsh though when young, so I can see why some may be negative in regard to bittering ability.
2)Even as bittering, it will overpower the flavour hops to an extent, so you need to compliment well. My advice is either use amarilo or cascade late in the boil for flavour/ aroma.

After 6 weeks of conditioning its fantastic, however 2 weeks of conditioning (with galaxy as bittering hop) was somewhat rough/harsh. In some respects similar to super alpha for bittering.

Just my 2c


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## Chris7 (8/9/14)

FlatStrap said:


> why not try galaxy bittering at 30 minutes, upping the amount to get the required IBU for the recipe? Should give less harshness but also add some flavour, win win.


I have already put the brew down but will definitely look into this option next time. Thanks for the input.


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## Chris7 (8/9/14)

jkirky said:


> I have used Galaxy to great success for bittering- a great bittering hop IMO. Have not used as a flavour/aroma hop.
> 
> 2 observations,
> 1)It can be quite harsh though when young, so I can see why some may be negative in regard to bittering ability.
> 2)Even as bittering, it will overpower the flavour hops to an extent, so you need to compliment well. My advice is either use amarilo or cascade late in the boil for flavour/ aroma.


Thanks for your input. Only issues are that if I am only using Galaxy for bittering then using Cascade or Amarillo (or anything else really for flavour or aroma) it defeats the purpose. The aim was to have Galaxy being the shining star in the beer as I was originally hoping to do a smash. The other thing is that being a hoppy beer, I would rather start drinking it sooner than 6 weeks as to not potentially lose any of the aroma.


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## TheWiggman (16/2/15)

I recently did a brew with a mostly Simpsons MO grain bill with the following hop additions -

15g PoR @ 60
17g Galaxy, 13g Amarillo @ flameout
30g Amarillo cube hopped
US05, rehydrated.

Intent was to make a 4.6% beer to about 30 IBU so as to not offend the crowd but still have plenty of hop flavour and aroma. Taste-wise, it was fine prior to cubing. I did everything right cleanliness-wise with thorough rinsing and sanitising. Back to back brews are great - the currently-fermenting pilsner is very, very clean, and was brewed the weekend prior.

3 days into the ferment it has developed what I would describe as a 'burnt electrical' flavour, almost along the lines of rubber. It is _not_ something that is burnt rubber though because I know full-well what that's like. The taste doesn't linger for long and after a minute it's forgotten. Actual experiences with burnt plastic in the past render your tastebuds 'out of service' for at least 20 mins because all you can taste is plastic. This taste however is unpleasent and I wouldn't want it in a beer.
Aroma from the airlock is quite hoppy, smells like fermenting beer and not like plastic a la past experience.

2 days later and it's getting better but I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this with this combo. The US05 took 72h for full krausen so I'm wondering if maybe there was something wrong with the yeast too, I don't know. This is the first time I've used US05.


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## TheWiggman (17/2/15)

I think I solved this.
I cast my mind back about 8-10 weeks when I did a brew on a BIAB maiden run for a mate's gear. All went well, and he liked S&W PA. I decided to bitter with PoR and Galaxy for the rest. I brought around the Galaxy and two of my HBs in a tupperware picnic bag. Long story short, both empty (uncleaned) bottles and the Galaxy were left in the bag for a few weeks in my hot garage. The Galaxy wasn't sealed properly. After a few weeks I found the bag and put the Galaxy in the freezer and thought nothing of it.

I'm guessing that the combination of heat, being closed in a vinyl-like bag and with two unopened bottles has somehow contaminated the Galaxy and come through during fermentation. I'm going to see it through but I don't have high hopes for it. There was absolutely no change in the process apart from that. Taste testing during brewing was good and smells were fine. The Galaxy was added at flameout and I did no tasting after that, which would make sense why I never tasted it.

Am I clutching at straws here? By all accounts the Galaxy and PoR combo worked because my mate commented that the S&W was his best brew ever (being his first AG) and noted no off flavours.


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