All-
I built a mash tun last weekend and plan on dialing it in this weekend, so I went to my lhbs to get the ingredients for a smash ale. Turns out there was a failed crop on simcoe (wanted to do maris otter / simcoe) and they were out of maris otter, so now it's gonna be 2-row / columbus.
I've never used columbus hops although I understand they're a good dual-purpose. I'm thinking about first-wort hopping with them after reading that this can lead to less boilovers - I'm boiling on the stove and didn't feel like dropping $20 on a huge bottle of ferm cap.
If I FWH with the columbus, i plan on skipping the flavoring additions and just doing some aroma at the end, for fear of overdoing it with such a powerful hop.
Question is, is columbus too high alpha to first wort hop with?
I built a mash tun last weekend and plan on dialing it in this weekend, so I went to my lhbs to get the ingredients for a smash ale. Turns out there was a failed crop on simcoe (wanted to do maris otter / simcoe) and they were out of maris otter, so now it's gonna be 2-row / columbus.
I've never used columbus hops although I understand they're a good dual-purpose. I'm thinking about first-wort hopping with them after reading that this can lead to less boilovers - I'm boiling on the stove and didn't feel like dropping $20 on a huge bottle of ferm cap.
If I FWH with the columbus, i plan on skipping the flavoring additions and just doing some aroma at the end, for fear of overdoing it with such a powerful hop.
Question is, is columbus too high alpha to first wort hop with?