First wort hopping advice

Hi everyone. I am formulating a recipe for a first wort hopped pale ale and was hoping for some comments or advice. I want to try using fwh and dry hopping without using any late additions. I will be using a full boil for a 5 gal batch.

8lbs Light LME
1lb Crystal 15
1lb Munich light
4 oz cascade (fwh)
4 oz cascade (dry hop 7 days)

WL001 yeast

Using brew smith, that put me in the 40-50 IBU range. Thoughts? Cheers

Looks good, I think BeerSmith bumps the IBU's about 10% for the FWH. I do all my bittering hops as FWH, If I have late additions, I add them at flameout while I circulate and run my IC.

I've never done a beer with just FWH. From my experience, and from what others have posted, the bittering from FWH is not as pronounced as normal bittering.

I usually treat it as a 30 minute addition to account for the IBUs it provides in recipes.

Would be interested in your results.

I did an experiment comparing only FWH beers to beers with only a 60 min. addition. In a lab analysis, the FWH beers measure about 10% more IBU. In a blind tasting, most tasters found the FWH to be less bitter tasting. There are chemical changes that occur during FWH that account for that. when I FWH, I use it for hop flavor, not bittering. I decide how much hop flavor I want and use that amount of FWH. Then I add a 60 min. to get the IBU where I want them. I have my software set to account for FWH IBU to be about the same as a 20 min. addition. It doesn't measure like that, but it tastes like it. Since I generally prefer to drink my beer rather than measure it, it works out just right.

I don't know if FWH will work/make much of a difference in an Extract brew. The whole point of FWH is too add it with your "first wort" or runnings. What is your procedure going to be for FWH an extract beer?

Thanks for all the comments. I am planning to add the hops while I am steeping my grains. I had read that the ideal temp is between 60-70 C, which is around 150 F. Has anyone out there done this with extract brewing or is it just limited to all grain?

pmatson said:

Thanks for all the comments. I am planning to add the hops while I am steeping my grains. I had read that the ideal temp is between 60-70 C, which is around 150 F. Has anyone out there done this with extract brewing or is it just limited to all grain?

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Yep. I have a FWH extract batch on tap right now where I did exactly what you propose.

I am just getting into all grain using the biab method would adding the hops during the one hour mash time in my bag get similar results

pmatson said:

Thanks for all the comments. I am planning to add the hops while I am steeping my grains. I had read that the ideal temp is between 60-70 C, which is around 150 F. Has anyone out there done this with extract brewing or is it just limited to all grain?

Click to expand...

That's a good workaround for FWH with extract, I hadn't considered that. I FWH a lot of my AG beers and I really like the results.

Did a few FWH beers. Found a nice, smooth hoppiness as opposed to bitterness. Won't go out of my way to do another one, but found it an enjoyable effect in some styles.

osagedr said:

Did a few FWH beers. Found a nice, smooth hoppiness as opposed to bitterness. Won't go out of my way to do another one, but found it an enjoyable effect in some styles.

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I do FWH on most of my beers. Doing a German pils right now w/ an oz. of Mittelfruh as FWH, 2.4 oz. of Tett at 60 and another oz. of Mittelfruh at flameout.

Same here. I use FWH in everything.

tlg779 said:

I am just getting into all grain using the biab method would adding the hops during the one hour mash time in my bag get similar results

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No, put your hops in when you pull the bag after the mash is complete.

So far so good. I bottled my fwh pale ale last night and it was pretty tasty. I only dry hopped it for 5 days (schedule logistics) which may have been too short, but there was a nice aroma. The overall bitterness was very smooth and pleasant. I am looking forward to sampling it again in a few weeks after it carbs up. If all goes well, this batch may not last long! Cheers

If any one was still curious, this beer turned out to be pretty tasty. It is very smooth in terms of bitterness and has good cascade flavor. My dry hopping left room for improvement, since I rushed it. Next time I may just do a big hot stand addition and skip the dry hopping. I will definitely try this again with a different hop. Cheers