Galaxy Hops Wheat PA

I'm looking to make a special brew for the fiance and wanted some feedback on what I've come up with.

She and I both really like Gumballhead when we can get it. And the other night, she came home from something called booze-a-palooza raving about a very limited release Goose Island IPA called Star Cluster. She asked the guy what made it so good and he told her its all about the galaxy hops.

My LHBS happened to have galaxy, so I picked up a few ounces after I realized how rare it is . I smelled it before I put it in the freezer and it was AMAZING. The kind of hops smell that invades your dreams (in a good way).

Anywho, in order to make something that she would enjoy, I decided to take this recipe:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f70/gumballhead-inspired-wpa-92976/

and replace most of the Amarillo with Galaxy so it comes out looking like this:

1lb. Caravienne(now called Belgian Cara-20)
1lb. 2-row
1lb. White Wheat
5lb. Briess Wheat DME

.5oz Amarillo pellet (7.0 AA, 60 min.)
.5oz Galaxy pellet (13.4 AA, 20 min.)
.5oz Galaxy pellet(13.4 AA, 5 min.)
.5oz Galaxy pellet (13.4 AA, flameout)
1oz Galaxy pellet (9.8 AA, dry-hop)

Safale US-05 Yeast

This is going to be my first partial mash (obviously its pretty small, really mini-mini-mash). I was thinking 152 strike water for 75 min(???) and the 170 sparge water. Havent figured out the specifics for the amounts of strike/sparge yet.

I'd really like some feedback on hops. I couldn't use Galaxy for bittering because of the high AA (I want to keep the IBUs at 30-40 to make it palatable for SWMBO) and I heard its resin-y when used for bittering. Not sure if thats a good thing, so I just kept the Amarillo from the original recipe.

These are the main things I'm unsure of:

- Amarillo for bittering hops. I am very open to alternatives to this. Something that complements the galaxy well, but I still want the galaxy to be the star of the show.
- Amounts/times for adding my galaxy. I was mainly working off of 1)the original recipe, 2) that famous hops utilization chart and 3) having portioned out the be under 40 IBU. As is, it comes up in hopville as 30.4. I'm mostly concerned about having so much in there for aroma (5 min, flameout and dry-hopping). I was thinking about striking one of those and upping my 20 mins slightly.


Thanks in advanced for the advice.

I would definitely use something else for bittering. Amarillos should be used for aroma and flavor. A Magnum for clean bittering or try Chinook or Columbus for some bite. I'd also bump up a couple of the late additions to a full ounce to get your hop on.

Holy crap. I just came back and saw how long my post was. Double points to anyone that reads the whole thing. This is my conundrum simplified:

1. Dont know which bittering hops to use without to much of a kick in the pants (want no more than 40 IBUs)

2. Hops schedule/amounts. Just kind of generally lost on this. Any advice would be appreciated.

P.S. Thanks for the advice on bittering beerkrump. I'm now determined to change it up. Though if I use a really high AA hop like Magnum, I'll have to cut down the amount a bit to reach my target IBUs.

No need for a 20 min addition in a PA. Use 1/4 to 1/2 oz. of any suitable hop at 60 and fill in the blanks with the rest of your hops from 5-0-DH. Amarillo would be a waste since it's so precious.

Sorry to be bumping my old thread, but I'm still re-formulating this. Here is what I got:

1lb. Caravienne(now called Belgian Cara-20)
1lb. 2-row
1lb. White Wheat
5lb. Briess Wheat DME

.5oz Magnum pellet (60 min.)
.5oz Galaxy pellet (10 min.)
.25oz Cascade Pellet (10 min)
.5oz Galaxy pellet (5 min.)
.25oz Cascade pellet (5 min)
.5oz Galaxy pellet (flameout)
1.5oz Galaxy pellet (dry-hop)

Safale US-05 Yeast

What does everyone think? Is cascade a good hop to pair with Galaxy? Should I even bother with that small of an amount of Cascade? Should I proportion them differently? Any comments on the mini-mash?

God I'm insecure...

DoneHam said:

Sorry to be bumping my old thread, but I'm still re-formulating this. Here is what I got:

1lb. Caravienne(now called Belgian Cara-20)
1lb. 2-row
1lb. White Wheat
5lb. Briess Wheat DME

.5oz Magnum pellet (60 min.)
.5oz Galaxy pellet (10 min.)
.25oz Cascade Pellet (10 min)
.5oz Galaxy pellet (5 min.)
.25oz Cascade pellet (5 min)
.5oz Galaxy pellet (flameout)
1.5oz Galaxy pellet (dry-hop)

Safale US-05 Yeast

What does everyone think? Is cascade a good hop to pair with Galaxy? Should I even bother with that small of an amount of Cascade? Should I proportion them differently? Any comments on the mini-mash?

God I'm insecure...

Click to expand...

Cascade goes very well with Galaxy. I think there are a couple of commercial beers here in Australia that use that combo.

How about mixing 1 oz. Cascade, 1 oz. Amarillo, and 1 oz. Galaxy and adding 1 oz. of the mixture at 10, 5, and flameout? I like mixing different hops together and adding them at staggered times like that. I feel like you get a whole range of flavors that compliment each other.

Cheers!

DoneHam, how did this turn out?