Anyone done a hopbursted lager?

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Cromwell

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I need some advice here. I've only been brewing for a year, and I know there's a ton of experience here, so I'll freely admit I don't know what I'm doing.

I love lagers. I want to try a really hoppy beer with as little bitterness as possible. So, has anyone made a lager with only late hop additions and/or dry hopping? Is that a style? If not, what style is hoppy without being bitter, and is still a lager?

I was thinking of something like this for a 5 gal batch:
10 lbs 2row
1 lb Munich
8 oz crystal 60
8 oz honey malt
2 oz Amarillo Gold @ 10 mins
1.5 oz Centennial @ 10 mins
1 oz Galaxy @ 10 mins
Bock yeast, ferment at lager temps.

Dry hop with 1 oz Citra and 1 oz Crystal hops for the last week of lagering, before bottling.

Suggestions, comments, critiques?
 
I just did a hopbursted, dry-hopped American Pale Pilsner. Typical American Pale Ale grain bill, tons of Citra, Falconer's Flight, Simcoe, and Cascade in the last 30 minutes, and dry-hopped with Citra in the keg. Fermented with a Czech pilsner strain at 48 F and lagered for 6 weeks. Its ~3.5%, super easy to drink, and very vibrant hop flavor and aroma. A great summer beer.

Is it a style? No. Is it delicious? Yes. You should go for it. Nothing with your recipe jumps out at me as being problematic (although I've never used a bock yeast, so I'm not qualified to say how that piece will play out.)
 
I haven't intentionally done a recipe like the one you've planned, but when I was first experimenting with odd hop schedules I made a pilsner with mostly late additions.

It was okay. If I had to do it again I would balance the late hop additions with slightly more in the bittering addition. What I learned from that brew is that the bittering additions, however slight, serve to balance and complement and enhance the other aspects of hop flavor. If it were me I would consider doing a .5oz addition at 60min, perhaps of centennial because it's the lowest alpha acid hop in your recipe.

I don't quite know how to describe it, but the bittering additions in later version of that beer "elevated" the hop flavor; it made it make sense.
It's personal preference, but especially when using clean lager yeast if found the bittering doesn't have to be the focal point or even really perceptible. To me, however subtle, it helps round out the hop profile.

And this is personal preference, but I might consider substituting 1 or 2 more pounds of 2 row for munich. Are SRMs a big concern? The slight malty sweetness of the munich does wonders for hops. But if you're all about the hop profile, then power on; this is just an opinion. Your base recipe looks good already.
 
Excellent advice, thanks. I'll take trumpetbeard's suggestion and leave a 1/2 oz of low-alpha at 60 mins. I can see how the balance would make the rest of it seem better. And I wanted to add more Munich too but I was starting from an IPA recipe and was a little tentative about going too far from that style. I think I will though, it's not really an IPA as a lager anyway. Maybe more like a floral and spicy Maibock. Hmm, I want some now.
 
Did this one awhile back with W-34/70 lager yeast. The malt/hop flavor is great but I ruined it with crappy water mods before I knew what I was doing and it has an alka-seltzer aftertaste.

29% 5 0 Munich Malt - 10L info 35 10 ~
29% 5 0 Vienna Malt info 36 3 ~
29% 5 0 Pilsner Malt info 38 2 ~
6% 1 0 CaraVienne info 35 21 ~
3% 0 8 Belgian CaraMunich info 33 75 ~
3% 0 8 Aromatic Malt info

boil 60 mins 1.0 Magnum info pellet 10.1
boil 30 mins 1.0 Amarillo info pellet 8.2
boil 15 mins 1.25 Amarillo info pellet 8.2
boil 10 mins 2.0 Saaz info pellet 3.9
boil 1 min 1.0 Amarillo info pellet 8.2
boil 1 min 1.5 Saphir (German Organic) info pellet 3.7
dry hop 5 days 0.5 Amarillo info pellet 8.2
dry hop 5 days 0.75 Saaz info pellet 3.9
dry hop 5 days 0.75 Saphir (German Organic) info
 
You're in so-cal, ever tried Humulus Lager from The Bruery? Looks like they have it right now but in a Xtra Pale Ale not a lager. Keep an eye out though, when they make it it's fantastic.
 
You're in so-cal, ever tried Humulus Lager from The Bruery? Looks like they have it right now but in a Xtra Pale Ale not a lager. Keep an eye out though, when they make it it's fantastic.

They're almost 2 hours away from me. I was in Anaheim about a month ago, wish I'd known about them then!
 
I would stick with a hop combination your familiar with. Crystal and Citra are some very unique hops, though perhaps you've tried them before. I would defintely wanna try some of this is you made it. Citra might dominate. I would try half an oz.
 
will be attempting something like this on Sunday but def going much heavier on the hops to account for some loss in flavor/aroma due to lagering/aging

IPL
OG 1.065
~110IBU

7# 2row
4.5# vienna
1# home toasted malt (20min @ 325°)
wyeast 2308

1oz Amarillo FWH
1oz Nelson 20min
1oz Simcoe 20min
1oz Nelson 10min
1oz Simcoe 10min
1oz each Nugget, Simcoe, Nelson 30min aroma steep @160°

Dry Hop #1
1oz each Simcoe, Nelson, Nugget ~30days in Keg about 2 weeks into lagering

Dry Hop #2
1oz each Simcoe, Nelson, Amarillo, Citra - in keg until it kicks, add about 4 weeks into lagering
 
will be attempting something like this on Sunday but def going much heavier on the hops to account for some loss in flavor/aroma due to lagering/aging

IPL
OG 1.065
~110IBU

7# 2row
4.5# vienna
1# home toasted malt (20min @ 325°)
wyeast 2308

1oz Amarillo FWH
1oz Nelson 20min
1oz Simcoe 20min
1oz Nelson 10min
1oz Simcoe 10min
1oz each Nugget, Simcoe, Nelson 30min aroma steep @160°

Dry Hop #1
1oz each Simcoe, Nelson, Nugget ~30days in Keg about 2 weeks into lagering

Dry Hop #2
1oz each Simcoe, Nelson, Amarillo, Citra - in keg until it kicks, add about 4 weeks into lagering

Wow. That's an expensive beer, but I'd love to try it. It sounds awesome.
 
I was going to brew a big ipa and figured since I'm saving money by reusing the lager year I can justify adding more hops :)
 
Have you dry-hopped in the keg before with that many hops? The most I've ever dry-hopped in the keg with was 2 oz. and it was intense. Usually I keep it to 1 - 1.5 oz. and the results are fantastic. Not suggesting that you not do it, just wondering if you've ever actually used that many hops in the keg.
 

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