Beginner Highly Hopped Recipe?

[domix]

G'day,

Just joined this site after wanting to get back into home brewing. I've made a few brews using the Coopers home brew setup with liquid malt extract in the past. Recently made a Cascade pale ale with the Brewcraft powdered malt recipe kit. Turned out quite tasty.

But after visiting Mountain Goat brewery several times over the last few weeks, I am madly in love with hops (especially Galaxy hops they use in Randy, the hop infuser). Been buying as many beers as I can that are highly hopped.

Anyway, I wanna give making these kinds of beers at home, but the recipes I've seen here with AG mixes and multiple hop additions give me the impression that getting the timing and measurements wrong can lead to a waste of a brew and ingredients.

Looking towards the Brewcraft American Pale Ale kit; from their site:

"Sensational Pale ale with 4KG of malt, Perle Hops 25g & Willamette hops 25g plus the famous Safale US05 yeast. A full malt Ale beautifully balanced with a big hop flavour and aroma."

But also adding in some Galaxy hops, either late in the boil and/or dry hopped in the keg.

Also, how would I go about adding Crystal malt? Mountain Goat brewery mentions that it is used in their IPA and Fancy Pants beers.

Anyone have a beginner's recipe along these lines? Suitable for a 30L Coopers keg setup.

Something around 40-60 IBUs and with a strong hop aroma.



Thanks,

Adam

 

[kelbygreen]

this is just off my head and never brewed it but i would try a extract as you can control all the flavours.

something like this:
3kg LDME
500g dex
500g of crystal (steep in 65-70c water for 30mins)

then use a 60 min bittering hop of your choice maybe nelson sav or northern brewer or something
then would do 20 and 10 min additions with equal amounts of galaxy and amarillo or citra would prob go nice. Or you could use nelson sav i have not used it yet so cant comment.

use the kit and extract speadsheet to work out a good balance and how much hops to use

 

[beerbog]

To get back into it why not try a couple of fresh wort packs with some added hops. There's plenty of good ones out there that are so quick and easy to get going.

A nice change also if you need to put a couple of quick ones down but don't have time to AG. :beerbang:

 

[domix]

Thanks Kelby. Ill go along those lines, but got some ideas from Fourstar and his Mountain Goat IPA recipe. Gibbo, I eventually wanna get into using more grain so might steer away from fresh wort for the time being.

Thinking...

3kg LDME

0.5kg Crystal

0.5kg Dextrose

20g Simcoe @ 60mins

20g Amarillo or Citra @20mins

20g Galaxy @ 5min

15-20g Galaxy dry hopped at day 3-4



Couple of questions. Been using the Kit and Extract spreadsheet and it says to add 867g of DME to the 10L after Ive added the steeped and sparged the Crystal. Then add the remaining DME at 5 mins from end of boil. Is this because the hops need to boiling in 1.040 SG?

Also, do I need to crack and grind the grain for the steeping?



Thanks,

Adam

 

[zarth]

Yes grain has to be cracked but thats about it not ground to a powder my LHBS will crack em for you so yours should ive read in here to put in a zip lock bag and crack with a rolling pin. I steep in a pre heated 6 pack esky for 30mins then rinse/sparge with hot water gets a bit more goodness out

 

[domix]

Thanks fellas.
Beer is bubbling away in the fermenter.
Got some help from BrewCraft and have lessened the sugars going in so will be around 5.5% abv.
Lots of hops.
20g Simcoe 60mins
20g Citra 20mins
20g Galaxy 5mins

tasted some yesterday and a is going alright. bitterness but hopefully should mellow out.
just deciding whether to dry hop with 5-15g of Galaxy.

can't wait.

 

[argon]

Thanks fellas.
Beer is bubbling away in the fermenter.
Got some help from BrewCraft and have lessened the sugars going in so will be around 5.5% abv.
Lots of hops.
20g Simcoe 60mins
20g Citra 20mins
20g Galaxy 5mins

tasted some yesterday and a is going alright. bitterness but hopefully should mellow out.
just deciding whether to dry hop with 5-15g of Galaxy.

can't wait.

What's you're resulting volume in the fermenter? Also what's your resulting IBU for those hop additions? looks to be about 43IBU based on 23L OG of approx 1057 for a 5.5% abv using the recipe you posted, but with only 250g Dex.

Re dryhopping... for starters try 1g/L... Galaxy has quite a strong presence. If you're a bit keener go for for 1.5-2g/L.

 

[BrenosBrews]

Good combo of hops but I'd up the dry hops. Using pellets or flowers for dry hops?

 

[Nick JD]

Good combo of hops but I'd up the dry hops. Using pellets or flowers for dry hops?

Galaxy dry hopped can be grassy. I'd use the citra, but that MHO.

 

[bum]

A little grassiness is often desirable in an APA style beer - but it isn't for everyone, of course.

The one time I dry hopped (so far) with citra I found it lent an menthol-like quality to the beer (I've seen others describe it as being minty too). This did fade within weeks though so certainly no reason not to do it.

 

[Banshee]

Couple of questions. Been using the Kit and Extract spreadsheet and it says to add 867g of DME to the 10L after Ive added the steeped and sparged the Crystal. Then add the remaining DME at 5 mins from end of boil. Is this because the hops need to boiling in 1.040 SG?

Also, do I need to crack and grind the grain for the steeping?



Thanks,

Adam

It would have to do with hop utilization, the higher the gravity the more hops needed for utilization.

 

[sipourit]

You have a point. Fresh wort packs would be a nice choice especially when you also have the fresh wort kit.

To get back into it why not try a couple of fresh wort packs with some added hops. There's plenty of good ones out there that are so quick and easy to get going.

A nice change also if you need to put a couple of quick ones down but don't have time to AG. :beerbang:

 

[domix]

Thanks for the input. The final volume was 23L with an OG of 1.05 and FG of 1.01
I tasted it from the fermenter and was very passionfruity, so I didn't end up dry hopping.
Might have been a mistake as I cracked a bottle early (lastnight) and despite being flat beer cordial, the hops I was smelling previously
was no longer present.
Oh well, I know next time im gonna go nuts with the hops.
I can't get enough of the Jamieson Beast IPA at the moment.

So thinking of doing a similar recipe with an extra kg of DME (to get it upto around 8%) and maybe double the Crystal.
Gonna add double the amount of Galaxy and Citra at the end of boil
Maybe add Rakau and Saaz D somewhere in there too.
Then dry hop it to high heaven. :icon_drool2:

thanks again