Goin' Kitchen sink...

marshman · 02-22-2007, 10:06 PM

Well, I'm cleaning house, unloading some light/pilsen stlye LME and a pile of scraps of hop pellets. I'm not looking for any particular result, but I was wondering about the hop schedule. I have @ 1/4 oz of Saaz and a little more of Tettnang that I was thinking of using for bittering, 1/4 oz of Kent Gouldings and @ 1/2 of Styrian Goldings @ 15 minutes from finished, and then @ 1/4 oz each Cluster & Cascade for aroma at flameout. Sound reasonable?

I'm also literally just about to rack my last ale to secondary. If I don't have any particular goals for flavor of the Kitchen Sink brew, I assume it wouldn't matter one bit if I just added this wort straight to the primary I'm emptying now (assuming that the beer hasn't gone toxic), would it? Do I just slap the airlock back on until tomorrow if that's what I hope to do?

RoaringBrewer · 02-23-2007, 08:52 PM

Cluster is really the only good 'bittering' hop I see in the mix, and there isn't much of it for a 5 gallon batch. I don't know how much LME you have, but hopefully at least 6lb. (for 5 gallons) to hit a 1.040ish beer. If you don't have much LME, I'd suggest downsizing the recipe a bit to get a decent OG.

As for the hop additions:
For no particular reason, I would suggest the cluster 1/4oz. and all 3/4oz. of goldings for bittering (60 min boil), tettnang for flavor (20-30ish minutes), cascade for flavor/aroma (5 minutes), and saaz at flameout, but thats just me. If you are only doing a partial boil (1 gallon-2 gallon) you aren't going to get much bittering out of that little amount of hops, so don't expect a very hoppy beer (bitter wise) from it. A full boil might be able to get a decent utilization out of those hops.

Hope this helps as I was just thinking out loud and going by just what you posted. If you are willing to go buy some more stuff, I would suggest at least getting some additional cluster to bitter with and adding everything else for flavor aroma.

**Reverend JC** · 02-24-2007, 12:06 AM

I would NOT use the saaz for bittering. Its delicate flavor and aroma will be lost and the AA% of them is what 3.6 or 4 at best? Not a good bittering hop IMHO.

marshman · 02-24-2007, 01:48 PM

Well, I went with it pretty much just how it looks, though I did know that it was a little light in most regards, and ended up boiliing @ 3.5 gallons for a 4 gallon batch. I also saved a bit of the cascades for flameout, as I LOVE the aroma, and figgered I had nothing to lose. I had no expectations on flavor, and took decent notes, so if I like it, I'll know why, and if I don't, I'll know why.

I had done some more searching and finally found some info on "pitching onto the yeast cake". I don't have a blow-off tube, so instead of pitching on top, I pulled a coffee-cup out of trub and just stirred it into the wort. It was bubbling along nicely last night, so we shall see.

Thanks for the tips, though, I'll use the notes, as I had been wondering about 'preferred' bittering and/or aroma hops.