Galaxy hops

Yooper said:

Ok, but why the baking soda?

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In Beersmith, I used the Water Profile tool and clicked the "Calculate Best Additions" button. That combination of additions is what it gave me to turn 5.25 gallons of RO water into Mosher's ideal pale ale water profile.

Yooper said:

What's the mash pH?

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I don't yet have a pH meter, so I used the EZ Water Calculator spreadsheet, which estimated the room temperature mash to be 5.41. A pH meter is on my list of equipment to buy.

I probably put too much trust in Mosher's ideal pale ale water profile, that that combination if ions in the water would be good enough to not cause a bad taste nor a bad mash pH. As well, perhaps too much trust in a spreadsheet rather than a pH meter.

Yooper said:

In any case, I think water preferences are a matter of taste, just as hop flavor is so I don't think either is "bad" but I don't add unnecessary salts and I make sure my mash pH is optimal, and that's about it.

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I'm still learning, and still buying equipment; I've only been brewing since November. The water report for my village's wells show it to be extremely hard, which is why I've been experimenting with building water profiles from RO water, which I can get cheap locally.

Some day, someone will produce RO addition recipes for mash water and sparge water based on beer style.

Thanks for all the feedback. It really does help people like me who are trying to absorb it all.

Crap! Wish I had seen this post earlier. I just did a Maris/Munich galaxy/cascade pale ale Sunday. Looked at the victory and Vienna in my fridge and talked myself out of adding some. Then I see your recipe! I wasn't sure how that would work. Oh well there's always next time.

Brewsncrabs said:

Crap! Wish I had seen this post earlier. I just did a Maris/Munich galaxy/cascade pale ale Sunday. Looked at the victory and Vienna in my fridge and talked myself out of adding some. Then I see your recipe! I wasn't sure how that would work. Oh well there's always next time.

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Well, I'll let you know!

It's fermenting at 70 degrees right now, as I'm hoping to bring out a hint of fruitiness (not too much, though!) and the hops as well by fermenting right in the middle of the optimal range for that yeast strain (65-75 degrees).

I LOVE victory malt. It's got this wonderful toasty rich flavor, but without the caramel flavor from crystal malt, so I'm hopeful about this one.

The wort didn't smell as good going into the fermenter- it did up until I added the galaxy and did a hopstand. After that, it had an aroma that I can't quite place but didn't care for. It was almost like feet, but not quite.

My galaxy IPA smelled like sweat in the fermenter. I was prepared to write it off as a failure. The finished product was delicious. I was very sad when I went to pour myself a pint tonight and the keg kicked.

beertroll said:

My galaxy IPA smelled like sweat in the fermenter. I was prepared to write it off as a failure. The finished product was delicious. I was very sad when I went to pour myself a pint tonight and the keg kicked.

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that makes me feel better! It smelled great up until flame out, when I added the 3 ounces of galaxy (10 gallon batch). "Sweat" is a good description I guess- better than "feet" probably.

Made an IPA with galaxy simcoe and colombus this weekend. Used conan yeast (ECY001) to ferment. Smells good out of the box so hopefully its good. Have a library fundraiser tasting we brewed it for so hope its good in 2 weeks!

How does the airlock smell?

Not sure yet. On business travel this week. Wish I could huff the airlock, but my ferm chamber is set at 66. It was going crazy when I left so Im sure its fine.

dbennett78 said:

Made an IPA with galaxy simcoe and colombus this weekend. Used conan yeast (ECY001) to ferment. Smells good out of the box so hopefully its good. Have a library fundraiser tasting we brewed it for so hope its good in 2 weeks!

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I hope you meant ECY029. If you used ECY01, it's not going to be what you're expecting.

TNGabe said:

I hope you meant ECY029. If you used ECY01, it's not going to be what you're expecting.

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Yeah, I bet it was just a typo. ECY01 is quite the sensation, though, according to certain people at the NHC this year!

Well, this is kegged now and I'm drinking it. It's much "earthier" than I anticipated. There is a tropical fruit flavor, but with a distinct earthy aftertaste. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.

It's good to change now and again, but lately I've discovered I REALLY like the C hop flavors. Citrus, etc. I've had a few "earthy" IPAs recently and always feel disappointed. I'd probably liek those hops in an English ale. Maybe something with a bit of roast, but not necessarily roasty.

Dry hopped mine yesterday with oz of galaxy. Mine was more cascade tasting than galaxy so I went with galaxy on the dry hop. Definitely tropical but not what I expected. See what happens when it gets kegged next week. I used the west coast ale yeast from mangrove jacks.

Yooper said:

Well, this is kegged now and I'm drinking it. It's much "earthier" than I anticipated. There is a tropical fruit flavor, but with a distinct earthy aftertaste. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.

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Both times I brewed with Galaxy was with the 2012 crop, fermented with S-04, and neither time did I get an earthy aftertaste. I also didn't get any off-aromas during the hop stand.

Hmm. I was going to brew up a batch next weekend. Now I'm not so sure.

Edit: I just noticed some other possibly significant differences between our recipes. I used Warrior for bittering, and then Galaxy for flavor, aroma, hopstand, and dryhop. You used Magnum, Centennial, Cascade, and Galaxy. Could it be they don't play well with each other?

I get passionfruit and herbal dankness from Galaxy. It makes a good single hop beer and it's a nice change of pace from the ubiquitous C hops.

Yooper said:

Well, this is kegged now and I'm drinking it. It's much "earthier" than I anticipated. There is a tropical fruit flavor, but with a distinct earthy aftertaste. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.

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Sorry Yoop.. didn't read the whole thread. How old is the beer? I brewed an APA with Cascade and Galaxy and I found it was quite earthy when it was only about 3 weeks old.. but after another couple of weeks it mellowed out, and was quite nice.

elproducto said:

Sorry Yoop.. didn't read the whole thread. How old is the beer? I brewed an APA with Cascade and Galaxy and I found it was quite earthy when it was only about 3 weeks old.. but after another couple of weeks it mellowed out, and was quite nice.

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It's very young. I brewed it on 8/5, so it's 14 days old. Hopefully, it will be less earthy as it gets older, and still be hoppy.

Tasted my IPA. Its good, but not the best I have made. This batch was with YG001, not ECY001 like I typed before. I used all of the galaxy at the end of the boil, and did a hop stand with it. Its still not as prominent as the hop stand I did with Amarillo and citra though. But its really good.


The best one I made was with harvested conan yeast from heady topper.

Never really got much earthy from Galaxy, I think it's a dang good sub from the over used Citra these days..

I get a rabid citrusy passionfruit flavor, with a little danky herbal note to it. Pretty pungent.