The problem is that I have 2 oz packs from Yakima. Say I want to try out cascade. If I want to bitter with that in 15 min boil with extract, I already loose 20 grams (almost 2/3 of an ounce for the Liberians on this forum).
In that case, definitely bitter with the Warrior. It’s clean enough that it’s neutral up against especially American type hops used late. Cascade is nothing to write home about as a bittering hop anyway.
Yes, I think I will bitter with Warrior then, but maybe not as high as 50 IBU. Cascade was just an example, I am not going to experiment with it, but I will do lemon drops, and that has only 4.5% AA, if I’m not mistaken.
OK, another shot at it. 1 gallon, made with exactly half a kilo of extract, which is nice because I can just use a small pack. Everything between the boundaries of the APA. Lowered IBU’s to 30. Added some carapils to make the beer a bit more interesting to drink.
Recipe: HEHE (Homo Eccentricus’ Hop Experiment)
Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: Extract
Taste: (30.0)
Recipe Specifications
Boil Size: 4.32 l
Post Boil Volume: 3.85 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 3.70 l
Bottling Volume: 3.20 l
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 11.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 29.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 0.0 %
Boil Time: 15 Minutes
Ingredients:
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
0.03 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 1 5.4 %
0.03 kg Caramunich I (Weyermann) (100.5 EBC) Grain 2 5.4 %
0.50 kg Extra Light Dry Extract (5.9 EBC) Dry Extract 3 89.3 %
5.50 g Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 4 29.8 IBUs
0.50 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Boil 15.0 mins Water Agent 5 -
0.05 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 -
10.00 g Falconer’s Flight [11.00 %] - Steep/Whir Hop 7 0.0 IBUs
0.5 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 8 -
18.00 g Falconer’s Flight [11.00 %] - Dry Hop 5. Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
Notes:
- add steeping grains to cold water; remove when 75C has been reached.
- still need to calculate boil-off.
Questions:
- is one ounce of hops enough? I see some people use as much as 2 ounces in a gallon.
- I have a high quality burr grinder for my coffee. Could I use that to grind the steeping grains without fearing tannin extraction? I would hate to get my mill and drill from the basement for a lousy 60 grams of grains. Or could I freeze 60 gram packages of milled grains?
Try it and see. I use ~ an oz (sometimes a tad over an oz) for whirlpool/stand in a gallon plus an oz dry hopped. And it works fine for what I want to achieve to test out hops - hoppy APA. As a reference, I whirlpool/stand ~ 5 oz for 5 gallons of APA (nothing in the boil but a 60 min addition) so an oz works out to that amount in a gallon. Using 2 oz/gal is fine but it’ll have more of an IPA character - nothing wrong there, I just don’t think you need to go that high to assess a hop. If you think it needs more next time, definitely adjust up a little.
One more question. I am going to make the transition from bottling to kegging. But I guess it doesn’t make sense to put 4 liters of beer in a 20 liter keg, now does it?
Are there 5 liter kegs that can be used for this? Does anybody know/use this type of system? https://homebrewshop.be/en/mini-kegs/767-starter-set-profi-tap-basic-mini-kegs.html - apparently you have to prime them with sugar…
I have read stories of those mini kegs failing. Look around and you should be able to find 1.75, 2.5, & 3 gallon ball locks. I think Williams sells 1 gallon now too. I pocked around Ali express after you posted about the beer gun knockoff and saw that they had reasonable prices on some smaller kegs. Shipping was a bit high.
I think an ounce would be plenty. That’s what I typically use and I’ve never thought I needed any more if I’m just taste-testing.
I’d be concerned about grinding the husk too fine. If you’re planning on doing several batches, then I’d mill a bunch (or buy some pre-milled; this is just a taste-test, not a competition entry)
I still bottle these batches since I usually brew a bunch at a time and don’t have that many kegs free. Otherwise, there’s no issue with filling a keg part-way full.