Hop Bag Liquid

I'm posting this here where some of the more technical brewers tend to hang… For the Big Brew on May 5th, a friend brewed the AHA suggested American Brown Ale recipe:

10 lb pale two-row malt (4.54 kg)
8 oz 90˚ L crystal malt (227 g)
8 oz 60˚ L crystal malt (227 g)
6.5 oz chocolate malt (184 g)
1 oz black patent malt (28 g)
0.75 oz Willamette whole hops, 5.7% a.a. (21 g) (80 min)
0.75 oz Willamette whole hops, 5.7% a.a. (21g) (30 min)
1.25 oz Mt Hood whole hops, 6.1% a.a. (35 g) (15 min)
0.75 oz Willamette whole hops, 5.7% a.a. (21 g) (5 min)
1 tablet Whirlfloc or 0.75 tsp (3 g) Irish moss (15 min)
White Labs WLP001

A hop bag was used and after cooling the wort, moving to a fermentation bucket and pitching the yeast he went to his brew kettle and there was nearly a half gallon of wort that had drained from the HOP Bag. I suggested to keep it separate from the other and it was placed in 1/2 gallon growler, yeast was added and it was allowed to ferment. He didn't feel like bottling it so I took it let it ferment out a month and then primed it and bottled (got 5 bottles) waited three weeks and then chilled. I opened one and really, really loved the beer. A week later we got together and sampled it (bottle 2 and 3 now gone) along with the 5 gallon keg of the main batch and while the main batch was good, the bottle of HOP Liquid was heads and shoulders better. Pulled out the 4th bottle with some friends and they absolutely loved it. Kind of like a great rock anthem, played at 5 it's still good, but cranked up it's way better.

My question is what can I do, to create a whole batch of this brew? The residue bottles are so much brighter and crisper then the 5 glaaon batch. I have one left, may follow some suggestions here and save it to compare, but every time I walk by the fridge, I can here it calling my name.

Brian

Add more hops.

I think there is more to it than just more hops. And the question is how much more hops? When to add them etc...

brewingmeister said:

Add more hops.

Click to expand...

Ok then. The desirable brew essentially came from liquid which had more contact with hops. To get more contact/utilization you would have to add more hops.

Maybe the hop bag is not letting the hops release their deliciousness. If you made two identical batches and bagged the hops only on one of them. Would the bagged batch be like your buddies and the unbagged batch be like your small batch?

Whole hops have a lower utilization than pellets because they have not been pulverized. Something similar might be going on with the use of the bag.

Took a month away from Brewing due to the heat of summer. Just brewed this recipe Sunday with the following changes:
0.75 oz Willamette whole hops, 5.7% a.a. (21 g) (80 min) increased to: 1 oz.
0.75 oz Willamette whole hops, 5.7% a.a. (21g) (30 min) increased to: 1 oz.
1.25 oz Mt Hood whole hops, 6.1% a.a. (35 g) (15 min) increased to 2 oz.
0.75 oz Willamette whole hops, 5.7% a.a. (21 g) (5 min) increased to 1.5 oz.

Also slowed the cooling rate so instead of 15 min took 45 min leaving the hop bag in until the final 10 mins or so just to increase the contact of the hops a bit. Another thing I feel is playing into this is the CO2 Level. I will keg carb this to 2.4 Vols. as I tasted the 5 gallon batch recently and feel the carb level was closer to 2 Vols.

I have the one final Bottle of the original 5. Was going to drink it as I brewed the batch as my buddy (the original brewer) was here to help but he insisted to save it until this batch is ready to drink.