First wort hopping with saaz

That's what I'm considering with an up coming IPA with this recipe I designed. I like to finish most all my beers with saaz because it's just a happy hop to me. It smells nice. So I was considering adding half as the FWH and adding the rest of the saaz at the final 5-10 minutes. Any thoughts?

Recipe Specifications
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Boil Size: 13.44 gal
Post Boil Volume: 11.44 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 9.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.065 SG
Estimated Color: 7.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 86.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 79.2 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type # %/IBU
2.00 tbsp Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent 1 -
20 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 80.0 %
3 lbs Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 3 12.0 %
2 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 8.0 %
4.00 oz Galena [12.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 83.7 IBUs
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 -
1.00 oz Saaz [4.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 2.4 IBUs
2.0 pkg Wyeast Ale Blend (Wyeast Labs #1087) [12 Yeast 8 -
16.00 oz Oak Chips (Secondary 7.0 days) Flavor 9 -

I have done exactly this with Saaz, as well as a combination of Saaz and StyrianGolding. I think Saaz expresses very well in FWH, though I've never used it to IPA levels.

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm going to move ahead with this recipe adding oak chips along with an ounce saaz into the secondary.

I'm just curious why you're going with Pilsner instead of two row. Wouldn't that make it extra sweet with the 2lbs dextrine malt also? I understand that saaz is in a lot of lagers with pilsner though.

Truth is I bought a large bag of weyerman pilsner and made a too sweet batch trying to sub for two row in an ipa. I've got a bag of pale malt now, but am still learning how to use pilsner.

Thanks!

Pilsner shouldn't lend too much sweetness if you get good attenuation.

I just blew through a fifty lb sack of pilsner. Most of those brews were dry as bone.

Looks to me like you need way more hops for an IPA. 10 gallons should call for at least 8 oz, 4 for flavor, 4 aroma. And it wouldnt hurt to put half of that in the mash (works great!)

You may want to try using 100% Floor malted maris otter for the grain bill (Crisp, Thomas Fawcett, etc). The color is great as is the flavor.

Also, increase the boil to 90 mins with a 15 minute pre-boil (so the hops don't get wrecked by a boil-over)....just sayin'

mbobhat said:

I'm just curious why you're going with Pilsner instead of two row. Wouldn't that make it extra sweet with the 2lbs dextrine malt also? I understand that saaz is in a lot of lagers with pilsner though.

Truth is I bought a large bag of weyerman pilsner and made a too sweet batch trying to sub for two row in an ipa. I've got a bag of pale malt now, but am still learning how to use pilsner.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Good questions. The type of pilsner malt I use is two row. You might be thinking of the 6 row pilsner malts that Bud uses. Basically, the only difference between these two is the srm value. In other words I wanted as low an arm value as I could use to slow for the color of the aromatic malts to shine through.
The Cara pils malt is an old habit of mine strictly for the foam and foam retention. If you'll note the long and relatively low temp mash schedule will also make this beer lighter bodied.
The malt you used from Weyerman is awesome malt and I'm guessing the srm value from that was 1-2. If you noticed it was too sweet, it may have been something in the mashing process,but to be sure we'd have to look at you mash schedule and brain bill as well. But I can promise you a lightly kilned malt shouldn't give you the residue sweetness you experienced. Rather residule sweetness comes from malts kilned in a different fashion, like the crystal malt families. There the sugars are caramelized and the polymer chains are too long to be digested by regular brewing yeast. I'd be happy to look at your brewing process to see what might have happened.
Btw saaz is a great noble hop and I use it in all its uses and stages.