Thursday, March 02, 2006
Holy alpha acids...
OK. So, in response to my February 23rd post entitled "HopQuest"... I have formulated a recipe to be brewed at the end of March. Its name will be "Hopocalypse". I'm sure you can imagine the tap handle label graphics already...
The short of it is: 9 oz of hops for 5 gallons, around 1.080 OG and hopefully near 1.016 FG, for something near 8.5%ABV.
I'm trying hard to put most of the additions at the end (flavor and aroma) and in the secondary as dry hops. I feel pretty good about the hop bill, but am still struggling with the malt bill. Here's the hops totals (times and quantities are scattered):
3oz Columbus
2oz Amarillo
2oz Simcoe
1oz Centennial
1oz Chinook
About 2/3 of the hops are added during the last 15 minutes or during the dry hop. I tried to go a little easy on the bittering additions (MH, FWH, 60min, 45min, 30min) so I didn't blow out someone's tastebuds with bitterness alone. As it is, the Promash calculated IBUs are 120+... I had some Cascade thrown in there at one point, but I had that sudden "what's the point" moment and pulled them out in favor of more Columbus (I do have nearly a pound, afterall).
Malt bill so far is as follows:
10 lb Pale ale
6 lb Vienna
1 lb Crystal 10
2 oz Chocolate
I think I might need a darker crystal in there as well... Like I said, I'm struggling a little with what malt bill would build a backbone for all those hops.
I'm thinking of mashing around 149 so it is good and fermentable. I'd hate for it to finish high and the malt mask some of that hoppiness.
I am a little frightened. I think that is a good thing.
The short of it is: 9 oz of hops for 5 gallons, around 1.080 OG and hopefully near 1.016 FG, for something near 8.5%ABV.
I'm trying hard to put most of the additions at the end (flavor and aroma) and in the secondary as dry hops. I feel pretty good about the hop bill, but am still struggling with the malt bill. Here's the hops totals (times and quantities are scattered):
3oz Columbus
2oz Amarillo
2oz Simcoe
1oz Centennial
1oz Chinook
About 2/3 of the hops are added during the last 15 minutes or during the dry hop. I tried to go a little easy on the bittering additions (MH, FWH, 60min, 45min, 30min) so I didn't blow out someone's tastebuds with bitterness alone. As it is, the Promash calculated IBUs are 120+... I had some Cascade thrown in there at one point, but I had that sudden "what's the point" moment and pulled them out in favor of more Columbus (I do have nearly a pound, afterall).
Malt bill so far is as follows:
10 lb Pale ale
6 lb Vienna
1 lb Crystal 10
2 oz Chocolate
I think I might need a darker crystal in there as well... Like I said, I'm struggling a little with what malt bill would build a backbone for all those hops.
I'm thinking of mashing around 149 so it is good and fermentable. I'd hate for it to finish high and the malt mask some of that hoppiness.
I am a little frightened. I think that is a good thing.
