It’s that time of year to harvest hops and make a fresh hopped beer.
Unfortunately some of my vines died and I only had about 7.5 oz of hops. And I have no idea what they are because someone gave the vine to me years ago just to grow for aesthetics.
So my question is, does anyone have any decent recipes for a wet hopped beer that only requires one addition of wet hops, rest being dried, and something that is flexible to different kinds of hops as I have no idea what mine are?
PS, I harvested last night so I need to brew tomorrow morning.
Thanks!
If it was me, I’d make a basic pale ale and use them as a whirlpool addition
That is what I was assuming would work the best. What kind of pale ale would you suggest? I have read that I should avoid anything too happy if I want to add fresh hops.
I’m thinking in terms of a classic APA. Pale malt, maybe 5-10% crystal of your choice, 1.050-55, 35ish IBU.
I am eyeballing this recipe. However that seems like a ridiculous amount of malt. And I wasn’t sure if citra hops would be fine with a wet hop. Though I don’t see why not.
ALL-GRAIN
Estimated OG: 1.058
Estimated FG: 1.017
Estimated IBUs: 42
Estimated ABV: 5.3%
MALT/GRAIN BILL
11 lb (5 kg) pale malt (2-row)
2.5 lb (1.1 kg) caramel malt (10 SRM)
1 lb (453 g) caramel malt (20 SRM)
HOPS SCHEDULE
1 oz ( 28 g) Citra at 30 minutes
1 oz ( 28 g) Citra at 15 minutes
1 oz ( 28 g) Citra at 0 minutes
1 oz ( 28 g) Citra at dry hop
See Denny’s suggestion for cara/crystal level of 5-10%. The recipe you posted sits around 24% crystal, awfully high. You may have attenuation issues, too sweet, etc. I do not have a replacement recipe for you but that is a lot of crystal malt
Good on ya for growing yourself some hops. I do the same and have made a few wet hop ambers over the years. 7.5 oz of wet hops will likely impart little or no affect on your overall recipe; you really need a ton more to get flavor or aroma out, especially for a full 5-gallon batch. If you really want to experience some wet hop flavors, scale that recipe down and use all of them at flame out.
Ha. Yeah I spaced the comment about the crystal %.
I might go with this. It is just over 10% Crystal/cara. And I like rye beers.
For 11 gallons (41.6 L)
MALTS
17 lb (7.71 kg) American pale 2-row malt
2 lb (0.9 kg) flaked rye
1.8 lb (816 g) Caravienne malt
10 oz (293 g) 40°L crystal malt
HOPS
1 oz (28 g) Citra, 13% a.a., first wort hop
0.25 oz (7 g) Magnum, 13% a.a. @ 60 minutes
1 oz (28 g) Citra, 13% @ 15 minutes
1 oz (28 g) Citra, 13% a.a. @ 10 minutes
1.5 oz (43 g) Citra, 13% a.a. @ 5 minutes
2 oz (57 g) Citra, 13% a.a. @ flameout
6 oz (170 g) Citra 13% a.a., dry hop 5 to 7 days
YEAST
Wyeast 1272 American Ale II, 10-15 million cells per mL
ADDITIONAL ITEMS
2 lb orange blossom honey at flameout*
Yeah I know it’s not a lot. Like I said, my 2nd vine died. I plan on planting 8 more next year to shade my south facing side of my house!
I might experiment with adding them to first fermentation. I read that some people try that and considering the low volume of hops I have it might give more time to work it’s magic. However I don’t want it to get too grassy.
Because of the limited amount of fresh hops, you could split the batch in two. Add the mystery hops to half of it. You’ll get a bigger effect because it’s only half the batch, and be able to taste exactly what they add to it. I always like doing this kind of thing when an opportunity is there.
That’s a good idea. But I might have to try and another time because I don’t have any 3 gallon size fermenters and I don’t want to buy anything extra tomorrow. But the Hops aren’t going anywhere so maybe I’ll try it next year