Northern Brewer and Amarillo Hops

I've got 2oz of each in the freezer and an itch to brew up another batch of beer today as in ASAP I haven't used either hops before and was wondering if anyone had input on using the two of these in a beer.

Should I make a session Ale? Maybe a higher ABV IPA with deep malt flavors? I've had a couple brews that used just Amarillo and just loved them. I'm just not sure how the NB and Amarillo would go together or what style might better suit the pair.

Maybe I need to make more of a malty amber with a bit of sweet for the Amarillo? What yeast? It's really just a question of how to best use what I've got.

I normally do a yeast starter, but I'd be fine just picking up some S-04 or S-05 if I brew today or maybe getting a smack pack of something specialty.

What say you brew people?

I could see an amber with those two. Another thought might be a steam beer. I had one the other night that had this awesome citrus finish to it. It was really unexpected debut worked really good! Maybe if you took the hopping schedule of anchor steam and then used some Amarillo in the flameout you might achieve something very similar.

Yah, I could almost see doing a brew that had nothing but the Amarillo in it. Not sure that 2oz is enough for me, but I think you might be right. The orange like flavor is nice but I like the floral aroma and flavor it seems to impart. I was thinking maybe using an English yeast or something with more esters to bring out that side of it.

I have almost 2oz of Citra on hand as well, but everything I've recently brewed or thats fermenting has Citra in it and I'm a bit tired of that.

What about a Jasmine IPA? Elysian's Jasmine IPA is one of my wife's favorites and I could almost see doing something similar with the Amarillo maybe?

Oh what I was saying about the steam beer is indeed using the northern brewer until the very end of the boil when you could add you Amarillo for a hit of citrus. That would incorporate both of the hops you originally mentioned. Northern Brewer is the classic hop for a steam beer so it would just be adding a little twist to it.

I do an Amarillo citra pale ale that's very nice...good hop combo. With only 2oz of Amarillo and 2 of citra I would be thinking more towards a pale than an ipa myself. If I'm brewing an ipa I tend to go pretty heavy on the hops.

Me too. I've got a 'house' IPA I do with 2oz of Warrior hops for 60 minutes and then 1oz Citra at 20 minutes and another 1oz at flame out. IBU's are around 75 with an OG of 1.068. Makes for a really nice 7% Ale that's heavy on the hops even though it's only 4oz of hops in total.

I've decided on a beer. Thanks Thirsty! I went with some WYeast 2112 for a steam beer like you suggested.

I've got 6lbs of LME, 3lbs of DME, 1 1/4lb Munich Malt, 3/4 Crystal 80 with 2oz of NB and 2oz of Amarillo.

The WYeast 2112 California Lager Liquid Yeast is in a 2L starter right now. Gonna brew this batch up tomorrow!

Brewed up the batch today. I tried to do a partial mash with the specialty grains and in the mix I got off on my water a bit. Ended up with a bit too much at 30L in the kettle and a bit more in a second pot. So instead of adding a certain amount of water like before I guessed a final boil volume using my past boil rate numbers.

Ended up doing a 90 minute boil and getting the wort to what looked to be 24L or just over 6 gallons. Then when I took it off and cooled it, the wort was actually closer to 22.5 and when I transfered it to the fermenter I'd lost more and was at about 4.9 gallons. So I pulled my sample and tossed my entire 2L starter in the batch since it wasn't even done yet. My OG was really close to target at 1.080 and my final volume in the fermenter after adding the starter was maybe 5 1/4 gallons.

I hope I didn't pull too much out of the grains, I added a bit more water than I meant to, but I let it sit for only 30 minutes at 150-152*. Overall it was a good brew day, but I definitely introduced some issues into the otherwise smooth brew days I've had before. The wort tasted pretty good, but the hops were a bit astringent, more so than in the past. Im sure it will all work out, but this was a good run before doing my next batch as AG.