Recipe critique/dry hop questions.

daniel4616 · 02-08-2012, 03:59 PM

Hey, just brewed a beer this past weekend. Went well, except my aluminum brew kettle had pinholes in it and leaked. Long story short, had to use a 4 gallon stainless pot to boil in. So it wasnt a "full" boil. Diluted with 1.5-2 gallons cold water at end to bring to temp.

What I wanted: Complete session beer, with a somewhat malt/sweet flavor, a nice reddish-auburn tint to it, and flavorful and strong hop profile. Heres the recipe, let me know what you think:

7# base
1# honey
1# c40
1# cara-amber
4oz c120

0.5oz Galena @ 60min
0.5oz Cascade @15min
0.5oz Galena @ 5min
0.5oz Cascade @ 5min

I had some Galena I never used before, and wanted to try. My IBU calc brings this around 35-40 IBU's. In the range I wanted, I wasnt very strict about it. What do you guys think? I originally planned to just dry hop with 1oz cascade, but I also have Chinook, and Kent Golding, and Norther Brewer as well. Any combination with those that might sound good? Been thinking 50/50 mix of Chinook/Cascade and dry hop twice, with 1oz of the mix. 5 day dry hop, total 10 days... Any suggestions?

Thanks.

**SGFBeerBuzz** · 02-08-2012, 06:53 PM

Looks like a pretty good recipe. The honey will dry it out a bit, so that will be nice. It might be a bit much on the crystal malt, but it depends on your taste. Overall, it will be a drinkable beer, and you can always tinker with it before you brew it again.

As far as dry-hopping it, I usually prefer to keep it simple. A single Cascade dry-hop will work well, but a 50/50 mix will work, too, and I think you'll like the results either way.

I definitely recommend tasting it before adding a second dry-hop. I've never needed to do more than one addition, myself.

But, as I said, this is just my opinion, and I may just be conservative. Sometimes it's just as much fun to say "What the Hell?" and just go big.