Recipe suggestions for wet-hop Cascades

Beer Recipes
1

I know there’s another post similar to this right now, but I didn’t want to thread hijack so I’m starting this separately.

My buddy just texted me that he just picked his Cascades today. We’re planning an impromptu brewday tomorrow and I was wondering if anyone had any recipe suggestions. I’d like to use some of the grains I have on hand if possible, but I will fill out the grain bill with either DME or hit the LHBS for more ingredients on the way home.

Here’s what I have on hand:
Grains
1/2 lb Munich
1/2 lb Vienna
3/4 lb Caramunich
6 oz Victory
1 lb Carafa III

Yeast
US-05
T-58

I will probably use either Columbus or Nugget for bittering and keep the Cascade for late adds. The easy option is to brew an IPA, but I would like to branch out a little bit from my usual. In particular, I was thinking of using the CaraMunich and brewing an American Amber or an American Brown Ale. The other option is to just do my typical IPA, but use the T-58 and “Belgianize” it.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? Or does anyone have a good hoppy Amber or Brown recipe that uses CaraMunich?

One other question - has anyone used wet hops for FWH? I’d like to try it out, but I’m afraid it would end up too grassy.

2

So I’m leaning towards an Amber. Any thoughts on the following recipe? I’m going to give FWH a try, but I’m going to bag the hops and pull them once it gets to a boil to minimize the extraction of grassiness. The -30 minute hop addition means I’m going to hot hop stand for half an hour, then add more hops and chill immediately.

Title: Fresh Hop Amber

Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: American Amber Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 3 gallons
Boil Size: 3.5 gallons
Efficiency: 80%

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.065
Final Gravity: 1.018
ABV (standard): 6.16%
IBU (tinseth): 61.88
SRM (morey): 17.84

FERMENTABLES:
5 lb - Maris Otter Pale (76.2%)
0.5 lb - Munich Light (7.6%)
0.5 lb - CaraMunich I (7.6%)
0.25 lb - Caramel / Crystal 120L (3.8%)
0.25 lb - Victory (3.8%)
0.0625 lb - Carafa III (1%)

HOPS:
0.5 oz - Nugget (AA 14) for 60 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil
3 oz - Cascade (Fresh) (AA 1.5), Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: First Wort
3 oz - Cascade (Fresh) (AA 1.5) for 5 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil
5 oz - Cascade (Fresh) (AA 1.5) for 0 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil
5 oz - Cascade (Fresh) (AA 1.5) for -30 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil
2 oz - Cascade (AA 7) for 10 days, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Dry Hop

MASH STEPS:

  1. Infusion, Temp: 154 F, Time: 60 min, Amount: 15 qt, Sacc Rest

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 each - Whirlfloc, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil
6 each - Fermcap-S, Time: 60 min, Type: Water Agt, Use: Boil

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05

3

I think you’re right using the fresh hops for the later additions.  Your amber recipe looks fine - I was going to suggest that you could make a India Black Ale since you have the Carafa III.  Good luck!

4

I think you may be surprised at how much wort the fresh hops will suck up. I recently did a 5 gallon batch with only 2.5oz of leaf hops and lost nearly half a gallon. With as many as you’re adding, you may lose quite a bit. You could of course squeeze the crap out of the bag of hops, but I wonder what kind of off flavors may come out of whole hops.

Let us know how yours turns out. I have a bunch of Chinooks ready to pick and will have a bunch of Nuggets too.

5

Turns out we only had 3 ounces of wet hops to work with so I had to tweak the recipe a bit. Ended up using Nugget for fwh and bittering, then added all the wet hops at flameout. Did a hot hop stand for 30 minutes then chilled. Won’t be dry hopping either. Will keep you posted on how this turns out.