BeerBorg

Since my hops are starting to appear I figured I would get ready for the brew I will make with them.

I made the recipe on Brew Toad. The format is a lot better on their page but the copy paste should be enough to get the point across. I haven't settled on the process I will use yet but just getting the recipe together.

Fresh Cascade SNPA influenced BIAB

an American IPA by duff (1)

TypeAll Grain
Efficiency 75.0%
Batch size2.5 gal
Boil time60 min

Fermentables
Name Amount Use PPG
2-Row Brewers Malt 6.0 lb93 % Mash 37
2-Row Caramel Malt 60L 6.4 oz6 % Mash 34
Hops
Name Amount Time Use Form AA
Perle Germany 0.25 oz 90 min Boil Pellet 7.2%
Cascade United States 0.5 oz 90 min Boil Pellet 5.8%
Cascade United States 0.5 oz 45 min Boil Pellet 5.8%
Homegrown Wet Cascade 1.0 oz 10 min Boil Leaf 4.5%
Homegrown Wet Cascade 1.0 oz 0 min Boil Leaf 4.5%
Homegrown Wet Cascade 1.0 oz 5 days Dry Hop Leaf 4.5%
Yeasts
Name Lab Attenuation Temp
Safale US-05 US-05 Fermentis 75.0% 60°F – 60°F

That looks tasty duff! What did the IBUs come out to? Are you just taking the low end average for your Cascades, or how did you get the 4.5 for them?

It is estimating 56 IBUs.

The 4.5% was just the lowest value they had in the range for Cascades. I figured it wouldn't be a big deal even if mine end up with a higher AA content because they will just be in there mostly for the flavor and aroma.

That is cool duff, is this going to be the first batch for the home grown?

Be cool if you shared pics of harvesting and brew day.

Makes sense. Didn't know if you were going to have them tested or not. It's usually cost prohibitive to do, and I've read where some just take the middle of the road AA range and call it good. Thought I ran across a thread on HBT where someone was offering an IBU analysis for like $5-10. I'll see if I can find it again. Might be worth it down the road if things don't turn out like you expect.

I made a batch last year that I based on the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale but it did not come out like I wanted. It was really tasty but ended up being too sweet. I used my homegrown hops for the bittering, flavor, and aroma additions. The IBUs were not as high as I expected using middle of the road estimates.

This year has been an interesting year for growing the hops. With all this heat and humidity we had earlier in the summer a bunch of mushrooms popped up in the planter at about the same time the majority of the leaves turned brown over and fell off. I figured I wouldn't get any hops this summer but all of a sudden some of the shooters just started to grow like crazy even growing up some of the vines that had leaves fall off.

Here are a couple of pictures of the hops on the vine.

Mmmmm...pretty...

Duff , how big is the hop garden ? Maybe I'll grow hops and not veggies next year !

Nothing beats fresh!

My Cascades will be ripe soon I think. They are a little papery, still all green now. My garden is quite small, perhaps 3'x6'. This is the first year, but I expect great things in the future.

Well I made the batch last night. I learned a lot about how much more I need to learn and what I can improve on.

I need some better temperature controls. I did keep the grains in the 154-156 temperature range but in the last few minutes some of them did get up to 158. I also need work on a way to mix the grains in the bag better. There was about a 4 degree temperature variation between spots in the grain if I didn't keep stirring.

I need some way to measure the quantity of liquid after I get done with the mash. I should have sampled the gravity then as well.

The boil off rate is way faster than I was expecting. I probably should have turned down the flame a bit more at the end but I was messing with the various additions of hops and making sure the timing was correct.

I ended up just a little bit over 2.5 Gallons and the OG was 1.060@63 f. It is a bit darker than I was expecting.

When I sampled the amount I used to measure the gravity it seemed fairly good. When you smelled it you knew there were Cascades involved. The taste had a bitter back bone but was fairly sweet. The hops didn't fully shine until the after taste. There was a lingering flavor of the B-Hoppy Cascade candies.

This is the burner and pot I used.


The grains all bagged up.


Grains going for a bath.


After I took the grains out.


Hops ready to go.


Close up of fresh hops.

Nice pron duff, thanks, needed that!

Man, totally jealous. Really, really wanna plant some hops next year now. It's got to be so rewarding to brew using what you grew.

I do like the fact that I can make beer using stuff I grew. When I get a house I think it would be cool to plant a field of barley large enough to make a batch of beer and enough hops for said batch and have an entirely scratch made beer.

I just pulled a sample today and the gravity is at 1.016. I put in the remainder of the hops for the dry hop and will likely bottle on Friday or Saturday.

The sample tastes pretty decent. A little sweet but there is a lot of that grape fruity cascade flavor. The smell doesn't come out and scream hops but I think once it is carbonated the smell will be quite a bit better.