Fresh hops

Update 8/8 - racked to secondary, SG 1.009-1.010, 2oz centennial, 2oz simcoe added.
Update 8/4 - SG 1.010, 2oz Cascade pellets added. Temperature no longer controlled.
--

Two things. I owe Rachel a big IPA because she likes them a lot and I keep adding to the equipment list (post on that fermentation cabinet on its way). Now, before you read the recipe and crunch some numbers to find that you get something like 200IBU, let me yammer on a bit about hops and isomerization. First, I'm using a whole pound of fresh hops. Fresh, as in I picked them from someone's garden yesterday and they haven't been dried. Like herbs in cooking, fresh hops are less potent than dry ones, and ~8oz of fresh hop flowers dry to about 3oz. To compensate, I'm approximating the AA in my calculations as 3% instead of 7-10%. Second, all (ALL) of the models for calculating IBU fall apart at high concentrations of alpha acid in the wort. I could link to some papers but you won't read them...hell, I barely did. The point: it's hard to get more than about 120IBU short of using isoalpha extract. Example, running the numbers on the recipe(s) for Pliny the Elder that Vinnie Cilurzo has published (Zymurgy, Brew Your Own, AHA conference,...) the Rager or Tinseth (Palmer uses Tinseth in How to Brew) methods will give you something like 150-250IBU, and labs that actually measure these things find 95-99 IBU (it is a measurable characteristic of beer). [/geek]

Second, as you may have gleaned from the previous paragraph, I picked a pound of fresh hops yesterday! It was a lot of fun, and the guy who grew the plants is from Minnetonka, so, that's cool. Fresh hops are a bit sticky, and the resin gets all over your fingers. I do not advise chewing on the hops. They taste like lettuce, and then like the most bitter thing you've ever eaten.

Batch #40
Fresh Hop DIPA
--12.5lbs 2-row (RAHR)
--0.5lb Amer. Munich
--0.5lb Crystal 40L
--0.5lb CaraPils
--1lb table sugar as syrup (late kraüsen)
--4oz Cascade, wet, (FWH)
--2oz Magnum 14.3%AA (60min)
--1oz Centennial 8%AA (45min)
--2oz Cascade, wet, (30min)
--1oz Centennial 8%AA (20min)
--2oz Cascade, wet, (15min)
--2oz Cascade, wet, (10min)
--1oz Centennial 8%AA, (7min)
--2oz Cascade, wet, (5min)
--2oz Cascade, wet, (2min)
--1oz Centennial 8%AA (1min)
--2oz Cascade, wet, (Flameout)
--2oz Cascade pellets (dry)
--2oz Centennial pellets (dry)
--2oz Simcoe pellets (dry)
--1/4tsp supermoss (15min)
--1/4tsp gypsum (mash water addition)
--WLP001 California Ale Yeast, 2L starter (2nd generation).
OG: 1.063 (1.071 effective)
FG: 1.010
ABV: ~8%
IBU: ~100+

Mash in at 149F, hold between 145 and 149 for 90minutes. Batch sparge to collect 7 gallons wort. Add hops as listed. Ferment at 68F...more details to come (such as how I added the dry hops, 2ndary temp, crashing, etc). Other useful advice: don't break your mill with 3lbs of malt left to go, make sure you know whether or not you've previously made plans for brew day, and use fresh yeast or you'll worry about the damn starter all day.

NHC '09

has come and gone. I regret not attending the whole conference (too much $), as there were some neat talks lined up, but I did make it up to Oakland for a few events. First was the BJCP reception dinner. Sean Paxton cooked up a three course meal - greens with roasted tomato and Union Jack IPA dressing and candied walnuts, a chicken thing made with a wit (21st Amendment, I think) , and .... a dessert thing with RR Damnation. I'm still kind of tired. Gail over at Beer by BART did a better job summing up the conference. I sat next to her at the dinner and judged with her on Thursday, so some of the experience is similar. The talk was great, the off-flavor tasting was interesting, too.

Judging! That was fun. My first actual judging experience, and the second round of the national homebrew competition, no less! I didn't specify a category preference, and ended up on 23 and 18. That's Specialty Beer (ie, "Other", and spice, fruit, smoke, and wood aging are already covered, so, maybe you get the picture) in the morning and Belgian Strong Ale (think Chimay, Leffe, Delirium, Piraat, etc...) in the afternoon. The morning session started at 8:30am. Yes, that is far too early. But, that said, I had some very nice beers in both sessions and had a lot of fun earning my first judging point. That's right, we can level up.

I also made it up for Club Night on Friday. This is the night where the Ale Camino (pic in Gail's post) was to be found serving up beers. Highlights for me included a nice black kolsch, a 24% barleywine, mango mead, a California common with NO Northern Brewer hops in it, and a really fantastic rose saison. Also, tasting things brewed by a couple of my beer authors: I had an amber brewed by John Palmer and Jamil Z's flanders red. Although, to be honest, I thought the amber had a slight burnt taste to it... Still, that was cool. As was seeing them and Charlie Papazian just walkin' around. Shared an elevator with Ken Grossman (although I was too sleepy to even muster a hungover "Hi"). Oh! I also suggested to the guys from Brewing Network that they look up Wabash Caves for next year's conference, which I keep hearing is in MSP! After Club Night shut down, the party went on until about 2am upstairs in the hotel with, you guessed it, more beer. Something interesting there - three doppelbocks - one single infusion, one triple decoction, and one single infusion plus melanoidin malt. The triple decoction, in my opinion was best, but not by enough to make the time investment in that brewing method worth it.

And the Trappist before Club Night got underway. All that beer is why I crashed in the hotel and drove home the next morning.

How to build a wort chiller

After one full boil, we've decided that cooling hot wort just plain requires a chiller. End of story. Wort chillers start at about $50 for a 5 gallon batch, but cost slightly less to make yourself. The catch is, you might have to make two of them. You may have to go to a store that specializes in plumbing for some of the parts, as certain orange-themed retailers don't carry fittings for my faucet. John Palmer, my first brewing idol who is not called Arthur, wrote a fantastic book that runs the gamut from beginning to advanced understanding of brewing and includes an appendix on chillers. He has the book published here, but you should buy the paperback because it makes good reading material for the beach.

Making your own chiller is fun and easy, so long as you can find a like-minded soul to split the cost of the parts. I'll be testing mine and will post the results of its performance later this week.