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| 100% Amarillo, hops @ 15 minutes or less |
Showing posts with label Hops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hops. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
100% Amarillo Pale Ale
Monday, March 31, 2014
Summer On My Mind
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| A lot of Hops |
The grist is simple; Pale Ale Malt, Flaked Barley and Crystal 40 to the tune of 1.050. The plan is to mash just the Flaked Barley and Pale Ale Malt @ 150F for 60 minutes before adding the Crystal 40 during Vorlauf.
- 20% (45g) Cascade @ 20 minutes remaining in boil
- 50% (115g) Simcoe/Galaxy @ Whirlpool (30 minutes)
- 30% (70g) Galaxy split between two carboys, 35g each.
I'll add an additional bittering hop, probably Columbus or Chinook @ 60 to hit 35 IBU's (Tinseth). To better estimate the final bitterness, whirlpool hops are entered to my brewing software as a 5 minute addition. I have found this to be a reasonable estimation of their bitterness contribution.
To dial in my water profile, I'll treat the entire 60 litres of brewing liquor with lactic acid to a room temperature pH of 5.4. Then add 2 tsp of Calcium Chloride, 3 tsp of Gypsum and a campden tablet. This should yield an appropriate mash pH with a final Calcium concentration of ~ 100ppm.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Hop Harvest 2013
Centennial exploded and broke down the Nugget bines which was more or less ready for harvest anyways. The Centennial still need a few more days on the bine but their time is near. Some pictures of the carnage.
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| Nugget drying on a window screen |
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| Tomato harvest as well! |
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| What was left after the Nugget harvest. Lost about 1/4 of the Nugget do due breakage |
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| Adhoc Centennial stringing. Required after they pulled down the Nugget |
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| Close up on the Centennial cones. I'd say 1 week more till harvest |
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| What was left of the Nugget bine after the Centennial's reeked havoc! |
Update Sept 1
Nugget ended up being 1/2 pound dry. Not bad for first harvest!
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Update Sept 18
Centennial harvest complete, added with just over 1lb dry!
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Christmas in June... Hops!
Just received my semi-annual supply of hops!
- 1lb Simcoe
- 1lb Citra
- 1lb Amarillo
- 1lb Centennial
- 1lb Columbus
- 1lb Challenger
- 1lb EKG
- 1lb Bramling Cross
- 2lb Styrian Goldings
- 2lb Target
- 3lb Cascade
Friday, May 3, 2013
Hops 2013
2013 Hop growing season updates
April 23rd
After a poor showing in 2012, I've decided to remove the 1st year hops from my folks backyard and transplant to my own yard where they will see a notable improvement in sun exposure. While the soil conditions across town are stellar, competing vegetation was choking out much of the sunlight. There was also a drought last summer which didn't help. Having the hops in my own backyard will allow me to pay closer attention to their development.
I removed the Mt. Hood, Centennial and Nugget crowns. After digging out all three, I was amazed at the root structure! Considerable growth, way more than I anticipated. I did my best to minimize the root damage although I did end up severing some of the roots because they where much too long. All three crowns were placed in a Ziploc bags with a piece of moist paper towel. The hops where then placed in the fridge to await planting.
April 28th
Having space for only two hops, I gave away my Mt. Hood. The Centennial and Nugget were each given a new home in my yard. I dug two holes, each 20" in diameter and perhaps 12" deep. I sprinkled a tsp of Bone meal into each hole and then combined mushroom compost with the native soil before planting each crown approximately 4-5" below the surface. Each crown had already begun to send up shoots while still at my parents yard. When planting I tried to bury the crowns just deep enough so the shoots wouldn't have far to break the surface again.
I have heavy clay conditions in my neck of the woods although drainage against my house is better than other areas of the yard due to the back fill our home builder used after setting the concrete foundation. This is where the hops where planted. I used mushroom compost because I read it's a good amendment for clay soils. In this location they will see some early morning shade followed by a complete day of southerly exposure.
April 30th
Each morning I've been watering the hops. Each hop receiving ~ 750ml of water. The Centennial shoots have broken ground.
May 2nd
May 4th
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| Centennial - May 4 |
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| Nugget - May 4 |
May 10th
Installed strings
May 11th
First application of Miracle Gro. 1.5 Tbsp dissolved in 6L, 3L added to each plant.
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| Centennial May 11th |
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| Nugget May 11th |
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| Strings up! |
Update May 19th
2nd application of Miracle Grow (24-8-16). I've reduced the watering over the past week due to some rain plus growing concerns that I may be over-watering. I only watered three times including the application of fertilizer today.
Yesterday I began to notice some yellowing on the tips and edges of a few leaves. This is on both the Nugget as well as the Centennial. I hope it doesn't get worse.
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| Centennial, yellow edge |
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| Nugget, brown and yellow edge |
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| Nugget, brown tip |
Update June 2nd
Brown edges in previous photos was identified as possible frost damage which makes sense as we did see some late season frost in my growing area. Here are some new pics from today...
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| Exciting stuff! First sight of side shoots! |
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| About two feet until we reach the top! |
Update June 12th
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| Now what? |
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| Found a bunch of these insects |
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| Garden overflowing! |
Update June 17th
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| Over grown line |
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| Head on Nugget bine caught in gutter and broke :( |
Update June 26th
Update July 30th
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| Nugget Cones! |
Update August 8th
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| Centennial Cones blooming |
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| Nugget |
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| Nugget |
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| Harvest test |
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| Nugget almost ready |
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Hop Schedules (Revisited)
Almost a year ago I wrote an article on hopping schedules and I've stayed true to form on most of my original recipes since. Lately however, I've been reading about new (or new to me) methods which have some pretty wild claims. I'd like to revisit my previous article on the subject and provide some feedback on these new techniques based on some personal experiences.
(Hop Stands)
Touted as the equivalent to a commerical brewery's "whirlpool" addition, many homebrewers have been adding copious amounts of hops at the end of their boils in an attempt to mimic the hop character found in their favorite, hop forward ales. Truth be told, I've always been underwhelmed with these additions in my homebrew creations. I have never been able to achieve acceptable hop aroma from this addition alone. I've always felt the late hops have been wasted to some degree. Question is, why do commercial whirlpool hops give such killer aroma and flavour but my addition does little? The answer is time and volume.
Many homebrewers, including myself, follow a flame-out routine something like - flame off, hops in, chiller on. Given the standard batch size and chilling equipment, our wort temperatures drop to below 140F in 5-10 minutes, pitching temperature in under 30 minutes. When dealing with commercial volumes, chilling this fast is near impossible. So, is the aforementioned flame-out routine really all that similar to a commercial whirlpool? No, not really. A commercial whirlpool can last 10 minutes or more before centrifugal force does its thing clears the wort from break and hops. The spinning wort is allowed to slow and is then finally pulled through a chiller on-route to the fermentation tanks. Remember, they're not dealing with a measly 10 gallons, we're talking several hundred if not thousands. An hour or more might pass during these transfers, all the while whirlpool hops are exposed to hot wort.
While reading Northern Brewer's discussion board a few months ago, I stumbled across a discussion on Hop Stands. The idea is rather simple. Add your flame-out hops and allow them to steep in the hot wort for an extended period of time before beginning the chill. On the surface it would seem reasonable that this step would more accurately mimic the commercial whirlpool. Read the thread and you will find varying opinions on how to correctly perform a hop stand. Some advocate lowering the temperature of the wort slightly before adding the flame-out hops to ward of DMS. Others suggest the lower wort temperatures will minimize the amount of hop oils flashed off. Certain hop oil will flash off at 100F, which would explain why Dry-hopping is so effective. Most agree the longer the hops are steeped, the better (infection risk be damned!), some advocating as long as 80 minutes! Well, I'll tell you, this better be some damn awesome aroma to warranty extending the brewday by 1.5hrs.
Having performed a hop stand now on two separate brews, I can tell you that I haven't been impressed. I actually feel the aroma may be diminished! Certainly not worth the extra time. There could be a number of explanations for my failure, first and foremost, what does the hop stand do to my early and middle additions? An addition at 60 minutes will have stayed in the wort for near 2.5hrs. Your 15 minute flavour addition may now impart more bittering type qualities. The Northern Brewer discussion talks about shifting these additions to later in the boil. I don't know... the unpredictability of variables introduced by the hop stand, not to mention the extra time and diminishing returns, far out way the benefits. In fact, I've started thinking about my final addition and believe I might go in the opposite direction, increasing the boil time slightly and chilling as quickly as possible. I mean, why not embrace the advantages of the home brewery? We can chill and rack wort in less than 30 minutes! This type of efficiency must certainly be the envy of the commercial brewer.
(1-3 minutes)
I read a cooking analogy and thought it very appropriate. Hops are the spice of beer. When cooking, many spices must be heated or simmered to bring out aromatic scents (oils). With cooking in mind, perhaps the key to aroma is to quickly boil the hops, flashing the oils. The boiling action will further aid to solubilize the oil into the wort, once complete we quickly chill to below flash temperature, thus locking in the flavour?
(30 minutes)
In my previous article, I more or less completely wrote off the 30 minute addition as a supplementary bittering addition and some what redundant. Lately however, I've come across discussion on hop Glycosides, Polyphenols and the benefits. Warning, lots of scientific stuff! To summerize
For the next few beers I am going with a 60-30-12-3 hopping schedule and will report back on how they turn out.
(Hop Stands)
Touted as the equivalent to a commerical brewery's "whirlpool" addition, many homebrewers have been adding copious amounts of hops at the end of their boils in an attempt to mimic the hop character found in their favorite, hop forward ales. Truth be told, I've always been underwhelmed with these additions in my homebrew creations. I have never been able to achieve acceptable hop aroma from this addition alone. I've always felt the late hops have been wasted to some degree. Question is, why do commercial whirlpool hops give such killer aroma and flavour but my addition does little? The answer is time and volume.
Many homebrewers, including myself, follow a flame-out routine something like - flame off, hops in, chiller on. Given the standard batch size and chilling equipment, our wort temperatures drop to below 140F in 5-10 minutes, pitching temperature in under 30 minutes. When dealing with commercial volumes, chilling this fast is near impossible. So, is the aforementioned flame-out routine really all that similar to a commercial whirlpool? No, not really. A commercial whirlpool can last 10 minutes or more before centrifugal force does its thing clears the wort from break and hops. The spinning wort is allowed to slow and is then finally pulled through a chiller on-route to the fermentation tanks. Remember, they're not dealing with a measly 10 gallons, we're talking several hundred if not thousands. An hour or more might pass during these transfers, all the while whirlpool hops are exposed to hot wort.
While reading Northern Brewer's discussion board a few months ago, I stumbled across a discussion on Hop Stands. The idea is rather simple. Add your flame-out hops and allow them to steep in the hot wort for an extended period of time before beginning the chill. On the surface it would seem reasonable that this step would more accurately mimic the commercial whirlpool. Read the thread and you will find varying opinions on how to correctly perform a hop stand. Some advocate lowering the temperature of the wort slightly before adding the flame-out hops to ward of DMS. Others suggest the lower wort temperatures will minimize the amount of hop oils flashed off. Certain hop oil will flash off at 100F, which would explain why Dry-hopping is so effective. Most agree the longer the hops are steeped, the better (infection risk be damned!), some advocating as long as 80 minutes! Well, I'll tell you, this better be some damn awesome aroma to warranty extending the brewday by 1.5hrs.
Having performed a hop stand now on two separate brews, I can tell you that I haven't been impressed. I actually feel the aroma may be diminished! Certainly not worth the extra time. There could be a number of explanations for my failure, first and foremost, what does the hop stand do to my early and middle additions? An addition at 60 minutes will have stayed in the wort for near 2.5hrs. Your 15 minute flavour addition may now impart more bittering type qualities. The Northern Brewer discussion talks about shifting these additions to later in the boil. I don't know... the unpredictability of variables introduced by the hop stand, not to mention the extra time and diminishing returns, far out way the benefits. In fact, I've started thinking about my final addition and believe I might go in the opposite direction, increasing the boil time slightly and chilling as quickly as possible. I mean, why not embrace the advantages of the home brewery? We can chill and rack wort in less than 30 minutes! This type of efficiency must certainly be the envy of the commercial brewer.
(1-3 minutes)
I read a cooking analogy and thought it very appropriate. Hops are the spice of beer. When cooking, many spices must be heated or simmered to bring out aromatic scents (oils). With cooking in mind, perhaps the key to aroma is to quickly boil the hops, flashing the oils. The boiling action will further aid to solubilize the oil into the wort, once complete we quickly chill to below flash temperature, thus locking in the flavour?
"Hop Oil FlashpointsFarnesene = 79FMyrcene = 104FHumulene = 110.2FCaryophyllene = 200F"
(30 minutes)
In my previous article, I more or less completely wrote off the 30 minute addition as a supplementary bittering addition and some what redundant. Lately however, I've come across discussion on hop Glycosides, Polyphenols and the benefits. Warning, lots of scientific stuff! To summerize
"The main effect of polyphenols on flavour stability isprobably situated in the mashing and wort boiling steps(Liegeois et al., 2000; Mikyska et al., 2002). In particular,polyphenols extracted from hop during wort boilingsignificantly contribute to the reducing power andeffectively diminish the nonenal potential of wort (Lermusieau,Liegeois, & Collin, 2001). Sensory experiments(Mikyska et al., 2002) also confirm the positive effects ofhop polyphenols, during brewing, on flavour stability.."Further reading has described the benefits as a roundness of flavour, body, and general hop character. It's agreed among many experienced brewers that the 30 minute addition is best to promote these mysterious reactions.
For the next few beers I am going with a 60-30-12-3 hopping schedule and will report back on how they turn out.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Techniques - Hop Schedules
I've always laughed at recipes with strange, hyper precise hop schedules. I mean what's the difference between a 1 and a 2 minute hop addition? I certainly don't have the pallet to tell the difference, I don't think many do. Now I believe these are the creator's attempt at understanding hop aroma/flavour. Is there a magical time for a Flavour additions? Aroma? Not sure but at least Bittering is easy... but then there's First Wort Hopping... but wait, is that for bittering or flavour?
Not long ago, in the interest of simplicity and efficiency (perhaps a blog mantra), I decided to try and nail down a hop schedule which would utilize 4 additions (or less depending on the style) in all my recipes. We'll start with an easy one, bittering.
(60 minutes) Widely accepted as the ideal time for a bittering addition. A 60 minute addition will achieve near maximum Alpha Acid isomerization from any hop, any longer the improvements are negligible. I've used a 60 minute addition in every one of my batches, never fails to deliver. I wasn't going to screw around with this one. 60 minute stays.
(30 minutes) Old school flavour addition. Pickup any brew book dating pre-2008, I'm pretty sure the majority of recipes contain at least some hops at 30 minutes. Lately however, the 30 minute addition has fallen out of favour mainly because we are developing a better understanding of hop chemistry. The science is well above my head, I won't pretend to know everything about the subject, the gist is, flavour compounds and hop oils are far too volatile to withstand 30 minutes of boiling. Most agree a 30 minute addition can be used as more of a bittering addition and because this serves my purpose of simplifying the hop schedule, cut!
(20 - 10 minutes) A balancing act. We're into flavour territory. The mythical "FWH flavour" complicates things, more on that later. I imagine different hops will impart flavour differently. Unfortunately, I don't believe there's any one size fits all. Most texts I've read on the subject suggest one or more flavour additions at some point in this range. I gather this time range is ideal for the flavour compounds to bond with the boiling wort, but not so long that the alpha acids fully isomerize. I suppose the easiest thing to do would be decide on a flavour profile for any given recipe, determine the amount of hops required to achieve that profile and divide the amount in three, adding hops at 20-15-10. Damn, I've locked myself into a maximum 4 additions! Alright, lets split the difference and call the flavour addition @15 minutes.
I've tried FWH instead of a flavour addition and all I got was bitterness. Some suggest only certain, low AA hops are appropriate of FWH. Other suggest the FWH isn't a flavour addition at all and should be used in lieu of a bittering charge. Bah! I've leave the FWH QA testing to someone with more time and money. 15 min seems a simple route to desired flavour results.
(10 - 0 minutes) Aroma addition, no one trick pony! I'm sure aroma additions impart a fair amount of flavour (and bittering) as well. I saw a chart once that suggested "maximum aroma at 7 minutes". I can tell you that I brewed an ale with an aroma addition @ 7 minutes remaining in the boil, no dry-hopping, it was not very aromatic. The most aromatic and flavorful beer I have produced thus far has been the Sleepy Time Porter in which I dumped 57g of Willamette hops at flame-out and dry-hopped with an additional 57g. I don't know if the aroma was a result of the flame-out or dry-hop, but I suspect the secret to ultimate aroma and flavour lies somewhere in the combination of the two.
I was reading some analysis on the aforementioned chart and someone suggested it could be interpreted as 7 minutes total time, from addition to pitching temp. This makes more sense. With my wort chiller, this would mean a hop addition, after flame-out, while chilling (since it takes me about 20 minutes to hit pitching temps). I believe this would be a homebrewer's equivalent to a commercial breweries "hop-back" or "whirlpool" addition.
Using the noted chart as a point of reference, assuming the 7 minute mark was intended to mean from addition to pitching temp, my Sleepy Time's flame-out addition would have actually been in wort greater than pitching temperature for ~25 minutes. Perhaps if I move this final hop addition to sometime during the chill, I would achieve even bigger hop aroma? But then would I lose some of the flavour? The flavour compounds wouldn't be able to react to the wort in the same way as during the boil. There must be a sweet spot as far as temps go for maximum aroma extraction but I suspect this may be at the expense of flavour.
For my third hop addition, I think the flame-out or 0 min addition is a nice compromise. Maximum flavour with some residual aroma. The remaining aroma can be made up with dry-hopping, my fourth and final hop addition.
To summarize, appropriate to style, I would implement the following hop schedule:
1) Bittering @ 60
2) Flavour @ 15
3) Flavour/Aroma @ 0
4) Aroma @ Dry-hop
Not long ago, in the interest of simplicity and efficiency (perhaps a blog mantra), I decided to try and nail down a hop schedule which would utilize 4 additions (or less depending on the style) in all my recipes. We'll start with an easy one, bittering.
(60 minutes) Widely accepted as the ideal time for a bittering addition. A 60 minute addition will achieve near maximum Alpha Acid isomerization from any hop, any longer the improvements are negligible. I've used a 60 minute addition in every one of my batches, never fails to deliver. I wasn't going to screw around with this one. 60 minute stays.
(30 minutes) Old school flavour addition. Pickup any brew book dating pre-2008, I'm pretty sure the majority of recipes contain at least some hops at 30 minutes. Lately however, the 30 minute addition has fallen out of favour mainly because we are developing a better understanding of hop chemistry. The science is well above my head, I won't pretend to know everything about the subject, the gist is, flavour compounds and hop oils are far too volatile to withstand 30 minutes of boiling. Most agree a 30 minute addition can be used as more of a bittering addition and because this serves my purpose of simplifying the hop schedule, cut!
(20 - 10 minutes) A balancing act. We're into flavour territory. The mythical "FWH flavour" complicates things, more on that later. I imagine different hops will impart flavour differently. Unfortunately, I don't believe there's any one size fits all. Most texts I've read on the subject suggest one or more flavour additions at some point in this range. I gather this time range is ideal for the flavour compounds to bond with the boiling wort, but not so long that the alpha acids fully isomerize. I suppose the easiest thing to do would be decide on a flavour profile for any given recipe, determine the amount of hops required to achieve that profile and divide the amount in three, adding hops at 20-15-10. Damn, I've locked myself into a maximum 4 additions! Alright, lets split the difference and call the flavour addition @15 minutes.
I've tried FWH instead of a flavour addition and all I got was bitterness. Some suggest only certain, low AA hops are appropriate of FWH. Other suggest the FWH isn't a flavour addition at all and should be used in lieu of a bittering charge. Bah! I've leave the FWH QA testing to someone with more time and money. 15 min seems a simple route to desired flavour results.
(10 - 0 minutes) Aroma addition, no one trick pony! I'm sure aroma additions impart a fair amount of flavour (and bittering) as well. I saw a chart once that suggested "maximum aroma at 7 minutes". I can tell you that I brewed an ale with an aroma addition @ 7 minutes remaining in the boil, no dry-hopping, it was not very aromatic. The most aromatic and flavorful beer I have produced thus far has been the Sleepy Time Porter in which I dumped 57g of Willamette hops at flame-out and dry-hopped with an additional 57g. I don't know if the aroma was a result of the flame-out or dry-hop, but I suspect the secret to ultimate aroma and flavour lies somewhere in the combination of the two.
I was reading some analysis on the aforementioned chart and someone suggested it could be interpreted as 7 minutes total time, from addition to pitching temp. This makes more sense. With my wort chiller, this would mean a hop addition, after flame-out, while chilling (since it takes me about 20 minutes to hit pitching temps). I believe this would be a homebrewer's equivalent to a commercial breweries "hop-back" or "whirlpool" addition.
Using the noted chart as a point of reference, assuming the 7 minute mark was intended to mean from addition to pitching temp, my Sleepy Time's flame-out addition would have actually been in wort greater than pitching temperature for ~25 minutes. Perhaps if I move this final hop addition to sometime during the chill, I would achieve even bigger hop aroma? But then would I lose some of the flavour? The flavour compounds wouldn't be able to react to the wort in the same way as during the boil. There must be a sweet spot as far as temps go for maximum aroma extraction but I suspect this may be at the expense of flavour.
For my third hop addition, I think the flame-out or 0 min addition is a nice compromise. Maximum flavour with some residual aroma. The remaining aroma can be made up with dry-hopping, my fourth and final hop addition.
To summarize, appropriate to style, I would implement the following hop schedule:
1) Bittering @ 60
2) Flavour @ 15
3) Flavour/Aroma @ 0
4) Aroma @ Dry-hop
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Home Grown Hops
A friend graciously provided three hop rhizomes. Nugget, Mt. Hood and Centennial.
The Centennial hasn't done much. The Nugget and Mt. Hood are off to a good start!
The Centennial hasn't done much. The Nugget and Mt. Hood are off to a good start!
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| Mt Hood |
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| Nugget |
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