Making the most of Galaxy

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brewtas

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I've been thinking about how I use Galaxy. The received wisdom on this forum seems to be that Galaxy should be reserved for 10-0 minute additions but Hill Farmstead, Brewdog, Anchorage, Cigar City, Bridge Road and Flying Dog are able to make world class beers using Galaxy all the way through (They have scores of 100, 94, 99, 95, 91 and 95/100 on ratebeer.com for Galaxy single hopped IPAs & IIPAs).

So I’m wondering what they're doing to achieve such brilliant beers using Galaxy on its own?

Does FWH help smooth out the bitterness? Are small, frequent doses a better way of achieving the best flavours or is a single addition more effective? Does limiting dry hop contact time help?

I'll be trying some stuff myself but I'm interested in what others have found as well.
 
I've made a "clone" of the Bridge Rd. Chestnut Pilsner which uses Galaxy, I don't know when they use it but mine came out pretty close. I'll up the amounts of Galaxy next time though as it is not quite as punchy as I'd like but it's a very drinkable Pilsner. Link here to the discussion http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/76390-bridge-rd-chestnut-pilsner-clone/

I used a 60min and Cube hop of 0.6g/L and was supposed to dry hop with the same amount, although after reading people say Galaxy becomes grassy from dry hopping I opted not to. I'm defintely going to dry hop next time to see the difference, as the current recipe lacks aroma (although the original does also).
 
Just pay a LOT of attention as to how long you dry hop with it. Everyone talks about gm/l, but rarely do they specify how long to leave it in. I've had a few beers go positively nasty after leaving Galaxy in the dry hop for 5 days. Have heard since that many people don't go past 2 days....
 
Would S&W Pacific Ale be in this category? brilliant use of Galaxy.Its possible they cold crash and dry hop at lower temps :)

To answer your questions - I would not use it for a bittering charge, only late. Im waiting on a bulk buy to try it again, but while waiting I used Simcoe on my Golden Ale which is a mid at 3.4% using 70 pils/30wheat. I done all late additions, 15,10,5 and whirlpool hopstand for 10mins, I also dry hopped and its smells/tastes great.

The Golden Ale a few before this Simcoe was with Galaxy but a different malt bill (80pils/15munich/5carahell), I added Galaxy at 45mins to 20 ibu and steeped 45g for 20mins @ 80c and it was grassy for about 3 weeks then it finally went away.

Galaxy - all late and dry hop at lower temps.
 
Thanks for the thoughts, guys. I'm formulating a plan.

Pratty, I understand the the general advice is to avoid early additions but I'm wondering how the breweries I mentioned managed to pull off the earlier ones. The dry hopping advice is interesting and helpful. I'm wondering what's going on to make the cooler dry hopping work better?
 
Ok, why if you use galaxy in the last 10 minutes do you need a bittering addition?

S&W uses only under ten min additions i am told. My all galaxy hopped ales are best when all the ibus come in the last 5 mins.

I will regularly use 120 gram in a 20l batch.
 
I'm not talking about Stone & Wood, I'm talking about commercial IPAs and IIPAs.
 
Either way if you want smooth bittering all late is the way to go with galaxy. Try hop bursting over the last 5 mins.

U will need a good chiller or use argon's method.

Are you no chilling?
 
I've used Galaxy a couple of times - dry hopped one & another was a S&W PA clone (single hopped @ 20/10/0/dry - a partial that was chilled within a few minutes to 78°C before the 0min addition).
No grassiness - i think some sense it easily, others (like me) don't seem to pick it up.
Also of note: both might've been slightly harsh at 2 weeks in the bottle, but at 6+ weeks this had mellowed out pretty much completely (both were a fraction high in IBUs anyway) and was great [- my non-HB friends said the S&WPA clone was excellent & they'd definitely pay for it.].

Love Galaxy - highly recommend trying it. I personally would use it solely late or in dry hopping, but that's largely because you choose Galaxy for it's amazing flavour & aroma - adding it early means you completely miss this.
FWIW: The harshness from early bittering seems more universal than the grassiness thing.
 
Markbeer said:
Either way if you want smooth bittering all late is the way to go with galaxy. Try hop bursting over the last 5 mins.

U will need a good chiller or use argon's method.

Are you no chilling?
Fair call. I wonder if that's what some of those commercial ones do?

I BIAB and use an immersion chiller so I've got no problem there.

I just ran the numbers for an IIPA, OG 1.071, FG 1.011, 65 IBU would take a single 5 min addition of 245g Galaxy. I'd probably dry hop with at least another 100g. Sounds fun!


technobabble66 said:
No grassiness - i think some sense it easily, others (like me) don't seem to pick it up.
...
Love Galaxy - highly recommend trying it. I personally would use it solely late or in dry hopping, but that's largely because you choose Galaxy for it's amazing flavour & aroma - adding it early means you completely miss this.
FWIW: The harshness from early bittering seems more universal than the grassiness thing.
Yeah, I can't say I've noticed grassiness in the ones I've made/tasted and I wondered if it was just me.

I agree it makes sense to use it late, I'm just asking because as I was thinking about these great commercial beers I was wondering what they know about it that we don't.
 
I'm keen to hear some more opinions on this. I use Galaxy a fair bit..I just love the aroma. But, as i have reported elsewhere, i do find that i struggle to get the harshness down to acceptable levels. I BIAB and no-chill so i have resorted to only cube hopping (i guess equivalent to a 15 min addition) and dry hopping for about 3 days with Galaxy. I drank one of my latest batch tonight and while it has improved after a few weeks in the bottle it's is still not quite where i would like it to be. For my next brew I'm thinking of running the same recipe but subbing Citra for Galaxy to see the difference.
 
I should've added, the dry hopping i did was for 7 days with both brews.
As said above, no grassiness.

As a minor aside: I did find that the first one (an LCPA clone with dry hopped 2012 Galaxy thrown in on top of the original recipe) produced a really noticeable passionfruit aroma. The second one - same dry hopping was done, plus (2013) Galaxy at 20/10/0 mins, had a significantly lower passionfruit aroma (& subsequently the passionfruit flavour was subdued also - still really good, but just not quite the passionfruit intensity i was aiming for).
Not sure why the difference; but i thought i'd just add it to the Knowledge Collective.
In light of this i'd probably bottle after 2-4 days of dry hopping; but to capture the aroma rather than for any fear of grassiness - probably like many hops out there.

@Brewtas: 245g to achieve 65 IBUs. Wow! I'd be sorely tempted to throw in a little something else in at 60-45mins for bittering and save some of the Galaxy - either a clean bitterer (Magnum, Warrior ?) or a complimentary one (Hellooooo Simcoe!! - though maybe at 20mins instead). I'm not experienced, but it seems prudent. Hell - it leaves you more Galaxy for dry hopping!
 
brewtas said:
I'm wondering what's going on to make the cooler dry hopping work better?
I listened to a podcast for Can You Brew It talking about the EPIC Pale Ale from NZ. This beer is all cascade and the head brewer described how he showcased the hops using 2 whirpool additions, one for 20mins right after flameout and then chilled that wort to 75c and added more hops for another 20min whirlpool - this created 2 layers of flavour/aroma with the cooler addition whirlpool giving more aromatic oils released and kept.

What they also do is a double dry hop - at 21c for 5days then cold crash and dry hop again at 4c for 5 days - this again creates 2 layers and the hops oils are imparted to the beer differently due to the warm and cool environment.

I have recently tried this with a Amber Ale and Centennial, I only whirpooled right after the boil ended for 10mins but double dry hopped - one warm and one cool and the aroma is really, really good ( as a trial of this i only used 17g and 17g and will charge that up to 28g each next time )

For your Galaxy - 245g at 5mins....crikey :super:

Seen as though you have a IC - try a 10m/50g = 25ibu, 5m/125g = 35ibu, crank up the IC and drop the temp to 80c and turn off the IC - STEEP at this temp by adding hops ( maybe 56g ) and manually whirpool and leave for 20mins to stand (this will add a huge aroma ). Cool and add to FV and dry hop warm for 3days, cold crash and dry hop again for 3 more days. that is my 2c's
 
Pratty1 said:
I listened to a podcast for Can You Brew It talking about the EPIC Pale Ale from NZ. This beer is all cascade and the head brewer described how he showcased the hops using 2 whirpool additions, one for 20mins right after flameout and then chilled that wort to 75c and added more hops for another 20min whirlpool - this created 2 layers of flavour/aroma with the cooler addition whirlpool giving more aromatic oils released and kept.

What they also do is a double dry hop - at 21c for 5days then cold crash and dry hop again at 4c for 5 days - this again creates 2 layers and the hops oils are imparted to the beer differently due to the warm and cool environment.

I have recently tried this with a Amber Ale and Centennial, I only whirpooled right after the boil ended for 10mins but double dry hopped - one warm and one cool and the aroma is really, really good ( as a trial of this i only used 17g and 17g and will charge that up to 28g each next time )

For your Galaxy - 245g at 5mins....crikey :super:

Seen as though you have a IC - try a 10m/50g = 25ibu, 5m/125g = 35ibu, crank up the IC and drop the temp to 80c and turn off the IC - STEEP at this temp by adding hops ( maybe 56g ) and manually whirpool and leave for 20mins to stand (this will add a huge aroma ). Cool and add to FV and dry hop warm for 3days, cold crash and dry hop again for 3 more days. that is my 2c's

interesting pratty. did they remove the first dry hop and add the second? or keep the first one in there? i've been known to leave mine in too long so want to try and remove them after 3-4 days for my upcoming IPAs
 
This my take on how I used it Brewtas, I really enjoyed it. It was bitter and hoppy early in it's life and then hoppy and mellow bitterness after a few months in the keg. I didn't treat Galaxy any different than the other hops I've used in an IPA.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Stoned & Beaten IPA
Brewer: JD
Asst Brewer:
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 48 hours SG 1.030. sweet hop flavour/aroma
72 hours SG 1.016.
96 hours SG 1.013.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 57.00 l
Post Boil Volume: 46.50 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 42.00 l
Bottling Volume: 40.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.075 SG
Estimated Color: 8.0 EBC
Estimated IBU: 48.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 85.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 85.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
15.00 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent 1 -
10.00 g Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 2 -
6.00 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 3 -
9.00 kg Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 EBC) Grain 4 75.0 %
3.00 kg Wheat Malt, Malt Craft (Joe White) (3.5 Grain 5 25.0 %
25.00 g Galaxy [14.90 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 21.3 IBUs
40.00 g Galaxy [14.90 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 7 20.7 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 8 -
40.00 g Galaxy [14.90 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 6.8 IBUs
3.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 10 -
40.00 g Galaxy [14.90 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 12.00 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 36.00 l of water at 73.0 C 67.0 C 90 min
Mash Out Heat to 77.0 C over 20 min 77.0 C 15 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 33.02 l water at 75.6 C
Notes:
------
 
fletcher said:
interesting pratty. did they remove the first dry hop and add the second? or keep the first one in there? i've been known to leave mine in too long so want to try and remove them after 3-4 days for my upcoming IPAs
mate they have conicals and when they add the hops they are using fresh flowers without a bag. When the cold crash happens the hops fall out of suspension and after a day at low temp they open the conical port valve and dump out before picthing the cold layer dry hops. With my Centennial AAA I talked of in this thread I cold crashed and then hopped again, mind you i was not using a bag just throw em in there B)
 
I used to FWH all my beers for a while, maybe a year or two. I found it smoothed out the bitterness nicely. Bit hard to judge how much but after a few brews got into sync with it. Be brave to try it with galaxy but it might work very well.

I used to get at least 50% of the bitterness from the FWH, and calcs it as a 20 min addition.
 
Pratty1 said:
mate they have conicals and when they add the hops they are using fresh flowers without a bag. When the cold crash happens the hops fall out of suspension and after a day at low temp they open the conical port valve and dump out before picthing the cold layer dry hops. With my Centennial AAA I talked of in this thread I cold crashed and then hopped again, mind you i was not using a bag just throw em in there B)
yeah that's how i do it. basically dump them in and they settle before i bottle due to cold crash etc. might try it and use a bag and completely remove them or try the temperature dry hop too; just leaving the first ones in there
 
Made a 10 min IPA using galaxy


10ltr batch size, 60 min boil, 100g of galaxy @10 min

I put the recipe into beersmith (after I bottled it) and it came out as 105 IBU!!!

It was undrinkable at the first tasting at 6 weeks, tasted like chewing on straight hops, lol

It's been bottled for about 6 months now (I haven't been game to touch it since the first bottle at 6 weeks) and I'm drinking it now and it's bloody good!

If Made it again I'd drop the hops from 100g to 80g :)
 
Thanks for all the responses, guys! It's really helpful to get a sense of what people are doing and the variety of methods available.

I'm thinking the next step is to brew a recipe and add the hops two ways. I've worked up an Imperial IPA recipe on the low end of the scale. I might just brew one batch and split it after the mash. The first hop schedule is an exclusively late hopped option similar to the one mentioned by Markbeer (Side note: that reminds me of a Basic Brewing Radio podcast episode a while back about a guy who used 1kg of hops in a brew: 900g @ 5 min and 100g of dry hops). The second is to go with FWH for 50% of the bitterness, as mentioned my mje1980, and then add small, regular additions from 25 min. I'll be steeping and dry hopping both batches the same way.

Balls Out Galaxy IIPA
OG: 1.071
FG: 1.011
IBU: 60
EBC: 14
ABV: 8.0%

Grist
92% Pale malt
3% Caramalt
5% Dextrose

Hop schedule #1 (for a 23L batch)
125g Galaxy @ 0 min (with a 20 min hop stand which I've calculated as a 10 min addition)
100g Galaxy @ 80C (steeped for 30 minutes)
50g Galaxy @ warm dry hop (3 days)
50g Galaxy @ cool dry hop (5 days)

Hop schedule #2 (for a 23L batch)
25g Galaxy @ FWH
10g Galaxy @ 25 min
10g Galaxy @ 20 min
10g Galaxy @ 15 min
10g Galaxy @ 10 min
10g Galaxy @ 5 min
50g Galaxy @ 0 min
100g Galaxy @ 80C steeped for 30 minutes
50g Galaxy @ warm dry hop
50g Galaxy @ cool dry hop

Yeast
WLP090
 
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