POR with Galaxy?

[Chris7]

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.

 

[TheWiggman]

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.

 

[TheWiggman]

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.