Hop Liquor

Beer Recipes
1

Armed with the experience from my last insanely-hopped IIPA, and under command to reduce my hops inventory in the freezer per my lovely wife, I thought I’d take another stab at the ridiculous. My ingenious idea: malt liquor meets IIPA.

I basically took Charlie P’s O/E 800 recipe and bumped up the gravity with some extra 2-row and a pound of sugar. Then I figured, if malt liquor comes in 40oz bottles, then it would only be fitting to use 40 oz of hops in a 5-gallon batch.

Someone please convince me that this is a horrible idea, otherwise I just may end up brewing this abomination.

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: 40 oz (Hop Liquor)

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Classic American Pilsner
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 3.5 gallons
Efficiency: 80% (brew house)
No Chill: 5 minute extended hop boil time

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.072
Final Gravity: 1.011
ABV (standard): 8.01%
IBU (rager): 296.98
SRM (morey): 3.27

FERMENTABLES:
5 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (39.2%)
3.75 lb - American - Pale 6-Row (29.4%)
3 lb - Flaked Corn (23.5%)
1 lb - Cane Sugar - (late addition)  (7.8%)

HOPS:
2 oz - Centennial, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Mash (AA 10.2, IBU: 11.13)
4 oz - Simcoe, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Mash (AA 11.9, IBU: 25.96)
2 oz - Cascade, Type: Pellet, Use: First Wort (AA 5, IBU: 11.43)
2 oz - Motueka, Type: Pellet, Use: First Wort (AA 7.2, IBU: 16.45)
2 oz - Chinook for 60 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 14.2, IBU: 96.93)
2 oz - Cascade for 30 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 5, IBU: 22.76)
2 oz - Motueka for 15 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 7.2, IBU: 16.45)
2 oz - Simcoe for 10 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 12.2, IBU: 21.9)
2 oz - Chinook for 5 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 14.2, IBU: 20.75)
2 oz - Cascade for 0 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 5, IBU: 5.45)
2 oz - Centennial for 0 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil (AA 10.2, IBU: 11.13)
2 oz - Chinook for 0 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 14.2, IBU: 15.49)
2 oz - Motueka for 0 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 7.2, IBU: 7.85)
2 oz - Simcoe for 0 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 12.2, IBU: 13.31)
2 oz - Centennial for 5 days, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Dry Hop (AA 10.2)
2 oz - Chinook for 4 days, Type: Pellet, Use: Dry Hop (AA 14.2)
2 oz - Motueka for 3 days, Type: Pellet, Use: Dry Hop (AA 7.2)
2 oz - Simcoe for 2 days, Type: Pellet, Use: Dry Hop (AA 12.2)
2 oz - Cascade for 1 days, Type: Pellet, Use: Dry Hop (AA 5)

MASH STEPS:

  1. Infusion, Temp: 147 F, Time: 90 min
  2. Infusion, Temp: 156 F, Time: 30 min

YEAST:
Wyeast - Pilsen Lager 2007
Pitch Rate: 2.0 (M cells / ml / deg P)

NOTES:
Centennial “mash hop” addition is runoff into kettle through leaf hops

Centennial 0 minute boil is runoff into fermenter through leaf hops

Divide flameout hops in half. 2nd half goes in after 80-minute hot hopstand.

Add topoff water 1 gallon at a time to kettle after chilling to “sparge” hop trub.

Ferment low 50’s. Raise to 68F after 2 weeks and begin dry hop additions. Each addition 2 days apart, bottle 3 days after last dry hop addition.

2

Sounds tasty. I’m sure it will be interesting making a lager with that hop profile. I say go for it.
Cheers,
Brandon

3

I like the idea. 40 Oz of hops in a 5 gallon batch will suck up a lot of that wort, which could be a downside for sure.

4

super hopped Pilsner!!! What do you call it? Imperial India Pilsner Lager?

5

I like it too!  I would add another gallon of water to compensate for the hop absorbtion though.

Dave

6

I’m not THAT overstocked on hops but it is tempting to see if this isn’t too vegetal.  I suppose even if you didn’t like it you could keep a keg of it around just to add an ounce to any underhopped beers.  ;D

7

My last IIPA had 18oz of hops in a batch that started out with 4 gallons preboil. It only netted me a twelve pack. I figure with this recipe I’ll end up with a case or so, which is my typical batch size right now. The last IIPA was pretty harsh to start, but I think that was mainly because so much hop material made it through to the bottles. A month of lagering in the bottles smoothed it out quite a bit, and it is really nice right now.

I am thinking of tweaking the dry hop schedule a bit so the pellet hops are the first additions, then carefully rack to secondary and use whole cones (which will be more easily filtered) for the last additions. The sheer amount of vegetative matter definitely had a big impact on the last beer I brewed like this.

8

I think you will be getting some diminishing returns on the hops, but if you are hellbent on 40 oz it seems like you have set it up pretty well. I would take some hops out of the 60 minute though, and I would add a LOT more of the hops in the mash. That way you aren’t getting quite as much gunk in the kettle.

9

I’m actually planning on topping off, so I’m going to add the topoff water to the kettle to sparge that massive hop trub that I’ll have left over.

10

This is completely asinine! In saying that, I love it! I would agree with you to tweek the hop additions. Add your whole/leaf hops to the dry hops additions (especially since they are Centennial and Simcoe). I personally would love to do this but make it a IIPA. Add a handful of pounds of 2 row and some Crystal…maybe 40L to boost the body/flavor and ABV closer to 10%. But I completely understand wanting to experiment the pilsner aspect of this monster. Good luck and keep us informed of the results!!

11

This is a stupid waste of hops - please bring me a bottle at the NHC in Philly!

12

Ridiculous!
do it

13

I 2nd this