Homegrown IPA

[MadBrewer]

Finally brewed up the IPA I have been thinking about lastnight with some of my homegrown Sterling hops. It was extract with a mini mash. It brought back some great memories of when I got more into brewing after Mr Beer. Seems all went pretty well, I was just a touch low on OG but not bad. Maybe I didn't get every bit of LME out of the pouch I could or had slightly lower boil off. I tried some things here saving time so we will see how it turns out.

5.5 gals at end of boil. 6 gal 30 min HARD boil. Came up 1.058 OG, 70 ish IBU estimate. Hydro sample was good, wort was murky but once clear should be about what I had in mind.

8 lbs. Williams Brewing Pale Ale Malt extract
1 lb. 2 Row
.25 lb. Carapils (these were mashed at mid 150's for 30 mins, checked conversion and then rinsed). 1/2 tsp Gypsum added to boil.

2 oz Challenger 7% AA 30 min.

2 oz Homegrown Sterling 10 min.
1 oz Cascade 6% AA 10 min.

1 oz Homegrown Sterling 0 min.

2 oz Homegrown Sterling 30 min hop stand at 190*
1 oz Cascade 6% AA 30 min hop stand at 190*
Ill dry hop 1 oz each of Cascade and Centennial.

Pitched 150 billion cell pack of Omega Yeast British Ale. Said to be the same as 002/1968. Ferment at 66*.

[Beer-lord]

Other than online, we can't get Omega here but I was thinking about ordering some when it's cool enough to chance shipping. Have you used it before? It gets pretty good reviews.

[MadBrewer]

This is the first time trying the Omega yeast. I have heard and read good things as well. The reason I went with Omega was they offer a pitch rate closer to 150 Billion cells vs the WL or Wyeast 100 Billion cell packs. Also the date on the 3 Omega packs I picked up were "packed on 9/8/15"...that's only a week ago so the freshness is great being that they are local. They are from Chicago and I'm in NW Indiana. I'm typcially a dry yeast user for the ease and reliablity factor but for the IPA I wanted something different.

Actually the yeast I used for this is thier Brittish Ale not the West Coast Ale, it's compared to 002 or 1968. The American Ale I have going in a Scottish Ale and I have one reserved for an Irish Red. I'm interested in how the yeast does, I had S-04 in mind for this originally.

[mashani]

I am a fan of Sterling hops, so this sounds really good to me.

[MadBrewer]

I like Sterling too. When I was deciding what to brew with my homegrown Sterling I wanted to do an IPA or a Pilsner. I actually harvested enough to do both. I couln't really think of how an all Sterling IPA would be but I figured complimenting them with more well known hops would be nice. With the Sterling I pictures a more "old school" type IPA, so Cascade and Centennial came to mind. I'm excited for this one because depending on how the Sterling come through in the beer will help decide what to do for the Pilsner.

[MadBrewer]

Got this kegged up today after a good fermentation, long dry hop and a 3 day cold crash. Hydro sample is quite tasty. The English yeast left some residual sweetness and body which is exactly what I wanted. For being only Pale Ale Malt LME and Carapils it has a nice malt backbone. I can't judge the hops quite yet with it being a cold flat sample. Carbonation will bring them out and change the character. FG is just fine, the beer cleared well and tastes clean, cant' ask for much more.

[Kealia]

...the beer cleared well and tastes clean, cant' ask for much more.

Exactly! Once you've got that, the rest should fall into place.

[MadBrewer]

I have been sampling this as it comes together with some conditioning. It's tasting really good, nice and hoppy. There's some malt backbone, nice mouthfeel and good hop aroma. I was surprized it's as smooth as it is, well surprized it doesn't have more of that IPA punch of bitterness. This was a short boil since I was dealing with extract but I figured it would of had more to it in that department with the amount of hops in this. Not a bad thing, just thought it would be a bit more bold. Then again, it seems those highly flocculating yeasts like what I used can strip some IBU's from beers. The homegrown Sterling brings a background earthy/spicy/floral character while the Cascade and Centennial bring the grapefruit/citrus/pine upfront.

It's a success. I'm quite pleased with the LME I tried out with this. The new yeast also worked out great.

[bpgreen]

One thing to keep in mind is that you don't really know the AA% of your hops. They could be significantly different from what you're expecting, depending on growing conditions, drying temperature/duration, etc. So even if you get things dialed in this year, you can't count on everything staying the same next year. A lot of people use homegrown hops only for aroma for this reason. I use them for flavor and aroma and usually do at least one batch with all homegrown hops and just use default values in BeerSmith.

You also want to make sure to specify that you're using leaf hops in your brewing software. I think you get about 10% lower IBUs from leaf hops than from pellet.

[mashani]

It's true, and I'd likely only use my homegrown hops (if I had any) for flavor/aroma - but honestly as I've mentioned before you also really don't know the AA of commercial hops you use either due to degradation caused by storage conditions/exact age when they were outside of your own control either. What's on the package is a lie unless it's remained in a deep freeze since packaging. It was only really valid at the time it was packaged. Some hops might lose 50% of their AAs by the time you get/use them. Others maybe only 10%. (the exact amount is hop variety specific as well as storage/age related).

That PDF guide posted by Louie yesterday can help you take a SWAG at it if you can guess how old they are and how they might have been stored before you got them and put them in your deep freezer.

I'm just saying this because honestly regardless YMMV and I think home brewers get too anal about exact measurements for no good reason because of this. We don't get the hops immediately after they are lab tested like some of the big boys. So to me it all just falls into the relax and don't worry part of having a homebrew...